wards. I am treating at joresent of uulcnown signs, of which,
48 ON CHRISTIAN DOCTPJNE. [BOOK II.
this is simply the idiom of another language than that any deeper meaning is intended. Again, that phrase, which we cannot now take away from the lips of the people who sing it : "Super ipsuin autcm Jlorid sandificatio onca,"^ surely takes away nothing fiom the meaning. Yet a more learned man would prefer that tliis should be corrected, and that we should say, not Jlorid, but JlorcliL Nor does anything stand in the way of the correction being made, except the usage of the singers. Mistakes of this kind, then, if a man do not choose to avoid them altogether, it is easy to treat with indifference, as not interfering with a right understanding. But take, on the other hand, the saying of the apostle : " Quod stultum est
Dei, sapicntius est liominihus, et quocl infirmum est Dei, fortius est liomimhus!'^ If any one should retain in this passage the
Greek idiom, and say, " Quocl stultum est Dei, sapientius est lioniiiiuiii et quod infirmum est Dei fortius est homimun," ^ a quick and careful reader would indeed by an effort attain to the true meanincr, but still a man of slower intelligence either would not understand it at all, or would put an utterly false construction upon it. For not only is such a form of speech faulty in the Latin tongue, but it is ambiguous too, as if the meaning might be, that the folly of men or the weakness of men is wiser or stronger than that of God. But indeed even the expression sapicntius est liominibus (stronger than men) is not free from ambiguity, even though it be free from solecism.
For whether Iwminihus is put as the plural of the dative or as the plural of the ablative, does not appear, unless by reference to tlie meaning. It would be better then to say, sapicntius est qucun homines, and fortius est qiiam homines.
Chap. xiv.—JTow the meaning of iinhiown xcords and idioms w to he dlscovo'ed.
21. Al)nut ambiguous signs, however, I shall speak afterwards. I am treating at joresent of uulcnown signs, of which, as far as the words are concerned, there are two kinds. For
" But upon himself shall my holiness flourish."—Ps. cxxxii. IS (see LXX.). " But iipon himself shall his crown flourish" (A. V.).
" Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronf^er than men" (1 Cor. i. 25).
3 " What is foolish of God is wiser of men, and what is weak of God is stronger of men.