that some one has come to us who desires to be made a Chris-
ON CATECHISING. [CIIA?. XYI.
from us some remarks on the subject of the form of discourse which you oui^^ht to follow/ you should acquire a more thorough understanding of the matter by contemplating us, and listening to us when we are actually engaged with these topics, than by a perusal when we are only dictating them.
Chat. xvi.—A specimen of a catechHkal address ; and first, the case of a catechumen with worthy views.
24. Nevertheless, however that may be, let us here suppose that some one has come to us who desires to be made a Christian, and who belongs indeed to the order of private persons,^ and yet not to the class of rustics, but to that of the city-bred, such as those whom you cannot fail to come across in numbers in Carthage. Let us also suppose that, on being asked whether the inducement leading him to desire to be a Christian is any advantage looked for in the present life, or the rest which is hoped for after this life, he has answered that his inducement has been the rest that is yet to come. Then perchance such a person might be instructed by us in some such strain of address as the following : " Thanks be to God, my brother ; cordially do I wish you joy, and I am glad on your account that, amid all the storms of this world, which are at once so great and so dangerous, you have bethought yourself of some true and certain security. For even in this life men go in quest of rest and security at the cost of heavy labours, but they fail to find such in consequence of their wicked lusts. For their thought is to find rest in things which are unquiet, and which endure not. And tliese objects, inasmuch as they are withdrawn from them and pass away in the course of time, agitate them by fears and griefs, and suffer them not to enjoy tranquillity. For if it be that a man seeks to find liis rest in wealth, he is rendered proud rather than at case. Do we not see how many have lost their riches on a sudden,—how many, too, have been undone by reason of them, either as they have been coveting to possess them, or as they have been borne down and despoiled of them by others more covetous than themselves ? And even should they remain with the man all liis life long, and niiver leave their lover, yet would
Ut ali<iuam observationem sennouis tui a nobis auJirc qua^rercs.
* Idioturum.
CHAP. XVI.] THE VANITY OF LIFE. 303 he himself (have to) leave them at his death. For of what measure is the life of man, even if he lives to old age ? Or when men desire for themselves old age, what else do they really desire but long infirmity ? So, too, with the honours of this world,—what are they but empty pride and vanity, and peril of ruin ? For holy Scripture speaks in this wise :
' All flesh is grass, and the glory of man is as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, the flower thereof falleth away but the word of the Lord endureth for ever.'^ Consequently, if any man longs for true rest and true felicity, he ought to lift his hope off things which are mortal and transitory, and fix it on the word of the Lord ; so that, cleaving to that which endures for ever, he may himself together with it endure for ever.
25. " There are also other men who neither crave to be rich nor go about seeking the vain pomps of honours, but who nevertheless are minded to find their pleasure and rest in dainty meats, and in fornications, and in those theatres and spectacles which are at their disposal in great cities for nothing. But it fares with these, too, in the same way ; or they waste their small means in luxury, and subsequently, under pressure of want, break out into thefts and burglaries, and at times even into highway robberies, and so they are suddenly filled with fears both numerous and great ; and men who a little before were singing in the house of revelry, are now dreaming of the sorrows of the prison. Moreover, in their eager devotion to the public spectacles, they come to resemble demons, as they incite men by their cries to wound each other, and instigate those who have done them no hurt to engage in furious contests with each other, while they seek to please an insane people. And if they perceive any such to be peaceably disposed, they straightway hate them and persecute them, and raise an outcry, asking that they should be beaten with clubs, as if they had been in collusion to cheat them ; and this iniquity they force even the judge, who is the (appointed) avenger of iniquities, to perpetrate. On the other hand, if they observe such men exerting themselves in horrid hostilities against each otlier, whether they be those who are
> Isa. xl. 6, 8 ; 1 Pet. i. 24, 25.
804 ox C.VTECIIISING. [CIIAP. XVI.
called sintcc} or theatrical actors and players/ or charioteers, or hunters,—those wretched men whom tliey engage in conflicts and struggles, not only men with men, but even men with beasts,—then the fiercer the fury with which they perceive these unhappy creatures rage against each other, the better they like them, and the gi-eater tlie enjoyment they have in them ; and they favour them when thus excited,^ and by so favouring them they excite them all the more, the spectators themselves striving more madly with each other, as they espouse the cause of different combatants, than is the case even with those very men whose madness they madly provoke, while at the same time they also long to be spectators of the same in their mad frenzy.'* How then can that mind keep the soundness of peace which feeds on strifes and contentions ? For just as is the food which is received, such is the health which results. In fine, although mad pleasures are no pleasures, nevertheless let these things be taken as they are, and it still remains the case that, whatever their nature may be, and whatever the measure of enjoyment yielded by the boasts of riches, and the inflation of honours, and the spendthrift pleasures of the taverns, and the contests of the theatres, and the impurity of fornications, and the pruriency of the baths, they are all things of which one little fever deprives us, while, even from those who still survive, it takes away the whole false happiness of their life. Then there remains only a void and wounded conscience, destined to apprehend that God as a Judge whom it refused to have as a
Father, and destined also to find a severe Lord in Him whom it scorned to seek and love as a tender Father. But thou, inasmuch as thou seekest that true rest which is promised to
Reading s'lve sintcB qui avpcllnntur, for which there occur such varieties of reading as these : sint athletcB qui apjxlUuitur = those who are called athletes ; or sint cpqni a]>pellantur ; or sini])ly sint qui nj)p(!hin(ur = whatever name they bear, whether actors, etc. The term sintiv, borrowed from the Greek 2('»t«< = dcvourers, spoilers, may have been a word in common use among the Africans, as the l>encdictine editors suggest, for designating some sort of coarse characters.
' Thymelici, strictly = tlie musicians belonging to the thymele, or orchestra.
' Reading incitatin lavent, for wliich some Mss. give incil(iii:= excited themselves, they favour them ; and others have incitantcs ^ e.\citiiig thcui, they favour them.
* Compare a passage in the Confessions, vi. 13.
CHAP. XVII.] UNWORTHY VIEWS TO BE EEPROVED. 305
Christians after this life, wilt taste the same sweet and pleasant rest even here among the bitterest troubles of this life, if thou continuest to love the commandments of Him who hath promised the same. For quickly wilt thou feel that the fruits of riditeousness are sweeter than those of unrighteousness, and that a man finds a more genuine and pleasurable joy in the possession of a good conscience in the midst of troubles than in that of an evil conscience in the midst of delights. For thou hast not come to be united to the Church of God with the idea of seeking from it any temporal advantage.
Chap. xvit.—The specimen of catechetical discourse continued, in reference specially to the reproval oj false aims on the catechumen's part.
26. "For there are some whose reason for desiring to become Christians is either that they may gain the favour of men from whom they look for temporal advantages, or that they are reluctant to offend those wliom they fear. But these are reprobate ; and although the church bears them for a time, as the threshing-floor bears the chaff until the period of winnowing, yet if they fail to amend and begin to be Christians in sincerity in view of the everlasting rest which is to come, they will be separated from it in the end. And let not such flatter themselves, because it is possible for them to be in the threshing-floor along with the grain of God. For they will not be together with that in the barn, but are destine.d for the fire, which is their due. There are also others of better hope indeed, but nevertheless in no inferior danger.
I mean those who now fear God, and mock not the Christian name, neither enter the church of God with an assumed heart, but still look for their felicity in this life, expecting to have more felicity in earthly things than those enjoy who refuse to worship God. And the consequence of this false anticipation is, that when they see some wicked and impious men strongly established and excelling in this worldly prosperity, while they themselves either possess it in a smaller degree or miss it altogether, they are troubled with the thought that they are serving God without reason, and so they readily fall away from the faith.
2 7. " But as to the man who lias in view that everlasting CATECH. U
306 ON CATECHTSIXG. [CIIAP. XVII.
blessedness and perpetual rest which is promised as the lot destined for the saints after tliis life, and who desires to become a Christian, in order that he may not pass into eternal fire with the devil, but enter into the eternal kingdom together with Christ,^ such an one is truly a Christian ; (and he will be) on his guard in every tem})tation, so tliat he may neither be corrupted by prosperity nor be utterly broken in spirit by adversity, but remain at once modest and temperate when the good things of earth abound with him, and brave and patient when tribulations overtake him. A person of this character will also advance in attainments until he comes to that disposition of mind which will make him love God more than he fears hell; so that even were God to say to him, 'Avail yourself of carnal pleasures for ever, and sin as much as you are able, and you shall neither die nor be sent into hell, but you will only not be with me,' he would be terribly dismayed, and would altogether abstain from sinning, not now
(simply) with the purpose of not falling into that of which he was wont to be afraid, but with the wish not to oflend Him whom he so greatly loves : in whom alone also there is the rest which eye hath not seen, neither hath ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man (to conceive),—the rest which God hath prepared for them that love Him.^
28. "Now, on the subject of this rest Scripture is significant, and refrains not to speak, when it tells us how at the beginning of the world, and at the time when God made heaven and earth and all things which are in them, He worked during six days, and rested on the seventh day.^ For it was in tlie power of tlie Almighty to make all tilings even in one moment of time. For He had not laboured in the view that He might enjoy (a needful) rest, since indeed " He spake, and they were made ; He commanded, and they were; "
but that He might signify how, after six ages created of this world, in a seventh age, as on the seventh day. He will rest in His saints ; inasmuch as these same saints shall rest also in Him after all the good works in which they have served Him,—which He Himself, indeed, works in them, who
Cf. Matt. XXV. 31, 41. « 1 Cor. ii. 9.
3 Gen. ii. 1-3. * Vs. cxlviii. 5.
CHAP. XVIII.] THE DOCTRINE OF CREATION. 307 calls tliem, and instructs them, and puts away the offences that are past, and justifies the man who previously was ungodly. For as, when by His gift they work that which is good, He is Himself rightly said to work (that in them), so, when they rest in Him, He is rightly said to rest Himself.
Foi', as regards Himself, He seeks no cessation, because He feels no labour. Moreover He made all things by His Word ; and His Word is Christ Himself, in whom the angels and all those purest spirits of heaven rest in holy silence. Man, however, in that he fell by sin, has lost the rest which he possessed in His divinity, and receives it again (now) in His humanity; and tor this purpose He became man, and was born of a woman, at the seasonable time at which He Himself knew it behoved it so to be fulfilled. And from the flesh assuredly He could not sustain any contamination, being Himself rather destined to purify the flesh. Of His future coming the ancient saints, in the revelation of the Spirit, had knowledge, and prophesied. And thus were they saved by believing that He was to come, even as we are saved by believing that He has come. Hence ought we to love God who has so loved us as to have sent His only Son, in order that He might endue Himself with the lowliness^ of our mortality, and die both at the hands of sinners and on behalf of sinners. For even in times of old, and in the opening ages, the depth of this mystery ceases not to be prefigured and prophetically announced.
Chap, xyiii.—Of icliat is to be heUeved on the subject of the creation of man and other objects.
29. "Whereas, then, the omnipotent God, who is also good and just and merciful, who made all things,—whether they be great or small, whether they be highest or lowest, whether they be things which are seen, such as are the heavens and the earth and the sea, and in the heavens, in particular, the sun and the moon and other luminaries, and in the earth and the sea, again, trees and shrubs and animals each after their kind, and all bodies celestial or terrestrial alike, or whether they be things which are not seen, such as are those spirits whereby bodies are animated and endowed
Humanitate, = liumanity, also occurs instead of humilUate.
308 ON CATECHISIXG. [CHAP. XVIII.
with lite,—made also man after His own image, in order that, as He Himself, in virtue of His omnipotence, presides over universal creation, so man, in virtue of tliat intelligence of his by wliich he comes to know even his Creator and worships Him, miglit preside over all the living creatures of earth "Whkhkas, too, He made the woman to be an helpmeet for him : not for carnal concupiscence,—since, indeed, they liad not corruptible bodies at that period, before the punishment of sin invaded them in the form of mortality,—but for this purpose, that the man miglit at once have glory of the woman in so fixr as he went before her to God, and present in himself an example to her for imitation in holiness and piety, even as he himself was to be the glory of God in so far as he followed His wisdom
30. " Therefore did He place them in a certain locality of perpetual blessedness, which the Scripture designates Paradise : and He gave them a commandment, on condition of not violating which they were to continue for ever in that blessedness of immortality ; while, on the other hand, if they transgressed it, they were to sustain the penalties of mortality. Kow God knew beforehand that they would transgress it.
Nevertheless, in that He is the author and maker of everything good, He chose ratlier to make them, as He also made the beasts, in order that He might replenish the earth with the good things proper to earth. And certainly man, even sinful man, is better than a beast. And the commandment, which they were not to keep. He yet preferred to give them, in order that they might be without excuse when He should begin to vindicate Himself against them. For whatever man may have done, he finds God worthy to be praised in all His doings : if he sliall have acted rightly, he finds Him worthy to be pmised for the righteousness of His rewards : if he sliall have sinned, he finds Him worthy to be praised for the righteousness of His punishments : if he shall have confessed his sins and returned to an upright life, he finds Him worthy to be praised for the mercy of His pardoning favours. Why, then, shouLl God not make man, although He foreknew that he would sin, when He might crown him if he stood, and set him right if he fell, and help him if he rose. Himself being always and
CHAP. XVIII.] THE GIFT OF FREE-WILL. 309 everywhere glorious in goodness, rigliteousness, and clemency ? Above all, why should He not do so, since He also foreknew this, namely, that from the race of that mortality there
Avould spring saints, who should not seek their own, but give glory to their Creator ; and who, obtaining deliverance from every corruption by worshipping Him, should be counted worthy to live for ever, and to live in blessedness with the holy angels ? For He who gave freedom of will to men, in order that they might worship God not of slavish necessity but with ingenuous inclination, gave it also to the angels and hence neither did the angel, who, in company with other spirits who were his satellites, forsook in pride the obedience of God and became the devil, do any hurt to God, but to himself. For God knoweth how to dispose of souls ^ that leave Him, and out of their righteous misery to furnish the inferior sections of His creatures with the most appropriate and befitting laws of His wonderful dispensation. Consequently, neither did the devil in any manner harm God, whether in falling himself, or in seducing man to death ; nor did man himself in any degree impair the truth, or power, or blessedness^ of His Maker, in that, when his partner was seduced by the devil, he of his own deliberate inclination consented unto her in the doing of that which God had forbidden. For by the most righteous laws of God all were condemned, God Himself being glorious in the equity of retribution, while they were shamed through the degradation of punishment : to the end that man, when he turned away from his Creator, should be overcome by the devil and made his subject, and that the devil might be set before man as an enemy to be conquered, when he turned again to his Creator ; so that whosoever should consent unto the devil even to the end, might go with him into eternal punishments; whereas those who should humble themselves to God, and by His grace overcome the devil, might be counted worthy of eternal rewards.
Eather "spirits." See the correction made in the Ectradations, ii. 14, as given above in the Introductory Notice.
'^ The heatltatem is omitted by several mss.
310 ON CATECmSING. [CRAP. XIX.
Chap. xix.—Of ike co-existence of good and evil in the Ch'arch, and their final separation.
31. "Neither ought we to be moved by the consideration that many consent unto the devil, and few follow God ; for the grain, too, in comparison with the chaff, has greatly the defect in number. But even as the husbandman knows what to do with the mighty heap of chaff, so the multitude of sinners is nothing to God, who knows what to do with them, so as not to let the administration of His kingdom be disordered and dishonoured in any part. Nor is the devil to be supposed to have proved victorious for the mere reason of his drawing away with him more than the few by whom he may be overcome. In this way there are two communities—one of the ungodly, and another of the holy—which are carried down from the beginning of the human race even to the end of the world, which are at present commingled in respect ot bodies, but separated in respect of wills, and which, moreover, are destined to be separated also in respect of bodily presence in the day of judgment. For all men wdio love pride and temporal power with vain elation and pomp of arrogance, and all spirits who set their affections on such things and seek their own glory in the subjection of men, are bound fast together in one association ; nay, even although they frequently fight against each other on account of these things, they are nevertheless precipitated by the like weight of lust into the same abyss, and are united with each other by similarity of manners and merits. And, again, all men and all spirits who humbly seek the glory of God and not their own, and who follow Him in piety, belong to one followship. And, notwithstanding this, God is most merciful and patient with ungodly men, and offers them a place lor penitence and amendment.
32. "For with respect also to the fact that He destroyed all men in the flood, with the exception of one righteous man together with his house, whom He willed to be saved in the ark. He knew indeed that they would not amend themselves yet, nevertheless, as the building of the ark went on for the space of a hundred years, the wrath of God which was to come upon them was certainly preached to them -} and if they only
^ Gen. vi. 7.
CHAP. XIX.] god's long-suffepjng. 311 would have turned to God, He would have spared them, as at a later period He spared the city of Nineveh when it repented, after He had announced to it, by means of a prophet, the destruction that was about to overtake it.-^ Thus, moreover, God acts, granting a space for repentance even to those who He knows will persist in wickedness, in order that He may exercise and instruct our patience by His own example whereby also we may know how greatly it befits us to bear with the evil in long-suffering, when we know not what manner of men they wall prove hereafter, seeing that He, whose cognisance nothing that is yet to be escapes, spares them and suffers them to live. Under the sacramental sign of the flood, however, in which the righteous were rescued by the wood, there was also a fore-announcement of the Church which was to be, which Christ, its King and God, has raised on high, by the mystery of His cross, in safety from the submersion of this w^orld. Moreover, God was not ignorant of the fact that, even of those who had been saved in the ark, there would be born wicked men, who would cover the face of the earth a second time with iniquities. But, nevertheless, He both gave them a pattern of the future judgment, and fore-announced the deliverance of the holy by the mystery of the wood. For even after these things wickedness did not cease to sprout forth again through pride, and lusts, and illicit impieties, when men, forsaking their Creator, not only fell to the (standard of the) creature which God made, so as to worship instead of God that which God made, but even bowed their souls to the works of the hands of men and to the contrivances of craftsmen, wherein a more shameful triumph was to be won over them by the devil, and by those evil spirits who rejoice in finding themselves adored and reverenced in such false devices, while they feed^ their own errors with the errors of men.
33. "But in truth there were not wanting in those times righteous men also of the kind to seek God piously and to overcome the pride of the devil, citizens of that holy community, who were made whole by the humiliation of Christ, which was then only destined to enter, but was revealed to them by the Spirit. From among these, Abraham, a pious
Jonah iii. ^ Instead of ^;asct(?2< the reading miscent, = mix, is also found.
312 ox CATECHISING. [CHAP. XIX.
and faithful servant of God, was chosen, in order that to him mi'dit be sliown the sacrament of the Son of God, so that thus, in virtue of the imitation of his faith, all the faithful of aU nations might be called his cliildren in the future. Of him was born a people, by whom the one true God wlio made heaven and eartli should be worshipped when all other nations did service to idols and evil spirits. In that people, plainly, the future Church was much more evidently prefigured. For in it there was a carnal multitude that worshipped God with a view to visible benefits. But in it there were also a few who thought of the future rest, and looked longingly for the heavenly fatherland, to whom through prophecy was revealed the coming humiliation of God in the person of our King and
Lord Jesus Christ, in order that they might be made whole of all pride and arrogance through that faith. And with respect to these saints who in point of time had precedence of the birth of the Lord, not only their speech, but also their life, and their marriages, and their children, and their doings, constituted a prophecy of this time, at which the Church is being gathered togetlier out of all nations through faith in the passion of Christ. By the instrumentality of those holy patriarchs and prophets this carnal people of Israel, who at a later period were also called Jews, had ministered unto them at once those visible benefits which they eagerly desired of the
Lord in a carnal manner, and those chastisements, in the form of bodily punishments, which were intended to terrify them for the time, as was befitting for their obstinacy. And in all these, nevertlieless, there were also spiritual mysteries signified, such as were meant to bear upon Christ and the Churcli of whicli Church those saints also were members, although they existed in this life previous to the birth of Christ, the
Lord, according to the tlesh. For this same Christ, the oulybegottcn Son of God, the Word of the Father, equal and coeternal with the Father, by whom all tilings were made, was
Himself also made man for our sakes, in order that of the whole Church, as of His wliole body, He might be the Head.
But just as when the wliole man is in the process of being born, although he may put the hand forth first in the act of birth, yet is that hand joined and compacted together with the
CHAP. XX.] THE PASSAGE THROUGH THE EED SExV. 313 whole body under the head, even as also among these same patriarchs some were born^ with the hand put forth first as a sign of this very thing : so all the saints who lived upon the earth previous to the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, although they were born antecedently, were nevertheless united under the Head with that universal body of which He is the
Head.
CiiAr. XX.— Of Israel's bondage in Egypt, their deliverance, and their passage through the Red Sea.
34. "That people, then, having been brought down into
Egypt, were in bondage to the harshest of kings ; and, taught by the most oppressive labours, they sought their deliverer in God ; and there was sent to them one belonging to the people themselves, Moses, the holy servant of God, who, in the might of God, terrified the impious nation of the Egyptians in those days by great miracles, and led forth the people of God out of that land through the Eed Sea, where the water parted and opened up a way for them as they crossed it, whereas, when the Egyptians pressed on in pursuit, the waves returned to their channel and overwhelmed them, so that they perished.
Thus, then, just as the earth through the agency of the flood was cleansed by the waters from the wickedness of the sinners, who in those times were destroyed in that inundation, while the righteous escaped by means of the wood ; so the people of God, when they went forth from Egypt, found a way through the waters by which their enemies were devoured. Nor was the sacrament of the wood wanting there. For Moses smote with his rod, in order that that miracle might be effected. Both these are signs of holy baptism, by which the faithful pass into the new life, while their sins are done away with like enemies, and perish. But more clearly was the passion of Christ prefigured in the case of that people, when they were commanded to slay and eat the lamb, and to mark their door-posts with its blood, and to celebrate this rite every year, and to designate it the Lord's passover. Eor surely prophecy speaks with the utmost plainness of the Lord Jesus
Christ, when it says that " He was led as a lamb to the slaughter."^ And with the sign of His passion and cross,
1 Gen. XXV. 26, xxxviii. 27-30. 2 Isa. liii. 7.
314 ON CATECHISING. [CHAP. XX.
tliou art this day to be marked on tliy forehead, as on the door-post, and all Christians are marked with the same.
35. "Thereafter this people was conducted through the wilderness for forty years. They also received the law written by the finger of God, under which name the Holy Spirit is signified, as it is declared with the utmost plainness in the
Gospel. For God is not defined^ by the form of a body, neither are members and fingers to be thought of as existent in Him in the way in which we see them in ourselves. But, inasmuch as it is through the Holy Spirit that God's gifts are divided to His saints, in order that, although they vary in their capacities, they may nevertheless not lapse from the concord of charity, and inasmuch as it is especially in the fingers that there appears a certain kind of division, while nevertheless there is no separation from unity, this may be the explanation of the phrase. But whether this may be the case, or whatever other reason may be assigned for the Holy Spirit being called the finger of God, we ought not at any rate to think C)f the form of a human body when we hear this expression used. The people in question, then, received the law written by the finger of God, and that in good sooth on tables of stone, to signify the hardness of their heart in that they were not to fulfil the law. For, as they eagerly sought from the Lord gifts meant for the uses of the body, they were held by carnal tear rather tlian by spiritual charity. But nothing fulfils the law save charity. Consequently, they were burdened with many visible sacraments, to the intent that they should feel the pressure of the yoke of bondage in the observances of meats, and in the sacrifices of animals, and in other rites innumerable ; which things, at the same time, were signs of spiritual matters relating to the Lord Jesus Christ and to the Church ; which, furthermore, at that time were both understood by a few holy men to the effect of yielding the fruit of salvation, and observed by them in accordance with the fitness of the time, while by the multitude of carnal men they were observed only and not understood.
3G. "In this manner, tlien, through many varied signs of things to come, which it would be tedious to enumerate in
Or = circumscribed, dcjinltus.
CHAP. XXI.] THE BABYLOXISH EXILE. 315 complete detail, and which we now see in their fulfilment in the Church, that people were brought to the land of promise, in which they were to reign in a temporal and carnal way in accordance with their own longings : which earthly kingdom, nevertheless, sustained the image of a spiritual kingdom.
There Jerusalem was founded, that most celebrated city of
God, which, while in bondage, served as a sign of the free city, which is called the heavenly Jerusalem^—which latter term is a Hebrew word, and signifies by interpretation the Vision of peace.' The citizens thereof are all sanctified men, who have been, who are, and who are yet to be ; and all sanctified spirits, even as many as are obedient to God with pious devotion in the exalted regions of heaven, and imitate not the impious pride of the devil and his angels. The King of this city is the Lord Jesus Christ, the Word of God, by whom the highest angels are governed, and at the same time the Word that took unto Himself human nature,^ in order that by Him men also might be governed, w^ho, in His fellowship, shall reign all together in eternal peace. In the service of prefiguring this King in that earthly kingdom of the people of
Israel, King David stood forth pre-eminent,^ of whose seed according to the flesh that truest King was to come, to wit, our Lord Jesus Christ, 'who is over all, God blessed for ever.'* In that land of promise many things were done, which held cjood as ficjures of the Christ who was to come, and of the Church, with which you will have it in your power to acquaint yourself by degrees in the Holy Books.
Chap. xxi.—Oj the Babylonish captivity, and the things signified thereby.
37. "Howbeit, after the lapse of some generations, another type was presented, which bears very emphatically on the matter in hand. For that city^ was brought into captivity, and a large section of the people were carried oft into Babylonia. Now, as Jerusalem signifies the city and fellowship of the saints, so Babylonia signifies the city and fellowship of the
Avicked, seeing that by interpretation it denotes cov fusion. On the subject of these two cities, which have been running
' Cf. Gal. iv. 26. - Homiiipm. ^ 1 Kings xvi. 13.
Kom. ix. 5. ^ Or = connminitv, clvitas.
316 ON C.VTECIIISING. [cnAP. XXI.
their courses, mingling the one with the other, through all the changes of time from the beginning of the human race, and which shall so move on together until the end of the world, when they are destined to be separated at tlie last judgment, we have spoken already a little ago.^ That captivity, then, of the city of Jerusalem, and the people thus carried into Babylonia in bondage, were ordained so to proceed by the Lord, by the voice ol Jeremiah, a prophet of that time.'^ And there appeared kings ^ of Babylon, under whom they were in slavery, who on occasion of the captivity of this people were so wrought upon by certain miracles that they came to know the one true God who founded universal creation, and worshipped Him, and commanded that He should be worsliipped. Moreover the people were ordered both to pray for those by whom they were detained in captivity, and in their peace to hope for peace, to the effect that they should beget children, and build houses, and plant gardens and vineyards,'* But at the end of seventy years, release from their captivity was promised to them.® All this, furthermore, signilied in a figure that the Church of Christ in all His saints, who are citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem, would have to do service under the kings of this world. For the doctrine of the apostles speaks also in this wise, that ' every soul should be subject to the higher powers/ and that there ' should be rendered all things to all men, tribute to whom tribute (is due), custom to whom custom,'^ and all other things in like manner which, without detriment to the wor.sliip of our God, we render to the rulers in the constitution of human society : for tlie Lord Himself also, in order to set before us an example of this sound doctrine, did not deem it uinvortliy of Him to pay tribute" on account of that Iniman indiviihiality^ wherewith He was invested. Again, Christian servants and good believers are also commanded to serve their temporal masters in equanimity and faithfulness f wliom they will liereafter judge, if even on to
' Sec Chapter xix. * .Tor. .\xv. 21, xxix. 1.
' Dan. ii. 47, iii. 29, vi. 20 ; 1 Esilr. i. 7 ; Bel, 41.
Jer. xxix.
fi Kom. xiii. 1, 7. ' Matt. xvii. 27.
Pro capile hominis, literally = on account of tint licaJ of man, etc
CHAP. XXI.] OBEDIENCE DUE TO KIXGS. 317 the end they find them wicked, or with whom they will hereafter reign in equality, if they too shall have been converted to the true God. Still all are enjoined to be subject to the powers that are of man and of earth, even until, at the end of the predetermined time which the seventy years signify, the Church shall be delivered from the confusion of this world, like as Jerusalem was to be set free from the captivity in
Babylonia. By occasion of that captivity, however, the kings of earth too have themselves been led to forsake the idols on account of which they were wont to persecute the Christians, and have come to know, and now worship, the one true God and Christ the Lord ; and it is on their behalf that the Apostle Paul enjoins prayer to be made, even although they should persecute the Church. For he speaks in these terms : ' I entreat, therefore, that first of all supplications, adorations,^ intercessions, and givings of thanks be made for kings, for all men, and all that are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life, with all godliness and charity.' ^ Accordingly peace has been given to the Church by these same persons, although it be but of a temporal sort,—a temporal quiet for the work of building houses after a spiritual fashion, and planting gardens and vineyards. For witness your own case, too,—at this very time we are engaged, by means of this discourse, in building you up and planting you. And the like process is going on throughout the whole circle of lands, in virtue of the peace allowed by Christian kings, even as the same apostle thus expresses himself: 'Ye are God's husbandry; ye are God's building.'^
38. "And, indeed, after the lapse of the seventy years of which Jeremiah had mystically prophesied, to the intent of prefiguring the end of times, with a view still to the perfecting of that same figure, no settled peace and liberty were conceded again to the Jews. Thus it was that they were conquered subsequently by the Eomans and made tributary. From that period, in truth, at which they received the land of promise and began to have kings, in order to preclude the
Instead of orationes, the better authenticated reading is adoradones.
2 1 Tim. ii. 1, 2.
* 1 Cor. iii. 9 ; cf. Jer. xxv. 12, xxix. 10.
ON CATECHISING. [CHAP. XXII.
supposition that the promise of the Christ who was to be their
Liberator had met its complete fulfilment in the person of any one of their kings, Christ was prophesied of with greater clearness in a number of prophecies ; not only by David himself in the book of Psalms, but also by the rest of the great and holy prophets, even on to the time of their conveyance into captivity in Babylonia ; and in that same captivity there were also prophets whose mission was to prophesy of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ as the Liberator of all. And after the restoration of the temple, when the seventy years had passed, the Jews sustained grievous oppressions and sufferings at the hands of the kings of the Gentiles, fitted to make them understand that the Liberator was not yet come, whom they failed to apprehend as one who was to effect for them a spiritual deliverance, and whom they fondly longed for on account of a carnal liberation.
CUAP, XXII. Of tlic six ages of the icorhl.
39. " Five ages of the world, accordingly, having been now completed (there has entered the sLxth). Of these ages the first is from the beginning of the human race, that is, from Adam, who was the first man that was made, down to Noah, who constructed the ark at the time of the flood.^ Then the second extends from that period on to Abraham, who was called" the father indeed of all nations^ which should follow the example of his faith, but who at the same time in the way of natural descent from his own flesh was the father of the destined people of the Jews; which people, previous to the entrance of the Gentiles into the Christian faith, was the one people among all the nations of all lands that worshipped the one true God : from which people also Christ the Saviour was decreed to come according to the flesh. For these turning-points * of those two ages occupy an eminent place in the ancient books. On the other hand, those of the other three ages are also declared in the Gospel,^ where the descent of the Lord
Jesus Christ according to the flesh is likewise mentioned. For
» Gen. vi. 22.
" Instead of didus est the Mss. pivc also electus est — wfis chosen to be.
8 Gen. xvii. 4. * ar'/.-*/// — artii-lis. * Mutt. i. 17.
CHAP. XXII.] SIX AGES OF THE WOELD. 319 the third age extends from Abraham on to David the king ; the fourth from David on to that captivity whereby the people of God passed over into Babylonia ; and the fifth from that transmigration down to the advent of our Lord Jesus Christ. With His coming the sixth age has entered on its process ; so that now the spiritual grace, which in previous times was known to a few patriarchs and prophets, may be made manifest to all nations ; to the intent that no man should worship God but freely,^ fondly desiring of Him not the visible rewards of His services and the happiness of this present life, but that eternal life alone in which he is to enjoy God Himself : in order that in this sixth age the mind of man may be renewed after the image of God, even as on the sixth day man was made after the image of God.^ For then, too, is the law fulfilled, when all that it has commanded is done, not in the strong desire for things temporal, but in the love of Him who has given the commandment. Who is there, moreover, who should not be earnestly disposed to give the return of love to a God of supreme righteousness and also of supreme mercy, who has first loved men of the greatest unrighteousness and the loftiest pride, and that, too, so deeply as to have sent in their behalf His only Son, by whom He made all things, and who. being made man, not by any change of
Himself, but by the assumption of human nature, was designed thus to become capable not only of living with them, but also of dying at once for them and by their hands ?
40. "Thus, then, showing forth the JSTew Testament of our everlasting inheritance, wherein man was to be renewed by the grace of God and lead a new life, that is, a spiritual life ; and with the view of exhibiting the first one as an old dispensation, wherein a carnal people acting out the old man (with the exception of a few patriarchs and prophets, who had understanding, and some hidden saints), and leading a carnal life, desiderated carnal rewards at the hands of the Lord God, and received in that fashion but the figures of spiritual blessings ;—with this intent, I say, the Lord Christ, when made man, despised all earthly good things, in order that He might show us how these things ought to be despised ; and He endured
1 Gratis.
320 ON CATECHISING. [CIIAP. XXIII.
all earthly ills which He was inculcating as things needful to be endured ; so tliat neither might our happiness be sought for in the former class, nor our unliappiness be apprehended in the latter. For being born of a mother who, although she conceived without being touched by man and always remained thus untouclied, in virginity conceiving, in virginity bringing forth, in virginity dying, had nevertheless been espoused to a handicraftsman, He extinguished all the inflated pride of carnal nobility. Moreover, being born in the city of Bethlehem, which amoncr all the cities of Judcea was so insi^nificant that even in our own day it is designated a village, He willed not that any one should glory in the exalted position of any city of earth. He, too, whose are all things and by whom all things were created, was made poor, in order that no one, while bclievinL»' in Him, miHit venture to boast himself in earthly riches. He refused to be made by men a king, because He displayed the pathway of liumility to those unhappy ones whom pride had separated from Him ;^ and yet universal creation attests the fact of His everlastincj kinirdom. An hungered was He who feeds all men ; athirst was He by whom is created whatsoever is drunk, and who in a spiritual manner is the bread of the hungry and the fountain of the thirsty ; in journeying on earth, wearied was He who has made Himself the way for us into heaven ; as like one dumb and deaf in the presence of His revilers was He by whom the dumb spoke and the deaf heard ; bound was He m ho freed us from the bonds of infirmities ; scourged was He who expelled from the bodies of man the scourges of all distresses ; crucified was He who put an end to our crucial pains ;^ dead did He become who raised the dead. But He also rose again, no more to die, so that no one should from Him learn so to contemn death as if he were never to live again.
Cir.vr. xxiri. 0/ (he juission of the Hohj Ghoitfjty daya after Christ's resurrection.
41. "Thereafter, having confirmed the disciples, and having sojourned with them forty days, He ascended up into heaven as tliese same persons were beholding Him. And on the
' Koailing ah co ; for which some editions give ah ra = from that humilitj'.
There is a [ilay in the nyoiiIj lieie : cruajxxus est qui cruciatus nosirosjinlvlt.
CHAP. XXIII.] THE PENTECOSTAL GIFT OF THE SPIRIT. 321 completion of fifty days from His resurrection He sent to them the Holy Spirit (for so He had promised), by whose agency they were to have love shed abroad in their hearts/ to the end that they might be able to fulfil the law, not only without the sense of its being burdensome, but even with a joyful mind. This law was given to the Jews in the ten commandments, which they call the Decalogue. And these commandments, again, are reduced to two, namely, that we should love God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind ; and that we should love our neighbour as ourselves.^ For that on these two precepts hang all the law and the prophets, the Lord Himself has at once declared in the Gospel and shown in His own example. For thus it was likewise in the instance of the people of Israel, that from the day on which they first celebrated the passover in a form,^ slaying and eating the sheep, with whose blood their door-posts were marked for the securing of their safety,*—from this day, I repeat, the fiftieth day in succession was completed, and then they received the law written by the finger of God,'^ under which phrase we have already stated that the Holy Spirit is signified.^ And in the same manner, after the passion and resurrection of the Lord, who is the true passover, the Holy Ghost was sent personally to the disciples on the fiftieth day not now, however, by tables of stone significant of the hardness of their hearts ; but, when they were gathered together in one place at Jerusalem itself, suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as if a violent blast were being borne onwards, and there appeared to them tongues cloven like fire, and they began to speak with tongues, in such a manner that all those who had come to them recognised each his own language
(for in that city the Jews were in the habit of assembling from every country wheresoever they had been scattered abroad, and had learned the diverse tongues of diverse nations) ; and thereafter, preaching Cln^ist with all boldness, they wrought many signs in His name,—so much so, that as Peter was
» Cf. Rom. V. 5.
322 ON CATECHISING. [chap. XXIII.
passing by, his shadow touched a certain dead person, and the man rose in life again.^
42. "But when the Jews perceived so great signs to be wrought in the name of Him, whom, partly through ill-will and partly in ignorance, they crucified, some of them were provoked to persecute the apostles, who were His preachers while others, on the contrary, marvelling the more at this very circumstance, that so great miracles were being performed in the name of Him whom they had derided as one "overborne and conquered by themselves, repented, and were converted, so that thousands of Jews believed on Him. For these parties were not bent now on craving at the hand of God temporal benefits and an earthly kingdom, neither did they look any more for Christ, the promised king, in a carnal spirit ; but they continued in immortal fashion to apprehend and love Him, who in mortal fashion endured on their behalf at their own hands sufferings so heavy, and imparted to them the gift of forgiveness for all their sins, even down to the iniquity of His own blood, and by the example of His own resurrection unfolded immortality as the object which they should hope for and long for at His hands. Accordingly, now mortifying the earthly cravings of the old man, and inflamed with the new experience of the spiritual life, as the Lord had enjoined in the Gospel, they sold all that they had, and laid the price of their possessions at the feet of the apostles, in order that these mi^ht distribute to every man according as each had need ; and living in Christian love harmoniously with each other, they did not affirm an}i:hing to be their o\vn, but they had all things in common, and were one in soul and heart toward God.^ Afterwards these same persons also themselves suffered persecution in their flesh at the hands of the Jews, their carnal fellow-countrymen, and were dispersed abroad, to the end that, in consequence of tlieir dispersion, Christ should be preached more extensively, and that they themselves at the same time should Ijc followers of the patience of their Lord.
'The rcforonce evidently is to Acts v. 15, where, however, it is only the people's intention that is noticed, nnd that only in the instance of the sick, and not of any individual actually dead.
> Acts ii. 44, iv. 34.
CHAP. XXIV.] THE CHURCH LIKE A VINE. 323
For He who in meekness had endured them/ enjoined them in meekness to endure for His sake.
43. "Among those same persecutors of the saints the
Apostle Paul had once also ranked ; and he raged with eminent violence against the Christians. But, subsequently, he became a believer and an apostle, and was sent to preach the gospel to the Gentiles, suffering (in that ministry) things more grievous on behalf of the name of Christ than were those which he had done against the name of Christ. Moreover, in establishing churches throughout all the nations where he was sowing the seed of the gospel, he was wont to give earnest injunction that, as these converts (coming as they did from the worship of idols and without experience in the worship of the one God) could not readily serve God in the way of selling and distributing their possessions, they should make offerings for the poor brethren among the saints who were in the churches of Judea which had believed in Christ. In this maimer the doctrine of the apostle constituted some to be, as it were, soldiers, and others to be, as it were, provincial tributaries, while it set Christ in the centre of them like the corner-stone (in accordance with what had been announced beforetime by the prophet),^ in whom both parties, like walls advancing from different sides, that is to say, from Jews and from Gentiles, might be joined together in the affection of kinship. But at a later period heavier and more frequent persecutions arose from the unbelieving Gentiles against the Church of Christ, and day by day was fulfilled that prophetic word which the Lord spake when He said, ' Behold, I send you as sheep in the midst of wolves.'^
Chap. xxiv.—Of tlie Church in its lilmess to a vine sprouting and suffering priming.
4:4:. " But that vine, which was spreading forth its fruitful
' Adopting the Benedictine version, qui eos mansuetiis passus fuerat, and taking it as a parallel to Acts xiii. 18, Heb. xii. 3. There is, however, great variety of reading here. Thus we find qui ante eos, etc. = who had suffered in meekness before them : qui pro eis, etc. = who had suffered in their stead : qui propter eos, etc. = who had suffered on their account : and qui per eos, etc. = who had suffered through them, etc. But the reading in the text appears best authenticated.
Ps. cxvii. 22 ; Isa. xxviii. 16. • Matt. x. 16.
324 ON CATECHISING. [CHAP. XXIV.
shoots througliout the circle of lands, according as had been prophesied with regard to it, and as had been foretold by the Lord Himself, sprouted all the more luxuriantly in proportion as it was watered with richer streams of the blood of martyrs. And as these died in behalf of the truth of the faith in countless numbers throughout all lands, even the persecuting kingdoms themselves desisted, and were converted to the knowledge and worship of Christ, with the neck of their pride broken. Moreover it behoved that this same vine should be pruned in accordance with the Lord's repeated predictions,^ and that the unfruitful twigs should be cut out of it, by which heresies and schisms were occasioned in various localities, under the name of Christ, on the part of men who sought not His glory but their own; whose oppositions, however, also served more and more to discipline the Church, and to test and illustrate both its doctrine and its patience.
45. " All these things, then, we now perceive to be realized precisely as we read of them in predictions uttered so long before the event. And as the first Christians, inasmuch as they did not see these things literally made good in their own day, were moved by miracles to believe them ; so as regards ourselves, inasmuch as all these things have now been brought to pass exactly as we read of them in those books which were written a long time previous to the fulfilment of the things in question, wherein they were all announced as matters yet future, even as they are now seen to be actually present, we are built up unto faith, so that, enduring and persevering in the Lord, we believe without any hesitation in the destined accomplishment even of those things which still remain to be realized. For, indeed, in the same Scriptures, tribulations yet to come are still read of, as well as the iiiial day of judgment itself, when ajl the citizens of these two states shall receive their bodies again, and rise and give account of their life before tlie judgment-seat of Christ. For He will come in the glory of His power, who of old condescended to come in the lowliness of humanity ; and He will separate all the godly from the ungodly,—not only from those who have utterly refused to believe in Him at all, but also from those
1 John XV. 2.
CHAP. XXV.] THE RESUREECTION OF THE BODY. 32 5 who have believed in Him to no purpose and without fruit. To the one class He will give an eternal kingdom together with Himself, while to the other He will award eternal punishment together with the devil. But as no joy yielded by things temporal can be found in any measure comparable to the joy of life eternal which the saints are destined to attain, so no torment of temporal punishments can be compared to the everlasting torments of the unrighteous.
Chap. xxv.—Of constancy in the faith of the resurrection.
46. " Therefore, brother, confirm yourself in the name and help of Him in whom you believe, so as to withstand the tongues of those who mock at our faith, in whose case the devil speaks seductive words, bent above all on making a mockery of the faith in a resurrection. But, judging from your own history,^ believe that, seeing you have been, you will also be hereafter, even as you perceive yourself now to be, although previously you were not. For where was this great structure of your body, and where this formation and compacted connection of members a few years ago, before you were born, or even before you were conceived in your mother's womb? Wliere, I repeat, was then this structure and this stature of your body ? Did it not come forth to light from the hidden secrets of this creation, under the invisible formative operations of the Lord God, and did it not rise to its present magnitude and fashion by those fixed measures of increase which come with the successive periods of life ?^ Is it then in any way a difficult thing for God, who also in a moment brings together out of secrecy the masses of the clouds and veils the heavens in an instant of time, to make this quantity of your body again what it was, seeing that He was able to make it what formerly it was not ?^ Consequently, believe with a manful and unshaken spirit that all those things which seem to be withdrawn from the eyes of men as if to perish, are safe and exempt from loss in relation to the omnipotence
Sed ex te ipso crede. It may also = "but, on your side, do you believe.
2 Certisque setatum incrementis, etc.
3 Reading sicut nan erat ; for which, however, cum non erat also occurs = seeincj He was able to make it when it was not.
326 ON CATECHISING. [CHAP. XXV.
of God, who will restore them, without any delay or difticulty, when He is so minded,—those of them at least, I should say, that are judged by His justice to merit restoration; in order that men may give account of their deeds in their very bodies in w^hich they have done them ; and that in these they may be deemed worthy to receive either the exchange of heavenly incorruption in accordance with the deserts of their piety, or the corruptible condition of body^ in accordance with the deserts of their wickedness,—and that, too, not a condition such as may be done away with by death, but such as shall furnish material for everlasting pains.
47. " Flee, therefore, by stedfast faith and good manners, —flee, brother, those torments in which neither the torturers fail, nor do the tortured die ; to whom it is death without end, to be unable to die in their pains. . And be kindled with love and longing for the everlasting life of the saints, in which neither will action be toilsome nor will rest be indolent in which the praise of God will be without irksomeness and without defect ; wherein there will be no weariness in the mind, no exhaustion in the body ; wherein, too, there shall be no want, whether on your own part, so that you should crave for relief, or on your neighbour's part, so that you should be in haste to carry relief to him. God will be the whole enjoyment and satisfaction ^ of that holy city, which lives in Him and of Him, in wisdom and beatitude. For as we hope and look for what has been promised by Him, we shall be made equal to the angels of God,^ and together with them we shall enjoy that Trinity now by sight, wherein at present we walk by faith.* For we believe that which we see not, in order that through these very deserts of faith we may be counted worthy also to see that which we believe, and to abide in it to the intent that these mysteries of the equality of the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and the unity of this same Trinity, and the maimer in which these three subsistences are one God, need no more be uttered by us in words
Comiptibilem corporis cotuHlioncm. But corruptihilis also occurs = the condition of a corniptiMe boily.
2 Satittas. Some editions, however, give socieias ^ the society.
' Luke XX. 36. 2 Cor. v. 7.
CHAP. XXV.] CAUTIONS AGAINST EREOR. 327 of faith and sounding syllables, but may be drunk in in purest and most burning contemplation in that silence.
48. " These things hold fixed in your heart, and call upon the God in whom you believe, to defend you against the temptations of the devil ; and be careful, lest that adversary come stealthily upon you from a strange quarter, who, as a most malevolent solace for his own damnation, seeks others whose companionship he may obtain in that damnation. For he is bold enough not only to tempt Christian people through the instrumentality of those who hate the Christian name, or are pained to see the world taken possession of by that name, and still fondly desire to do service to idols and to the curious rites of evil spirits, but at times he also attempts the same through the agency of such men as we have mentioned a little ago, to wit, persons severed from the unity of the
Church, like the twigs which are lopped off when the vine is pruned, who are called heretics or schismatics. Howbeit sometimes also he makes the same effort by means of the
Jews, seeking to tempt and seduce believers by their instrumentality. Nevertheless, what ought above all things to be guarded against is, that no individual may suffer himself to be tempted and deceived by men who are within the Catholic Church itself, and who are borne by it like the chaff that is sustained against the time of its winnowing. For in being patient toward such persons, God has this end in view, namely, to exercise and confirm the faith and prudence of His elect by means of the perverseness of these others, while at the same time He also takes account of the fact that many of their number make an advance, and are converted to the doing of the good pleasure of God with a great impetus, when led to take pity upon their own souls.^ For not all treasure up for themselves, through the patience of God, wrath in the day of the wrath of His just judgment;^ but many are brought by the same patience of the Almighty to the most wholesome
Ad placendmn Deo miserati animas siias, etc. Instead of miserati the reading miseranti also occurs = to the doing of the good pleasure of the God who takes pity on their souls. The Benedictine editors suggest that the whole clause is in reference to Ecclesiasticus xxx. 24 (23), which in the Latin runs thus : miserere animce tuce placens Deo.
2 Kom. ii. 5.
328 ON CATECHISIN'G. [CHAP. XXV.
pain of repentance.^ And until tliat is effected, they are made the means of exercising not only the forbearance, but also the compassion of those who are already holding by the right way. Accordingly, you will have to witness many drunkards, covetous men, deceivers, gamesters, adulterers, fornicators, men who bind upon their persons sacrilegious charms, and others given up to sorcerers and astrologers,^ and diviners practised in all kinds of impious arts. You will also have to observe how those very crowds which fill tlie theatres on the festal days of the pagans also fill the churches on the festal days of the Christians. And when you see these things you will be tempted to imitate them. Nay, why should I use the expression, ycni vnll see, in reference to what you assuredly are acquainted with even already ? For you are not ignorant of the fact that many who are called Christians engage in all these evil things which I have briefly mentioned. Neither are you ignorant that at times, perchance, men whom you know to bear the name of Christians are guilty of even more giievous offences than these. But if you have come with the notion that you may do such things as in a secured position, you are greatly in error ; neither will the name of Christ be of any avail to you when He begins to judge in utmost strictness, who also of old condescended in utmost mercy to come to man's relief. For He Himself has foretold these things, and speaks to this effect in the Gospel : * Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father. !Many shall say unto me in that day, Lord, Lord, in Thy name we have eaten and drunken.'^ For all, therefore, wlio persevere in such works the end is damnation. Consequently, when you see many not only doing these things, but also defending and recommending them, keep yourself linnly by the law of God, and follow not its wilful transgressors. For it is not according to their mind, but according to His* truth that you will be judged.
49. " Associate with the good, whom you perceive to be at one with you in loving your King. For there are many such
• Cf. Rom. ii. 4. ' Mathemalicia.
Matt. vii. 21, 22- * Or = its {i.e. the law's) truth.