convenience for the necessary intercourse of life, the Christian
CHAP. XXVI.] HOW TO DEAL WITH HUMAN INSTITUTIONS. 63 recognises the things they are likenesses of. And this whole class are to be reckoned among the superfluous devices of men, unless when it is a matter of importance to inquire in regard to any of them, for what reason, where, when, and by whose authority it was made. Finally, the thousands of fables and fictions, in whose lies men take delight, are human devices, and nothing is to be considered more peculiarly man's own and derived from himself than anything that is false and lying. Among the convenient and necessary arrangements of men mth men are to be reckoned whatever differences they choose to make in bodily dress and ornament for the purpose of distinguishing sex or rank ; and the countless varieties of signs without which human intercourse either could not be carried on at all, or would be carried on at great inconvenience ; and the arrangements as to weights and measures, and the stamping and weighing of coins, which are peculiar to each state and people, and other things of the same kind. ISTow these, if they were not devices of men, would not be different in different nations, and could not be changed among particular nations at the discretion of their respective sovereigns.
40. This whole class of human arrangements, which are of convenience for the necessary intercourse of life, the Christian is not by any means to neglect, but on the contrary should pay a sufficient degree of attention to them, and keep them in memory.
Chap. xxvi.— What Jmman contrivances tve are to adopt, and ivhat ive are to avoid.
For certain institutions of men are in a sort of way representations and likenesses of natural objects. And of these, such as have relation to fellowship with devils must, as has been said, be utterly rejected and held in detestation ; those, on the other hand, which relate to the mutual intercourse of men, are, so far as they are not matters of luxury and superfluity, to be adopted, especially the forms of the letters which are necessary for reading, and the various languages as far as is required—a matter I have spoken of above.^ To this class also belong shorthand characters,^ those who are acquainted with which are called shorthand writers.^ All these are useful,
See above, chap.