* Adopting nam si in spectacidis cum ilUs esse ciipiebas et eis inhcej-ere. Au-
CHAP. XXVI.] THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE GOOD. 329 for you to discover, if you also begin to cultivate that character yourself For if in the public spectacles you wished to be in congenial company, and to attach yourself closely ^ to men who are united with you in a liking for some charioteer, or some hunter, or some player or other, how much more ought you to find pleasure in associating with those who are at one with you in loving that God, with regard to whom no one that loves Him shall ever have cause for the blush of shame, inasmuch as not only is He Himself incapable of being overcome, but He will also render those unconquerable who are affectionately disposed toward Him. At the same time, not even on those same good men, who either anticipate you or accompany you on the way to God, ought you to set your hope, seeing that no more ought you to place it on yourself, however great may be the progress you have made, but on Him who justifies both them and you, and thus makes you what you are. For you are secure in God, because He changes not ; but in man no one prudently counts himself secure. But if we ought to love those who are not righteous as yet, with the view that they may be so, how much more warmly ought those to be loved who already are righteous ? At the same time, it is one thing to love man, and another thing to set one's hope in man ; and the difference is so great, that God enjoins the one and forbids the other. Moreover, if you have to sustain either any insults or any sufferings in the cause of the name of Christ, and neither fall away from the faith nor decline from the good way,^ you are certain to receive the greater reward ; whereas those who give way to the devil in such circumstances, lose even the less reward. But be humble toward God, in order that He may not permit you to be tempted beyond your strength."
Chap. xxvi.—Of theformal admission of the catechumen, and of the signs therein made use of.
50. At the conclusion of this address the person is to be
Adopting nam si in spectacidis cum ilUs esse ciipiebas et eis inhcej-ere. Auother, but less weightily supported reading, is, nam si in spectacuUs et vanitatibns insanorum certaminum illis cupiehas inhoirere = for if in the public spectacles and vanities of mad struggles you wish to attach yourself closely to men, etc.
2 Bona via. Another and well authenticated rendering is, bona vita = the good life.
330 ON CATECHISING. [CHAP. XXVI.
asked whether he believes these things and earnestly desires to observe them. And on his replying to that effect, then certainly he is to be solemnly signed and dealt with in accordance with the custom of the Church. On the subject of the sacrament, indeed,^ which he receives, it is first to be well impressed upon his notice that the signs of divine things are, it is true, things visible, but that the invisible things themselves are also honoured in them, and that that species,'*^ which is then sanctified by the blessing, is therefore not to be regarded merely in the way in which it is regarded in any common use. And thereafter he ought to be told what is also signified by the form of words to which he has listened, and what in him is seasoned^ by that (spiritual grace) of which this material substance presents the emblem. Next we should take occasion by that ceremony to admonish him that, if he hears anything even in the Scriptures which may carry a carnal sound, he should, even although he fails to understand it, nevertheless believe that something spiritual is signified thereby, which bears upon holiness of character and the future life. Moreover, in this way he learns briefly that, whatever he may hear in the canonical books of such a kind as to make him unable to refer it to the love of eternity, and of truth, and of sanctity, and to the love of our neighbour, he should believe that to have been spoken or done with a figurative significance ; and that, consequently, he should endeavour to understand it in such a manner as to refer it to that twofold (duty of) love. He should be further admonished,
' It has been supposed by the Benedictine editors that satie may be a misreading tor sails. Wlu'ther that be or be not the case, the sacramfntitm intended here appears to be tlie sacranuiUum salts, in reference to which Neander(C/j wrcA
History, iii. p. 458, Bolin's Transhition) states that "in the North African Church the bishop gave to those whom he received as competentes, while signing the cross over them as a symbol of consecration, a portion of salt over whicli a blessing had been pronounced. This was to signify the dinne word imparted to the candidates as the true salt for human nature " There is an allusion to the same in the Confessions (\. 11), where Angustine says, " Even from my mother's womb who greatly hoped in thee, I was signed with the sign of His cross, and seasoned with His salt."
Sprciem = kind, in reference to the outward and sensible sign of the sail.
' Adopting condiat, which umiutstinnably is the reading most accordant with the figure of the sacramental salt here dealt with. Some editions give condatur = what is hidden in it, i.e. in the said form of words.