Jerome answers the second, third, and fourth propositions of Jovinianus.
I. (c. 1–4). That those who have become regenerate cannot be overthrown by the devil, Jerome (c. 1) puts it that they cannot be tempted by the devil. He quotes 1 John i. 8–ii. 2, as shewing that faithful men can be tempted and sin and need an advocate. The expressions (3) in Heb. vi. as to those who crucify the Son of God afresh do not apply to ordinary sins after baptism, as supposed by Montanus and Novatus. The epistles to the Seven Churches show that the lapsed may return. The Angels, and even our Lord Himself, (4) could be tempted.
II. (c. 5–17). That there is no difference (morally) between one who fasts and one who takes food with thanksgiving. Jovinian has quoted (5) many texts of Scripture to show that God has made animals for men’s food. But (6) there are many other uses of animals besides food. And there are many warnings like 1 Cor. vi. 13, as to the danger arising from food. There are among the heathen (7) many instances of abstinence. They recognize (8) the evil of sensual allurements, and often, like Crates the Theban, (9) have cast away what would tempt them; the senses, they teach, (10) should be subject to reason; and, that (11) except for athletes (Christians do not want to be like Milo of Crotona) bread and water suffice. Horace (12), Xenophon and other eminent Greeks (13), the Essenes and the Brahmans (14), as well as philosophers like Diogenes, testify to the value of abstinence. The Old Testament stories (15) of Esau’s pottage, of the lusting of Israel for the flesh-pots of Egypt, and those in the New Testament of Anna, Cornelius, &c., commend abstinence. If some heretics inculcate fasting (16) in such a way as to despise the gifts of God, and weak Christians are not to be judged for their use of flesh, those who seek the higher life (17) will find a help in abstinence.
III. (c. 18–34). The fourth proposition of Jovinianus, that all who are saved will have equal reward, is refuted (19) by the various yields of thirty, sixty, and a hundred fold in the parable of the sower, by (20) the “stars differing in glory” of 1 Cor. xv. 41. It is strange (21) to find the advocate of self-indulgence now claiming equality to the saints. But (22) as there were differences in Ezekiel between cattle and cattle, so in St. Paul between those who built gold or stubble on the one foundation. The differences of gifts (23), of punishments (24), of guilt (25), as in Pilate and the Chief Priests, of the produce of the good seed (26), of the mansions promised in heaven (27–29), of the judgment upon sins both in the church and in Scripture (30–31), of those called at different times to the vineyard (32) are arguments for the diversity of rewards. The parable of the talents (33) holds out as rewards differences of station, and so does the church (34) in its different orders.
Jerome now recapitulates (35) and appeals (36)against the licentious views of Jovinianus, which have already induced many virgins to break their vows; and which, as the new Roman heresy (37), he calls upon the Imperial City (38) to reject.
1. The second proposition of Jovinianus is that the baptized cannot be tempted 4652 by the devil. And to escape the imputation of folly in saying this, he adds: “But if any are tempted, it only shows that they were baptized with water, not with the Spirit, as we read was the case with Simon Magus.” Hence it is that John says, 4653 “Whosoever is begotten of God doeth no sin, because his seed abideth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is begotten of God. In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the Devil.” And at the end of the Epistle, 4654 “Whosoever is begotten of God sinneth not; but his being begotten of God keepeth him, and the evil one toucheth him not.”
2. This would be a real difficulty and one for ever incapable of solution were it not solved by the witness of John himself, who immediately goes on to say, 4655
“My little children, guard yourselves from idols.” If everyone that is born of God sinneth not, and cannot be tempted by the devil, how is it that he bids them beware of temptation? Again in the same Epistle we read: 4656
“If we say that we have no sins, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.” I suppose that John was baptized and was writing to the baptized: I imagine too that all sin is of the devil. Now John confesses himself a sinner, and hopes for forgiveness of sins after baptism. My friend Jovinianus says, 4657
“Touch me not, for I am clean.” What then? Does the Apostle contradict himself? By no means. In the same passage he gives his reason for thus speaking: 4658
“My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye may not sin. But if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and he is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the whole world. And hereby know we that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily hath the love of God been perfected. Hereby know we that we are in him: he that saith he abideth in him ought himself also to walk even as he walked.” My reason for telling you, little children, that everyone who is born of God sinneth not, is that you may not sin, and
3. The apostle Peter, to whom it was said, 4672
“He that is bathed needeth not to wash again,” and 4673
“Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church,” through fear of a maid-servant denied Him. Our Lord himself says, 4674
“Simon, Simon, behold Satan asked to have you, that he might sift you as wheat. But I made supplication for thee, that thy faith fail not.” And in the same place, “Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” If you reply that this was said before the Passion, we certainly say after the Passion, in the Lord’s prayer, 4675
“Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.” If we do not sin after baptism, why do we ask that we may be forgiven our sins, which were already forgiven in baptism? Why do we pray that we may not enter into temptation, and that we may be delivered from the evil one, if the devil cannot tempt those who are baptized? The case is different if this prayer belongs to the Catechumens, and is not adapted to faithful Christians. Paul, the chosen vessel, 4676
chastised his body, and brought it into subjection, lest after preaching to others he himself should be found a reprobate, and 4677
he tells that there was given to him “a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of
4. I delayed for a little while the production of proofs from the Old Testament, because, wherever the Old Testament is against them they are accustomed to cry out that 4701
the Law and the Prophets were until John. But who does not know that under the other dispensation of God all the saints of past times were of equal merit with Christians at the present day? As Abraham in days gone by pleased God in wedlock, so virgins now please him in perpetual virginity. He served the Law and his own times; let us now serve the Gospel and our times, 4702
upon whom the ends of the ages have come. David the chosen one, the man after God’s own heart, who had performed all His pleasure, and who in a certain psalm had said, 4703
“Judge me, O Lord, for I have walked in mine integrity: I have trusted also in the Lord and shall not slide. Examine me, O Lord, and prove me; try my reins and my heart,” even he was afterwards tempted by the devil; and repenting of his sin said, 4704
“Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving-kindness.” He would have a great sin blotted out by great loving-kindness. Solomon, beloved of the Lord, and to whom God had twice revealed Himself, because he loved women forsook the love of God. It is related in the 4705
Book of Days that Manasses the wicked king was restored after the Babylonish captivity to his former rank. And
5. At length we have arrived at the question of food, and are confronted by our third difficulty. “All things were created to serve for the use of mortal men.” And as man, a rational animal, in a sense the owner and tenant of the world, is subject to God, and worships his Creator, so all things living were created either for the food of men, or for clothing, or for tilling the earth, or conveying the fruits thereof, or to be the companions of man, and hence, because they are man’s 4718
helpers, they have their name jumenta. 4719
‘What is man,’ says David, ‘that thou art mindful of him? And the son of man, that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him but little lower than the angels, and crownest him with glory and honour. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thine hands; thou hast put all things under his feet: all sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field: the fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.’ Granted, he says, that the ox was created for ploughing, the horse for riding, the dog for watching, goats for their milk, sheep for their fleeces. What is the use of swine if we may not eat their flesh? of roes, stags, fallow-deer, boars, hares, and such like game? of geese, wild and tame? of wild ducks and 4720
fig-peckers? of woodcocks? of coots? of thrushes? Why do hens run about our houses? If they are not eaten, all these creatures were created by
6. I will follow in detail the views now expounded, and before I come to Scripture and show by it that fasting is pleasing to God, and chastity accepted by him, I will meet philosophic argument with argument, and will prove that we are not followers of Empedocles and Pythagoras, who on account of their doctrine of the transmigration of souls think nothing which lives and moves should be eaten, and look upon him who fells a fir-tree or an oak as equally guilty with the parricide or the poisoner: but that we worship our Creator Who made all things for the use of man. And as the ox was created for ploughing, the horse for riding, dogs for watching, goats for milk, sheep for their wool: so it was with swine and stags, and roes and hares, and other animals: but the immediate purpose of their creation was not that they might serve for food, but for other uses of men. For if everything that moves and lives was made for food, and prepared for the stomach, let my opponents tell me why elephants, lions, leopards, and wolves were created; why vipers, scorpions, bugs, lice, and fleas; why the vulture, the eagle, the crow, the hawk; why whales, dolphins, seals, and small snails were created. Which of us ever eats the flesh of a lion, a viper, a vulture, a stork, a kite, or the worms that crawl upon our shores? As then these have their proper uses, so may we say that other beasts, fishes, birds, were created not for eating, but for medicine. In short, to how many uses the flesh of vipers, from which we make our antidotes against poison, may be applied, physicians know well. Ivory dust is an ingredient in many remedies. Hyena’s gall restores brightness to the eyes, and its dung and that of dogs cures gangrenous wounds. And (it may seem strange to the reader) Galen asserts in his treatise on Simples, that human dung is of service in a multitude of cases. Naturalists say that snake-skin, boiled in oil, gives wonderful relief in ear-ache. What to the uninitiated seems so useless as a bug? Yet, suppose a leech to have fastened on the throat, as soon as the odour of a bug is inhaled the leech is vomited out, and difficulty in urinating is relieved by the same application. As for the fat of pigs, geese, fowls, and pheasants, how useful they are is told in all medical works, and if you read these books you will see there that the vulture has as many curative properties as it has limbs. Peacock’s dung allays the inflammation of gout. Cranes, storks, eagle’s gall, hawk’s blood, the ostrich, frogs, chameleons, swallow’s dung and flesh—in what diseases these are suitable remedies, I could tell if it were my purpose to discuss bodily ailments and their cure. If you think proper you may read Aristotle and 4724
Theophrastus in prose, or 4725
Marcellus of Side, and our 4726
Flavius, who discourse on these subjects in hexameter verse; the 4727
second Pliny also, and 4728
Dioscorides, and others, both naturalists and physicians, who assign to every herb, every stone, every animal whether reptile, bird, or fish, its own use in the art of which they treat. So then when you ask me why the pig was created, I immediately reply, as if two boys were disputing, by asking you why were vipers and scorpions? You must not judge that anything from the hand of God is superfluous, because
7. I have quoted these few passages of Scripture to show that we are at one with the philosophers. But who does not know that no universal law of nature regulates the food of all nations, and that each eats those things of which it has abundance? For instance, the Arabians and Saracens, and all the wild tribes of the desert live on camel’s milk and flesh: for the camel, to suit the climate and barren soil of those regions, is easily bred and reared. They think it wicked to eat the flesh of swine. Why? Because pigs which fatten on acorns, chestnuts, roots of ferns, and barley, are seldom or never found among them: and if they were found, they would not afford the nourishment of which we spoke just now. The exact opposite is the case with the northern peoples. If you were to force them to eat the flesh of asses and camels, they would think it the same as though they were compelled to devour a wolf or a crow. In Pontus and Phrygia a pater-familias pays a good price for fat white worms with blackish heads, which breed in decayed wood. And as with us the woodcock and fig-pecker, the mullet and scar, are reputed delicacies, so with them it is a luxury to eat the 4737
xylophagus. Again, because throughout the glowing wastes of the desert clouds of locusts are found, it is customary with the peoples of the East and of Libya to feed on locusts. John the Baptist proves the truth of this. Compel a Phrygian or a native of Pontus to eat a locust, and he will think it scandalous. Force a Syrian, an African, or Arabian to swallow worms, he will have the same contempt for them as for flies, millepedes, and lizards, although the Syrians are accustomed to eat land-crocodiles, and the Africans even green lizards. In Egypt and Palestine, owing to the scarcity of cattle no one eats beef, or makes the flesh of bulls or oxen, or calves, a portion of their food. Moreover, in my province 4738
it is considered a crime to eat veal. Accordingly the Emperor Valens recently promulgated a law throughout the East, prohibiting the killing and eating of calves. He had in view the interests of agriculture, and wished to check the bad practice of the commoner sort of the people who imitated the Jews in devouring the flesh of calves, instead of fowls and sucking pigs. The Nomad tribes, and the 4739
Troglodytes, and Scythians, and the barbarous 4740
Huns with whom we have recently become acquainted,
8. Through the five senses, as through open windows, vice has access to the soul. The metropolis and citadel of the mind cannot be taken unless the enemy have previously entered by its doors. The soul is distressed by the disorder they produce, and is led captive by sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. If any one delights in the sports of the circus, or the struggles of athletes, the versatility of actors, the figure of women, in splendid jewels, dress, silver and gold, and other things of the kind, the liberty of the soul is lost through the windows of the eyes, and the prophet’s words are fulfilled: 4750
“Death is come up into our windows.” Again, our sense of hearing is flattered by the tones of various instruments and the modulations of the voice; and whatever enters the ear by the songs of poets and comedians, by the pleasantries and verses of pantomimic actors, weakens the manly fibre of the mind. Then, again, no one but a profligate denies that the profligate and licentious find a delight in sweet odours, different sorts of incense, fragrant balsam, 4751
kuphi, 4752
œnanthe, and musk, which is nothing but the skin of a foreign rat. And who does not know that gluttony is the mother of avarice, and, as it were, fetters the heart and keeps it pressed down upon the earth? For the sake of a temporary gratification of the appetite, land and sea are ransacked, and we toil and sweat our lives through, that we may send down our throats honey-wine and costly food. The desire to handle other men’s persons, and the burning lust for women, is a passion bordering on
9. At the call of reasoning such as this, many philosophers have forsaken the crowded cities, and their pleasure gardens in the suburbs with well-watered grounds, shady trees, twittering birds, crystal fountains, murmuring brooks, and many charms for eye and ear, lest through luxury and abundance of riches, the firmness of the mind should be enfeebled, and its purity debauched. For there is no good in frequently seeing objects which may one day lead to your captivity, or in making trial of things which you would find it hard to do without. Even the Pythagoreans shunned company of this kind and were wont to dwell in solitary places in the desert. The Platonists also and Stoics lived in the groves and porticos of temples, that, admonished by the sanctity of their restricted abode, they might think of nothing but virtue. Plato, moreover, himself, when 4753 Diogenes trampled on his couches with muddy feet (he being a rich man), chose a house called 4754 Academia at some distance from the city, in a spot not only lonely but unhealthy, so that he might have leisure for philosophy. His object was that by constant anxiety about sickness the assaults of lust might be defeated, and that his disciples might experience no pleasure but that afforded by the things they learned. We have read of some who took out their own eyes lest through sight they might lose the contemplation of philosophy. Hence it was that 4755 Crates the famous Theban, after throwing into the sea a considerable weight of gold, exclaimed, “Go to the bottom, ye evil lusts: I will drown you that you may not drown me.” But if anyone thinks to enjoy keenly meat and drink in excess, and at the same time to devote himself to philosophy, that is to say, to live in luxury and yet not to be hampered by the vices attendant on luxury, he deceives himself. For if it be the case that even when far distant from them we are frequently caught in the snares of nature, and are compelled to desire those things of which we have a scant supply: what folly it is to think we are free when we are surrounded by the nets of pleasure! We think of what we see, hear, smell, taste, handle, and are led to desire the thing which affords us pleasure. That the mind sees and hears, and that we can neither hear nor see anything unless our senses are fixed upon the objects of sight and hearing, is an old saw. It is difficult, or rather impossible, when we are swimming in luxury and pleasure not to think of what we are doing: and it is an idle pretence which some men put forward 4756 that they can take their fill of pleasure with their faith and purity and mental uprightness unimpaired. It is a violation of nature to revel in pleasure, and the Apostle gives a caution against this very thing when he says, 4757 “She that giveth herself to pleasure is dead while she liveth.”
10. The bodily senses are like horses madly racing, but the soul like a charioteer holds the reins. And as horses without a driver go at break-neck speed, so the body if it be not governed by the reasonable soul rushes to its own destruction. The philosophers make use of another illustration of the relations between soul and body; 4758
they say the body is a boy, the soul his tutor. Hence the 4759
historian tells us “that our soul directs, our body serves. The one we have in common with the gods, the other with the beasts.” So then unless the vices of youth and boyhood are regulated by the wisdom of the tutor, every effort and every impulse sets strongly in the direction of wantonness. We might lose four of the senses and yet live,—that is we could do without sight, hearing, smell, and the pleasures of touch. But a human being cannot subsist without tasting food. It follows that reason must be present, that we may take food of such a kind and in such quantities as will not burden the body, or hinder the free movement of the soul: for it is the way with us that we eat, and walk, and sleep, and digest our food, and afterwards in the fulness of blood have to bear the spur of lust. 4760
“Wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler.” Whosoever has much to do with these is not wise.
11. 4761 Hippocrates in his Aphorisms teaches that stout persons of a coarse habit of body, when once they have attained their full growth, unless the plethora be quickly relieved by blood-letting, develop tendencies to paralysis and the worst forms of disease: they must therefore be bled, that there may be room for fresh growth. For it is not the nature of our bodies to continue in one stay, but go on either to increase or decrease, and no animal can live which is incapable of growth. Whence 4762 Galen, a very learned man and the commentator on Hippocrates, says in his exhortation to the practice of medicine that athletes whose whole life and art consists in stuffing cannot live long, nor be healthy: and that their souls enveloped with superfluous blood and fat, and as it were covered with mud, have no refined or heavenly thoughts, but are always intent upon gluttonous and voracious feasting. Diogenes maintains that tyrants do not bring about revolutions in cities, and foment wars civil or foreign for the sake of a simple diet of vegetables and fruits, but for costly meats and the delicacies of the table. And, strange to say, Epicurus, the defender of pleasure, in all his books speaks of nothing but vegetables and fruits; and he says that we ought to live on cheap food because the preparation of sumptuous banquets of flesh involves great care and suffering, and greater pains attend the search for such delicacies than pleasures the consumption of them. Our bodies need only something to eat and drink. Where there is bread and water, and the like, nature is satisfied. Whatever more there may be does not go to meet the wants of life, but are ministers to vicious pleasure. Eating and drinking does not quench the longing for luxuries, but appeases hunger and thirst. Persons who feed on flesh want also gratifications not found in flesh. But they who adopt a simple diet do not look for flesh. Further, we cannot devote ourselves to wisdom if our thoughts are running on a well-laden table, the supply of which requires an excess of work and anxiety. The wants of nature are soon satisfied: cold and hunger can be banished with simple food and clothing. Hence the Apostle says: “Having food and clothing let us be therewith content.” Delicacies and the various dishes of the feast are the nurses of avarice. The soul greatly exults when you are content with little: you have the world beneath your feet, and can exchange all its power, its feasts, and its lusts, the objects for which men rake money together, for common food, and make up for them all with a sack-cloth shirt. Take away the luxurious feasting and the gratification of lust, and no one will want riches to be used either in the belly, or beneath it. The invalid only regains his health by diminishing and carefully selecting his food, i.e., in medical phrase, by adopting a “slender diet.” The same food that recovers health, can preserve it, for no one can imagine vegetables to be the cause of disease. And if vegetables do not give the strength of Milo of Crotona—a strength supplied and nourished by meat—what need has a wise man and a Christian philosopher of such strength as is required by athletes and soldiers, and which, if he had it, would only stimulate to vice? Let those persons deem meat accordant with health who wish to gratify their lust, and who, sunk in filthy pleasure, are always at heat. What a Christian wants is health, but not superfluous strength. And it ought not to disturb us if we find but few supporters; for the pure and temperate are as rare as good and faithful friends, and virtue is always scarce. Study the temperance of 4763 Fabricius, or the poverty of 4764 Curius, and in a great city you will find few worthy of your imitation. You need not fear that if you do not eat flesh, fowlers and hunters will have learnt their craft in vain.
“Scorn pleasure; she but hurts when bought with pain.”
And when, in the delightful retirement of the country, by way of satirizing voluptuous men, he described himself as plump and fat, his sportive verse ran thus:
“Pay me a visit if you want to laugh,
You’ll find me fat and sleek with well-dress’d hide,
Like any pig from Epicurus’ sty.”
But even if our food be the commonest, we must avoid repletion. For nothing is so destructive to the mind as a full belly, fermenting like a wine vat and giving forth its gases on all sides. What sort of fasting is it, or what refreshment is there after fasting, when we are blown out with yesterday’s dinner, and our 4766 stomach is made a factory for the closet? We wish to get credit for protracted abstinence, and all the while we devour so much that a day and a night can scarcely digest it. The proper name to give it is not fasting, but rather debauch and rank indigestion.
13. 4767 Dicæarchus in his book of Antiquities, describing Greece, relates that under Saturn, that is in the Golden Age, when the ground brought forth all things abundantly, no one ate flesh, but every one lived on field produce and fruits which the earth bore of itself. Xenophon in eight books narrates the life of Cyrus, King of the Persians, and asserts that they supported life on barley, cress, salt, and black bread. Both the aforesaid Xenophon, Theophrastus, and almost all the Greek writers testify to the frugal diet of the Spartans. 4768 Chæremon the Stoic, a man of great eloquence, has a treatise on the life of the ancient priests of Egypt, who, he says, laid aside all worldly business and cares, and were ever in the temple, studying nature and the regulating causes of the heavenly bodies; they never had intercourse with women; they never from the time they began to devote themselves to the divine service set eyes on their kindred and relations, nor even saw their children; they always abstained from flesh and wine, on account of the light-headedness and dizziness which a small quantity of food caused, and especially to avoid the stimulation of the lustful appetite engendered by this meat and drink. They seldom ate bread, that they might not load the stomach. And whenever they ate it, they mixed pounded hyssop with all that they took, so that the action of its warmth might diminish the weight of the heavier food. They used no oil except with vegetables, and then only in small quantities, to mitigate the unpalatable taste. What need, he says, to speak of birds, when they avoided even eggs and milk as flesh. The one, they said, was liquid flesh, the other was blood with the colour changed? Their bed was made of palm-leaves, called by them baiæ: a sloping footstool laid upon the ground served for a pillow, and they could go without food for two or three days. The humours of the body which arise from sedentary habits were dried up by reducing their diet to an extreme point.
14. 4769
Josephus in the second book of the history of the Jewish captivity, and in the eighteenth book of the Antiquities, and the two treatises against Apion, describes three sects of the Jews, the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes. On the last of these he bestows wondrous praise because they practised perpetual abstinence from wives, wine, and flesh, and made a second nature of their daily fast. 4770
Philo, too, a man of great learning, published a treatise of his own on their mode of life. 4771
Neanthes of Cizycus, and 4772
Asclepiades of Cyprus, at the time when Pygmalion ruled over the East, relate that the eating of flesh was unknown. Eubulus, also, who wrote the history of 4773
Mithras in many volumes, relates that among the Persians there are three kinds of Magi, the first of whom, those of greatest learning and eloquence, take no food except meal and vegetables. At Eleusis it is customary to abstain from fowls and fish and certain fruits. 4774
Bardesanes, a Babylonian, divides the Gymnosophists of India into two classes, the one called Brahmans, the other Samaneans, who are so rigidly self-restrained
15. So far I have dealt with the arguments and examples of philosophers. Now I will pass on to the beginning of the human race, that is, to the sphere which belongs to us. I will first point out that Adam received a command in paradise to abstain from one tree though he might eat the other fruit. The blessedness of paradise could not be consecrated without abstinence from food. So long as he fasted, he remained in paradise; he ate, and was cast out; he was no sooner cast out than he married a wife. While he fasted in paradise he continued a virgin: when he filled himself with food in the earth, he bound himself with the tie of marriage. And yet though cast out he did not immediately receive permission to eat flesh; but only the fruits of trees and the produce of the crops, and herbs and vegetables were given him for food, that even when an exile from paradise he might feed not upon flesh which was not to be found in paradise, but upon grain and fruit like that of paradise. But afterwards when 4780
God saw that the heart of man from his youth was set on wickedness continually, and that His Spirit could not remain in them because they were
They despised angels’ food, and sighed for the flesh of Egypt. Moses for forty days and forty nights fasted on Mount Sinai, and showed even then that man does not live on bread alone, but on every word of God. He says to the Lord, “the people is full and maketh idols.” Moses with empty stomach received the law written with the finger of God. The people that ate and drank and rose up to play fashioned a golden calf, and preferred an Egyptian ox to the majesty of the Lord. The toil of so many days perished through the fulness of a single hour. Moses boldly broke the tables: for he knew that drunkards cannot hear the word of God. 4784
“The beloved grew thick, waxed fat, and became sleek: he kicked and forsook the Lord which made him, and departed from the God of his salvation.” Hence also it is enjoined in the same Book of Deuteronomy: 4785
“Beware, lest when thou hast eaten and drunk, and hast built goodly houses, and when thy herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy silver and gold is multiplied, then thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget the Lord thy God.” In short the people ate and their heart grew thick, lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart: so the people well fed and fat-fleshed could not bear the countenance of Moses who fasted, for, to correctly render the Hebrew, it was 4786
furnished with horns through his converse with God. And it was not, as some think, to show that there is no difference between virginity and marriage, but to assert his sympathy with severe fasting, that our Lord and Saviour when he was transfigured on the Mount revealed Moses and Elias with Himself in glory. Although Moses and Elias were properly types of the Law and the Prophets, as is clearly witnessed by the Gospel: 4787
“They spake of his departure which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.” For the passion of our Lord is declared not by virginity or marriage, but by the Law and the Prophets. If, however, any persons contentiously maintain that by Moses is signified marriage, by Elias virginity, let me tell them briefly that Moses died and was buried, but Elias was carried off in a chariot of fire and entered on immortality before he approached death. But the second writing of the tables could not be effected without fasting. What was lost by drunkenness was regained by abstinence, a proof that by fasting we can return to paradise, whence, though fulness, we have been expelled. In 4788
Exodus we read that the battle was fought against Amalek while Moses prayed, and the whole people fasted until the evening. 4789
Joshua, the son of Nun, bade sun and moon stand still, and the victorious army prolonged its fast for more than a day. 4790
Saul, as it is written in the first book of Kings, pronounced a curse on him who ate bread before the evening, and until he had avenged himself upon his enemies. So none of his people tasted any food. And all they of the land took food. And so binding was a solemn fast once it was proclaimed to the Lord, that Jonathan, to whom the victory was due, was taken by lot, and 4791
could not escape the charge of sinning in ignorance, and his father’s hand was raised against him, and the prayers of the people scarce availed to save him. 4792
Elijah after the preparation of a forty days fast saw God on Mount Horeb, and heard from Him
16. The Apostle does indeed 4812
blame those who forbade marriage, and commanded to abstain from food, which God created for use with thanksgiving. But he has in view Marcion, and Tatian, and other heretics, who inculcate perpetual abstinence, to destroy, and express their hatred and contempt for, the works of the Creator. But we praise every creature of God, and yet prefer leanness to corpulence, abstinence to luxury, fasting to fulness. 4813
“He that laboureth laboureth for
17. My opponent has dared to maintain that our Lord was called by the Pharisees a wine-bibber and a glutton: and from the fact of His going to marriage feasts and from His not despising the banquets of sinners, I am to infer His wishes respecting ourselves. That Lord, so you suppose, is a glutton who fasted forty days to hallow Christian fasting; 4819
who calls them blessed that hunger and thirst; 4820
who says that He has food, not that which the disciples surmised, but such as would not perish for ever; 4821
who forbids us to think of the morrow; who, though He is said to have hungered and thirsted, and to have gone frequently to various meals, except in celebrating the mystery whereby He represented His passion, or 4822
in proving the reality of His body is nowhere described as ministering to His appetite; 4823
who tells of purple-clad Dives in hell for his feasting, and says that poor Lazarus for his abstinence was in Abraham’s bosom; who, when we fast, 4824
bids us anoint our head and wash our face, that we fast not to gain glory from men, but praise from the Lord; who did indeed 4825
after His resurrection eat part of a broiled fish and of a honey-comb, not to allay hunger and to gratify His palate, but to show the reality of His own body. For whenever He raised anyone from the dead He 4826
ordered that food should be given him to eat, lest the resurrection should be thought a delusion. And this is why Lazarus after his resurrection is 4827
described as being at the feast with our Lord. We do not deny that fish and other kinds of flesh, if we choose, may be taken as food; but as we prefer virginity to marriage, so do we esteem fasting and spirituality above meats and full-bloodedness. And if Peter 4828
before dinner went to the supper chamber at the sixth hour, a chance fit of hunger does not prejudice fasting. For, if this were so, because our Lord 4829
at the sixth hour sat weary on the well of Samaria and wished to drink, all must of necessity, whether they so desire or not, drink at that time. Possibly it was the Sabbath, or the Lord’s day, and he hungered at the sixth hour after two or three days’ fasting; for I could never believe that the Apostle, if he had eaten a dinner only one day previous and had been blown out with a great meal, would have been hungry by noon next day. But if he did dine the day pre
18. His fourth and last contention is that there are two classes, the sheep and the goats, the just and the unjust: that the just stand on the right hand, the other on the left: and that to the just the words are spoken: 4835
“Come, ye blessed of my Father, and inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” But that sinners are thus addressed: 4836
“Depart from me, ye cursed, into the eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels.” That a good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, nor an evil tree good fruit. Hence it is that the Saviour says to the Jews: 4837
“Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father it is your will to do.” He quotes the parable of the ten virgins, the wise and the foolish, and shows that the five who had no oil remained outside, but that the other five who had gotten for themselves the light of good works went into the marriage with the bridegroom. He goes back to the flood, and tells us that they who were righteous like Noah were saved, but that the sinners perished all together. We are informed that among the men of Sodom and Gomorrha no difference is made except between the two classes of the good and the bad. The righteous are delivered, the sinners are consumed by the same fire. There is one salvation for those who are released, one destruction for those who stay behind. Lot’s wife is a clear warning that we must not deviate a hair’s breadth from right. If, however, he says, you object and ask me why the righteous toils in time of peace, or in the midst of persecution, if he is to gain nothing nor have a greater reward, I would assert that he does this, not that he may gain a further reward but that he may not lose what he has already received. In Egypt also the ten plagues fell with equal violence upon all that sinned, and the same darkness hung over master and slave, noble and ignoble, the king and the people. Again at the Red Sea the righteous all passed over, the sinners were all overwhelmed. Six hundred thousand men, besides those who were unfit for war through age or sex, all alike fell in the desert, and two who were alike in righteousness are alike delivered. For forty years all Israel toiled and died alike. As regards food, an homer of manna was the measure for all ages: the clothes of all alike did not wear out: the hair of all alike did not grow, nor the beard increase: the shoes of all lasted the same time. Their feet grew not hard: the
19. Then, again, as regards the parable of the sower in the Gospel, we read that the good ground brought forth fruit, some a hundred fold, some sixty fold, and some thirty fold; and, on the other hand, that the bad ground admitted of three degrees of sterility: but Jovinianus makes only two classes, the good soil and the bad. 4838 And as in one Gospel our Lord promises the Apostles a hundred fold, in another seven fold, for leaving children and wives, and in the world to come life eternal; and the seven and the hundred mean the same thing: so, too, in the passage before us, the numbers describing the fertility of the soil need not create any difficulty, particularly when the Evangelist Mark gives the inverse order, thirty, sixty, and a hundred. The Lord says, 4839 “He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood abideth in me, and I in him.” As, then, there are not varying degrees of Christ’s presence in us, so neither are there degrees of our abiding in Christ. 4840 “Every one that loveth me will keep my word: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.” He that is righteous, loves Christ: and if a man thus loves, the Father and the Son come to him, and make their abode with him. Now I suppose that when the guest is such as this the host cannot possibly lack anything. And if our Lord says, 4841 “In my Father’s house are many mansions,” His meaning is not that there are different mansions in the kingdom of heaven, but He indicates the number of Churches in the whole world, for though the Church be seven-fold she is but one. “I go,” He says, “to prepare a place for you,” not places. If this promise is peculiar to the twelve apostles, then Paul is shut out from that place, and the chosen vessel will be thought superfluous and unworthy. John and James, because they asked more than the others, did not obtain it; and yet their dignity is not diminished, because they were equal to the rest of the apostles. 4842 “Know ye not that your bodies are a temple of the Holy Ghost?” A temple, He says, not temples, in order to show that God dwells in all alike. 4843 “Neither for these only do I pray, but for them also that believe on me through their word; as thou, Father, in me, and I in thee, are one, so they may be all one in us. And the glory which thou hast given me I have given unto them. I have loved them, as thou hast loved me. And as we are Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, one God, so may they be one people in themselves, that is, like dear children, partakers of the divine nature.” Call the Church what you will, bride, sister, mother, her assembly is but one and never lacks husband, brother, or son. Her faith is one, and she is not defiled by variety of doctrine, nor divided by heresies. She continues a virgin. Whithersoever the Lamb goeth, she follows Him: she alone knows the Song of Christ.
20. “If you tell me,” says he, “that one star differeth from another star in glory, I reply, that one star does differ from another star; that is, spiritual persons differ from carnal. We love all the members alike, and do not prefer the eye to the finger, nor the finger to the ear: but the loss of any one is attended by the sorrow of all the rest. We all alike come into this world, and we all alike depart from it. There is one Adam of the earth, and another from heaven. The earthly Adam is on the left hand, and will perish: the heavenly Adam is on the right hand, and will be saved. He who says to his brother, ‘thou fool,’ and ‘raca,’ will be in danger of Gehenna. And the murderer and the adulterer will likewise be sent into Gehenna. In times of persecution some are burnt, some strangled, some beheaded, some flee, or die within the walls of a prison: the struggle varies in kind, but the victors’ crown is one. No difference was made between the son who had never left his father, and his brother who was welcomed as a returning penitent. To the labourers of the first hour, the third, the sixth, the ninth, and the eleventh, the same reward of a penny was given, and what may perhaps seem still more strange to you, the first to receive the reward were they who had toiled least in the vineyard.”
21. Who is there even of God’s elect that would not be disturbed at these and similar passages of Holy Scripture which our crafty opponent, with a perverse ingenuity, twists to the support of his own views? The Apostle John says that many Antichrists had come, and to make no difference between John himself and the lowest penitent is the preaching of a real Antichrist. At the same time, I am amazed at the portentous forms which Jovi
22. But what is the good of calling a 4846
one-eyed man Old One-eye, and of showing the inconsistency of an assailant, when we have to refute a whole series of statements? That the sheep and the goats on the right hand and on the left are the two classes of the righteous and the wicked, I do not deny. That a good tree does not bring forth evil fruit, nor an evil one good fruit, no one doubts. The ten virgins also, wise and foolish, we divide into good and bad. We are not ignorant that at the deluge the righteous were delivered, and sinners overwhelmed with the waters. That at Sodom and Gomorrha the just man was rescued, while the sinners were consumed by fire, is clear to everyone. We are also aware that Egypt was stricken with the ten plagues, and that Israel was saved. Even little children in our schools sing how the righteous passed through the Red Sea, and Pharaoh with his host was drowned. That six hundred thousand fell in the desert because they were unbelieving, and that two only entered the land of promise, is taught by Scripture; and so is the rest of your description of the two classes, good and bad, down to the labourers in the vineyard. But what are we to think of your assertion, that because there is a division into good and bad, the good, or the bad it may be, are not distinguished one from another, and that it makes no difference whether one is a ram in the flock or a poor little sheep? whether the sheep have the first or the second fleece? whether the flock is diseased and covered with the scab, or full of life and vigour? 4847
especially when by the authoritative utterances of His own prophet Ezekiel God clearly points out the difference between flock and flock of His rational sheep, saying, “Behold I judge between cattle and cattle, and between the rams and the he-goats, and between the fat cattle and the lean. Because ye have thrust with side and with shoulder, and pushed all the diseased with your horns, until they were scattered abroad.” And that we might know what the cattle were, He immediately added: 4848
“Ye my flock, the flock of my pasture, are men.” Will Paul and that penitent who had lain with his father’s wife be on an equality, because the latter repented and was received into the Church: and shall the offender because he is with him on the right hand shine with the same glory as the Apostle? How is it then that tares and wheat grow side by side in the same field until the harvest, that is the end of the world? What is the significance of good and bad fish being contained in the Gospel net? Why, in Noah’s ark, the type of the Church, are there different animals with different abodes according to their rank? Why standeth the queen upon the Lord’s right hand, in raiment of wrought gold, in a vesture of gold? Why had Joseph, representing Christ, a coat of many colours? Why does the Apostle say to the Romans: 4849
“According as God had dealt to each man a measure of faith. For even as we have
23. Let us hasten to what remains. 4855
“There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are diversities of ministrations, and the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but the same God who worketh all things in all. But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit to profit withal.” And again: 4856
“As the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of the body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.” But he precludes you from saying that the different members of the one body have the same rank; for he immediately describes the orders of the Church, and says: 4857
“And God hath set some in the Church, first, apostles; secondly, prophets; thirdly, teachers; then miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, divers kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? are all prophets? are all teachers? are all workers of miracles? have all gifts of healings? do all speak with tongues? do all interpret? But desire earnestly the greater gifts. And a still more excellent way shew I unto you.” And after discoursing more in detail of the graces of
24. In vain, therefore, do you multiply instances of sheep and goats, of the five wise and five foolish virgins, of Egyptians and Israelites, and so forth, because retribution is not in the present, but will be in the future. Hence we find that the day of judgment is promised at the end of all things, because the judgment is not now. For it would be absurd to call the last day the day of judgment, if God were judging at the present time. Now we sail the ship, wrestle, and fight, that at last
25. You raise the objection that all Israelites had the same measure of manna, an homer, and were alike in respect of dress, and hair, and beard, and shoes; as though we did not all alike partake of the body of Christ. In the Christian mysteries there is one means of sanctification for the master and the servant, the noble and the low-born, for the king and his soldiers, and yet, that which is one varies according to the merits of those who receive it. 4875
“Whosoever shall eat or drink unworthily shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.” Does it follow that because Judas drank of the same cup as the rest of the apostles, that he and they are of equal merit? But suppose that we do not choose to receive the sacrament, at all events we all have the same life, breathe the same air, have the same blood in our veins, are fed on the same food. Moreover, if our viands are improved by culinary skill and are made more palatable for the consumer, food of this kind does not satisfy nature, but tickles the appetite. We are all alike subject to hunger, all alike suffer with cold: we alike are shrivelled with the frost, or melted with the broiling heat. The sun and the moon, and all the company of the stars, the showers, the whole world run their course for us all alike, and, as the Gospel tells us, the same refreshing rain falls upon all, good and bad, just and unjust. If the present is a picture of the future, then the Sun of Righteousness will rise upon sinners as well as upon the righteous, upon the wicked and the holy, upon the heathen as well as upon Jews and Christians, though the Scripture says, 4876
“Unto you that fear the Lord shall the Sun of Righteousness arise.” If He will rise to those that fear, He will set to the despisers and the false prophets. The sheep which stand on the right hand will be brought into the kingdom of heaven, the goats will be thrust down to hell. The parable does not contrast the sheep one with another, or on the other hand the goats, but merely makes a difference between sheep and goats. The whole truth is not taught in a single passage: we must always bear in mind the exact point of an illustration. For instance, the ten virgins are not examples of the whole human race, but of the careful and the slothful: the former are ever anticipating the advent of our Lord, the latter abandon themselves to idle slumber without a thought of future judgment. And so at the end of the parable it is said, 4877
“Watch, for ye know not the
26. As for the parable of the sower which makes both good and bad ground bear a triple crop, and the passage from the apostle in which upon Christ as the foundation one man builds gold, silver, costly stones, another wood, hay, stubble, the meaning is perfectly clear. We know that in a great house there are different vessels, and to wish to contradict so plain a truth would be sheer impudence. Yet that Jovinianus may not triumph in a lie and quote the instance of the apostles by way of discrediting the hundred fold, sixty fold, and thirty fold, let me inform him that in 4882 Matthew and Mark a hundred fold is promised to the apostles who had left all. And I would tell him further, that in the Gospel of Luke we find much more, that is πολύ πλείονα, and that there is absolutely no instance in the Gospels of a hundred standing for seven; and that he is convicted either of forgery, or of ignorance; and that our cause is not prejudiced by the fact that in one Gospel the enumeration begins at a hundred, in another at thirty, since it is a rule with all Scripture, and especially with the older writings, to put the lowest number first and so ascend by degrees to the higher. For instance, suppose one to say that so-and-so lived five and seventy and a hundred years, it does not follow that five and seventy are more than a hundred because they were first mentioned. If you do not on the side of good admit the difference between a hundred, sixty, and thirty, neither will you do so on the side of evil, and the seed which fell by the wayside, upon the rock, and among thorns, will be equally faulty. But if the former three, or the latter three, on the side of good, or on the side of evil respectively, are one and the same, it was foolish instead of speaking of two things to enumerate six kinds, and all the more because according to the account of the parable in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, the Saviour always added: “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.” Where there is no deep inner meaning, it is useless to draw our attention to the mystic sense.
27. You give it as your opinion that, since the Father and the Son make their abode with the faithful, and since Christ is their guest, nothing is lacking. I suppose, however, that Christ’s abiding with the Corinthians was one thing, with the Ephesians another: it was one thing, I say, for Him to abide with those whom Paul blamed for many sins, another for Him to dwell with those to whom the apostle revealed mysteries hidden from the beginning of the world; one thing for Him to be in Titus and Timothy, another in Paul. Certainly amongst them that have been born of women, there has not arisen a greater than John the Baptist. But the term greater implies others who are less. And 4883
“he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.” You see then that in heaven one is greatest and another is least, and that among the angels and the
28. But when Jovinianus supposes that the many mansions in our Father’s house are churches scattered throughout the world, who can refrain from laughing; since Scripture plainly teaches in John’s Gospel that our Lord was discoursing not of the number of the churches, but of the heavenly mansions, and the eternal tabernacles for which the prophet longed? 4890
“In my Father’s house,” He says, “are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you I will come again, and will receive you unto myself, that where I am, there ye may be also.” The place and the mansions which Christ says He would prepare for the apostles are of course in the Father’s house, that is, in the kingdom of heaven, not on earth, where for the present He was leading the apostles. And at the same time regard must be had to the sense of Scripture: “I might tell you,” He says, “that I go to prepare a place for you, if there were not many mansions in my Father’s house, that is to say, if each individual did not prepare for himself a mansion through his own works rather than receive it through the bounty of God. The preparation is therefore not mine, but yours.” This view is supported by the fact that it profited Judas nothing to have a place prepared, since he lost it by his own fault. And we must interpret in the same way what our Lord says to the sons of Zebedee, one of whom wished to sit on His left hand, the other on His right: 4891
“My cup indeed ye shall drink: but to sit on my right hand, and on my left hand, is not mine to give, but it is for them for whom it hath been prepared of my Father.” It is not the Son’s to give; how then is it the Father’s to prepare? There are, He says, prepared in heaven, many different mansions, destined for many different virtues, and they will be awarded not to persons, but to persons’ works. In vain therefore do you ask of me what rests with yourselves, a reward which my Father has prepared for those whose virtues will entitle them to rise to such dignity. Again when He says: 4892
“I will come again, and will receive you unto myself: that where I am, there ye may be also,” He is speaking especially to the apostles, concerning whom it is elsewhere written, “That as I and thou, Father, are one, so they also may be one in us,” inasmuch as they have believed, have been perfected, and can say, 4893
“the Lord is my portion.” If, however, there are not many mansions, how is it taught in the Old Testament correspondingly with the New, that the chief priest has one rank, the priests another, the Levites another, the door-keepers another, the sacristans another? How is it that in the 4894
book of Ezekiel, where a description is given of the future Church and of the heavenly Jerusalem, the priests who have sinned are degraded to the rank of sacristans and doorkeepers, and although they are in the temple of God, that is on the right hand, they are not among the rams, but among the poorest of the sheep? How again is it that in the river which flows from the temple, and replenishes the salt sea, and gives new life to everything, we read there are many kinds of fish? Why do we read that in the kingdom of heaven there are Archangels, Angels, Thrones, Dominions, Powers, Cherubim and Seraphim, and every name which is named, not only in this present world, but also that which is to come? A difference of
29. It is mere trifling to quote the passage: 4895 “Know ye not that your bodies are a temple of the Holy Ghost,” for it is customary in Holy Scripture to speak of a single object as though it were many, and of many as though they were one. And Jovinianus himself should know that even in a temple there are many divisions—the outer and the inner courts, the vestibules, the holy place, and the Holy of Holies. There are also in a temple kitchens, pantries, oil-cellars, and cupboards for the vessels. And so in the temple of our body there are different degrees of merit. God does not dwell in all alike, nor does He impart Himself to all in the same degree. A portion of the spirit of Moses was taken and given to the seventy elders. I suppose there is a difference between the abundance of the river, and that of the rivulets. 4896 Elijah’s spirit was given in double measure to Elisha, and thus double grace wrought greater miracles. Elijah while living restored a dead man to life; Elisha after death did the same. Elijah invoked famine on the people; Elisha in a single day put the enemy’s forces in the power of the city which they besieged. No doubt the words, “Know ye not that your bodies are a temple of the Holy Ghost,” refer to the whole assembly of the faithful, who, joined together, make up the one body of Christ. But the question now is, who in the body is worthy to be the feet of Christ, and who the head? who is His eye, and who His hand?—a distinction indicated by the 4897 two women in the Gospel, the penitent and the holy woman, one of whom held His feet, the other His head. Some authorities, however, think there was only one woman, and that she who began at His feet gradually advanced to His head. Jovinianus further urges against us our Lord’s words, 4898 “I pray not for these only, but also for those who shall believe on me through their word: that as I, Father, in thee and thou in me are one, so they all may be one in us,” and reminds us that the whole Christian people is one in God, and, as His well-beloved sons, are 4899 “partakers of the divine nature.” We have already said, and the truth must now be inculcated more in detail, that we are not one in the Father and the Son according to nature, but according to grace. For the essence of the human soul and the essence of God are not the same, as the Manichæans constantly assert. But, says our Lord: 4900 “Thou hast loved them as thou hast loved me.” You see, then, that we are privileged to partake of His essence, not in the realm of nature, but of grace, and the reason why we are beloved of the Father is that He has loved the Son; and the members are loved, those namely of the body. 4901 “For as many as received Christ, to them gave He power to become sons of God, even to them that believe on His name: which were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” The Word was made flesh that we might pass from the flesh into the Word. The Word did not cease to be what He had been; nor did the human nature lose that which it was by birth. The glory was increased, the nature was not changed. Do you ask how we are made one body with Christ? Your creator shall be your instructor: 4902 “He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood abideth in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he that eateth me, he also shall live because of me. This is the bread which came down out of heaven.” But the Evangelist John, who had drunk in wisdom from the breast of Christ, agrees herewith, and says: 4903 “Hereby know we that we abide in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God abideth in him, and he in God.” If you believe in Christ, as the apostles believed, you shall be made one body with them in Christ. But, if it is rash for you to claim for yourself a faith and works like theirs when you have not the same faith and works, you cannot have the same place.
30. You repeat the words bride, sister, mother, and affirm that all these are titles of the one Church and names applied to all believers. The fact goes against you. For if the Church admits but one rank, and has not many members in one body, what necessity is there for calling her bride, sister, mother? It must be that she is the bride of some, the sister of others, the mother of others. All indeed stand on the right hand, but one stands as a bridegroom, another as a brother, a third as a son. 4904
“My little children” says the Apostle, “of whom I am again in travail
31. As regards your attempt to show that railing and murder, the use of the expression raca and adultery, the idle word and godlessness, are rewarded with the same punishment, I have already given you my reply, and will now briefly repeat it. You must either deny that you are a sinner if you are not to be in danger of Gehenna: or, if you are a sinner you will be sent to hell for even a light offence: 4910
“The mouth that lieth,” says one, “kills the soul.” I suspect that you, like other men, have occasionally told a lie: 4911
for all men are liars, that God alone may be true, 4912
and that He may be justified in His words, and may prevail when He judges. It follows either that you will not be a man lest you be found a liar: or if you are a man and are consequently a liar, you will be punished with parricides and adulterers. For you admit no difference between sins, and the gratitude of those whom you raise from the mire and set on high will not equal the rage against you of those whom for the trifling offences of daily life you have thrust into utter darkness. And if it be so that in a persecution one is stifled, another beheaded, another flees, or the fourth dies within the walls of a prison, and one crown of victory awaits various kinds of struggle, the fact tells in our favour. For in martyrdom it is the will, which gives occasion to the death, that is crowned. My duty is to
32. And if a penny was given to all the labourers, those of the first, the third, the sixth, the ninth, and the eleventh hours, and they came first for the reward who were the last to work in the vineyard, even here the persons described do not belong to one time or one age, but from the beginning of the world to the end of it there are different calls and a special meaning attaches to each. Abel and Seth were called at the first hour: Enoch and Noah at the third: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob at the sixth: Moses and the prophets at the ninth: at the eleventh the Gentiles, to whom the recompense was first given because they believed on the crucified Lord, and inasmuch as it was hard for them to believe they earned a great reward. Many kings and prophets have desired to see the things that we see, and have not seen them. But the one penny does not represent one reward, but one life, and one deliverance from Gehenna. And as by the favour of the sovereign those guilty of various crimes are released from prison, and each one, according to his toil and exertions, is in this or that condition of life, so too the penny, as it were by the favour of our Sovereign, is the discharge from prison of us all by baptism. Now our work is, according to our different virtues, to prepare for ourselves a different future.
33. So far I have replied to the separate portions of his argument; I shall now address myself to the general question. Our Lord says to his disciples, 4916
“Whosoever would become great among you, let him be least of all.” If we are all to be equal in heaven, in vain do we humble ourselves here that we may be greater there. Of the two debtors who owed, one five hundred pence, the other fifty, he to whom most was forgiven loved most. And so the Saviour says, 4917
“I say to you, her sins which are many are forgiven her, for she hath loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little.” He who loves little, and has little forgiven, he will of course be of inferior rank. 4918
The householder when he set out delivered to his servants his goods, to one five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Just as in another Gospel it is written that a nobleman setting out for a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and return, called the servants, and gave them each a sum of money, with which one gained ten pounds, another five, and they, each according to his ability and the gain he had made, received ten or five cities. But one who had received a talent, or a pound, buried it in the ground, or tied it up in a napkin, and kept it until his master’s return. Our first thought is that if, according to the modern Zeno, the righteous do not toil in hope of reward, but to avoid the loss of what they already have, he who buried his pound or talent that he might not lose it, did no wrong,
34. The whole account of the land of Judah and of the tribes is typical of the church in heaven. Let us read Joshua the son of Nun, or the concluding portions of Ezekiel, and we shall see that the historical division of the land as related by the one finds a counterpart in the spiritual and heavenly promises of the other. What is the meaning of the seven and eight steps in the description of the temple? or again, what significance attaches to the fact that in the Psalter, after being taught the mystic alphabet by the 4923
one hundred and eighteenth psalm we arrive by fifteen steps at the point where we can sing: 4924
“Behold, now bless the Lord, all ye servants of the Lord: ye who stand in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of our God.” Why did 4925
two tribes and a half dwell on the other side of Jordan, a district abounding in cattle, while the remaining nine tribes and a half either drove out the old inhabitants from their possessions, or dwelt with them? Why did the tribe of Levi 4926
receive no portion in the land, but have the Lord for their portion? And how is it that of the priests and Levites, themselves, the 4927
high priest alone entered the Holy of Holies where were the cherubim and the mercy-seat? Why did the other priests wear 4928
linen raiment only, and not have their clothing of
35. But now we have just sighted land: the foaming billows have been rolling mountain-high: our ship has been borne aloft, or has rushed headlong into the depths beneath: little by little the haven opens to the view of the weary and exhausted sailors. We have discussed the married, widows, and virgins. We have preferred virginity to widowhood, widowhood to marriage. The passage of the apostle, in which he treats questions of this kind, has been expounded, and particular objections have been met. We also took a survey of secular literature, and inquired what was thought of virgins, and what of those who had one husband; and by way of contrast we pointed out the cares which sometimes attend wedlock. Then we passed to the second division, in which our opponent denies the possibility of sinning to those who have been baptized with complete faith. And we showed that God alone is faultless, and every creature is at fault, not because all have sinned, but because all may sin, and those who stand have cause to fear when they see the fall of men like themselves. In the third place we came to fasting, and inasmuch as our opponent’s argument fell under two heads, and he appealed either to philosophy, or to Holy Scripture, we also furnished a several reply. In the fourth, that is the last section, the sheep and goats on the right hand and the left, the righteous and the wicked, were distributed into two classes, the intention being to show that there is no difference between one just man and another, or between one sinner and another. To prove the point Jovinianus had accumulated countless instances from Scripture which apparently favoured his view, and this contention we rebutted both by arguments and illustrations from Scripture, and pulverized Zeno’s old opinion no less with common sense than with the words of inspiration.
36. I must in conclusion say a few words to our modern Epicurus wantoning in his gardens with his favourites of both sexes. On your side are the fat and the sleek in their festal attire. If I may mock like Socrates, add if you please, all swine and dogs, and, since you like flesh so well, vultures too, eagles, hawks, and owls. We shall never be afraid of the host of 4930
Aristippus. If ever I see a fine fellow, or a man who is no stranger to the curling-irons, with his hair nicely done and his cheeks all aglow, he belongs to your herd, or rather grunts in concert with your pigs. To our flock belong the sad, the pale, the meanly clad, who, like strangers in this world, though their tongues are silent, yet speak by their dress and bearing. 4931
“Woe is me,” say they, “that my sojourning is prolonged! that I dwell among the tents of Kedar!” that is to say, in the darkness of this world, for the light shineth in the darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not. Boast not of having many disciples. The Son of God taught in Judæa, and only twelve apostles followed Him. 4932
“I have trodden the wine-press alone,” He says, “and of the peoples there was no man with me.” At the passion He was left alone, and even Peter’s fidelity to Him wavered: on the other hand all the people applauded the doctrine of the Pharisees, saying, 4933
“Crucify him, crucify him. We have no king but Cæsar,” that is in effect, we follow vice, not virtue; Epicurus, not Christ; Jovinianus, not the Apostle Paul. If many assent to your views, that only indicates voluptuousness; for they do not so much approve your utterances, as favour their own vices. In our crowded thoroughfares a false prophet may be seen any day stick in hand belabouring the fools about him, and knocking out the teeth of those who offend him, and yet he never lacks constant followers. And do you regard it as a mark of great wisdom if you have a following of many pigs, whom you are feeding to make pork for hell? Since you published your views, and set the mark of your approval on baths in which the sexes bathe together, the impatience which once threw over burning lust the semblance of a robe of modesty has been laid bare and exposed. What was once hidden is now open to the gaze of all. You have revealed your disciples, such as they are, not made them. One result of your teaching is that sin is no longer even repented of. Your virgins whom, with a depth of wisdom never found before in speech or writing, you have taught the apostle’s maxim that it is better to marry than to burn, have turned secret adulterers into acknowledged
4935 “She calls it wedlock; thus she veils her fault.”
37. About four hundred years have passed since the preaching of Christ flashed upon the world, and during that time in which His robe has been torn by countless heresies, almost the whole body of error has been derived from the Chaldæan, Syriac, and Greek languages. Basilides, the master of licentiousness and the grossest sensuality, after the lapse of so many years, and like a second 4936 Euphorbus, was changed by transmigration into Jovinian, so that the Latin tongue might have a heresy of its own. Was there no other province in the whole world to receive the gospel of pleasure, and into which the serpent might insinuate itself, except that which was founded by the teaching of Peter, upon the rock Christ? Idol temples had fallen before the standard of the Cross and the severity of the Gospel: now on the contrary lust and gluttony endeavour to overthrow the solid structure of the Cross. And so God says by Isaiah, 4937 “O my people, they which bless you cause you to err, and trouble the paths of your feet.” Also by Jeremiah, 4938 “Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and save every man his life, and believe not the false prophets which say, Peace, peace, and there is no peace;” who are always repeating, 4939 “The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.” “Thy prophets have seen for thee false and foolish things; they have not laid bare thine iniquity that they might call thee to repentance: who devour God’s people like bread: they have not called upon God.” Jeremiah announced the captivity and was stoned by the people. 4940 Hananiah, the son of Azzur, broke the bars of wood for the present, but was preparing bars of iron for the future. False prophets always promise pleasant things, and please for a time. Truth is bitter, and they who preach it are filled with bitterness. For with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth the Lord’s passover is kept, and it is eaten with bitter herbs. Admirable are your utterances and worthy of the ears of the bride of Christ standing in the midst of her virgins, and widows, and celibates! (their very name is 4941 derived from the fact that they who abstain from intercourse are fit for heaven). This is what you say: “Fast seldom, marry often. You cannot do the work of marriage unless you take mead, and flesh, and solid food. For lust strength is required. Flesh is soon spent and enervated. You need not be afraid of fornication. He who has been once baptized into Christ cannot fall, for he has the consolation of marriage to slake his lust. And if you do fall, repentance will restore you, and you who were hypocrites at baptism may have a firm faith in your repentance. Be not disturbed by the thought of a difference between the righteous and the penitent, and do not imagine that pardon even gives a lower place; rather believe that it takes away your crown. For there is one reward: he who stands on the right hand shall enter into the kingdom of heaven.” Through counsels such as these your swine-herds are richer than our shepherds, and the he-goats draw after them many of the other sex: 4942 “They were as fed horses: they were mad after women”: they no sooner see a woman than they neigh after her, and, shame to say! find scriptural authority for the consolation of their incontinence. But the very women, unhappy creatures! though they deserve no pity, who chant the words of their instructor (for what does God require of them but to become mothers?), have lost not only their chastity, but all sense of shame, and defend their licentious practices with an access of impudence. You have, moreover, in your army many subalterns, you have your guardsmen and your skirmishers at the outposts, the round-bellied, the well-dressed, the exquisites, and noisy orators, to defend you with tooth and nail. The noble make way for you, the wealthy print kisses on your face. For unless you had come, the drunkard and the glutton could not have entered paradise. All honor to your virtue, or rather to your vices! You have in your camp, even amazons with uncovered breasts, bare arms and knees, who challenge the men who come against them to a battle of lust. Your household is a large one, and so in your aviaries not only turtle-doves, but hoopoes are fed, which may wing their flight over the whole field of rank debauchery. Pull me to pieces and scatter me to the winds: tax me with what offences you please: accuse me of luxurious and delicate living: you would like me better if I were guilty, for I should belong to your herd.
38. But I will now address myself to you, great Rome, who with the confession of Christ have blotted out the blasphemy written on your forehead. Mighty city, mistress-city of the world, city of the Apostle’s praises, shew the meaning of your name. Rome is either strength in Greek, or height in Hebrew. Lose
This, according to i. 3, is “cannot be overthrown.”
387:46531 John 3:9, 10.
387:4654 387:4655 387:46561 John i. 8 sq.
387:4657Is. lxv. 5. Quoted from memory. The LXX and Vulg. have like A.V. and Rev., “Come not near me.”
387:4658 388:4659 388:4660 388:4661 388:4662 388:4663 388:4664Jerome is perhaps hinting at the opinions of Jovinianus, that there was no other distinction between men than the grand division into righteous and wicked, and drawing from this the inference that whoever had been truly baptized had nothing further to gain by progress in the Christian life.
388:4665 388:4666 388:4667 388:4668 388:4669 388:4670 388:46711 John 2:1, 2.
388:4672S. John xiii. 10.
388:4673S. Matt. xvi. 18.
388:4674S. Luke xxi. 31.
388:4675S. Matt. vi. 12.
388:4676 388:4677 389:4678 389:4679 389:4680 389:4681 389:4682 389:4683 389:4684 389:4685 389:4686 389:4687Heb. vi. 4 sq.
389:4688Various dates, ranging between a.d. 126 and a.d. 173, are assigned to the origin of Montanism. In addition to the tenet, that the church has no power to remit sin after baptism (though the power was claimed for the Montanistic prophets) and that some sins exclude for ever from the communion of the saints on earth, although the mercy of God may be extended to them hereafter, Montanus held second marriages to be no better than adultery, proscribed military service and secular life in general, denounced profane learning and amusements of every kind, advocated extreme simplicity of female dress, practised frequent and severe fasting, and inculcated the most rigorous asceticism. The sect produced a great effect on the church and lasted until the sixth century. As is well known, Tertullian in middle life lapsed into Montanism, and he was the most distinguished of its champions. Montanism has been described as an anticipation of the mediaeval system of Rome.
389:4689The founder of the schism which afterwards bore the name of Novatian was Novatus, a presbyter of Carthage who went to Rome (about a.d. 250) and there co-operated with Novatianus, one of the most distinguished of the clergy of that city. The Novatianists, whose doctrines were near akin in many respects to those of Montanists, assumed the name of Cathari, or Puritans.
389:4690 389:4691James i. 12 sq.
390:4692 390:4693 390:4694James i. 22 sq.
390:4695 390:4696 390:4697 390:4698 390:4699Prov. xvi. 5. Sept.
390:4700Rev. 2.2 sq.
390:4701 390:4702 390:4703 390:4704 390:4705 391:47062 Kings 23:29, 2 Chr. 35:20 sq.
391:4707Zech. iii. 1 sq.
391:4708 391:4709 391:4710 391:4711Jerome blends two passages, Is. xiv. 12 (in which the Sept. reading is “that sendest to;” R.V. “didst lay low”) and Ezek. xxviii. 13 sq. In the passage from Isaiah the king of Babylon is compared to Lucifer, i.e. the shining one, the morning star, whose movements the Babylonians had been the first to record. See Sayce, Fresh Light from the Ancient Monuments, p. 178, and Cheyne’s Isaiah. The subject of Ezekiel’s prophecy is the Prince of Tyre.
391:4712S. Luke x. 18.
391:4713Job 40:16, 21. R.V. “He lieth under the lotus trees, in the covert of the reed and the fen.”
391:4714Job xli. 34. Sept. R.V. “King over the sons of pride.”
391:4715Job xli. 13 sq. R.V. for the latter part of the verse has “Round about his teeth is terror, his strong scales are his pride.” Jerome’s words are not found in the existing Septuagint.
391:4716The Septuagint omits much in this portion of the Book of Job.
391:4717 391:4718That is, deriving jumenta from juvo. The derivation, however, is from jungo.
391:4719Ps. viii. 5 sq.
391:4720 392:4721 392:4722 392:4723Castum. Another reading is Cossum i.e. wood-worms, which were considered a delicacy in Pontus and Phrygia. The reading Castum is supported by Tert., De Iejun. cap. 16: In nostris xerophagiis blasphemias ingerens. Casto Isidis et Cybeles eos adæquas. Compare Arnob. Bk. V., and Jerome’s Letter cvii. ad Lætam c. 10, and below c. 7.
392:4724 392:4725That is, of Side in Pamphylia. He lived in the reigns of Hadrian and Antoninus Pius, a.d. 117–161. Only two fragments remain of his Greek poem in forty-two books.
392:4726He appears to be Flavius the Grammarian to whom reference is made in the Book on Illustrious Men, chap. 80:—Firmianus, qui et Lactantius, Arnobii discipulus, sub Diocletiano principe accitus cum Flavio grammatico, cujus de Medicinalibus versu compositi exstant libri, etc.
392:4727Born a.d. 23. His Historia Naturalis embraces astronomy, meteorology, geography, mineralogy, zoölogy, and botany, and comprises according to the author’s own account 20,000 matters of importance drawn from 2,000 volumes.
392:4728A native of Cilicia, who probably lived in the second century of the Christian era. He was a Greek physician and wrote a treatise on Materia Medica, in 5 books, which is still extant.
393:4729 393:4730 393:4731 393:4732 393:4733Matt. 10:9, Matt. 19:21, Mark 6:8.
393:4734 393:4735 393:4736 393:4737That is, the wood-worm just referred to.
393:4738Pannonia, of which Valens also was a native.
393:4739This name, which signifies dwellers in caves, was applied by Greek geographers to various peoples, but especially to the uncivilized inhabitants of the west coast of the Red Sea, along the shores of Upper Egypt and Æthiopia. The whole coast was called Troglodytice.
393:4740In 376 the Goths were driven out of their country by the Huns. They were allowed by Valens to cross the Danube, but war soon broke out and the emperor was defeated with great slaughter on Aug. 9, 378.
394:4741The Sarmatians dwelt on the N. E. of the Sea of Azov, E. of the river Don.
394:4742They were located in the S. E. of Germany.
394:4743The name given to the great confederacy of German peoples who in a.d. 409 traversed Germany and Gaul, and invaded Spain. In 429 they conquered all the Roman dominions in Africa, and in 455 they plundered Rome. Their kingdom was destroyed by Belisarius in 535.
394:4744A people of Central Asia. Cyrus the Great was slain in an expedition against them.
394:4745On the Oxus near its entrance into the Caspian Sea.
394:4746An agricultural people on the W. coast of Pontus.
394:4747Hyrcania was a province of the Persian Empire, on the S. and S. E. shores of the Caspian or Hyrcanian Sea. Jerome draws many of these details from the treatise of Porphyry Περὶ ἀποχῆς ἐμψύχιων.
394:4748Antinous was drowned in the Nile. a.d. 122. The emperor’s grief was so great that he enrolled his favourite amongst the gods, caused a temple to be erected to his honour at Mantinea, and founded the city of Antinoopolis.
394:4749 394:4750 394:4751 394:4752Probably an ointment made from the grape of the wild vine.
395:4753The celebrated Cynic philosopher. He died at Corinth, at the age of nearly 90, b.c. 323.
395:4754Academia was a piece of land on the Cephisus about three-quarters of a mile from Athens, originally belonging to the hero Academus. Here was a Gymnasium with plane and olive plantations, etc. Plato had a piece of land in the neighbourhood; here he taught, and after him his followers, who were hence called Academici. Cicero called his villa Academia.
395:4755Flourished about b.c. 320. Though heir to a large fortune he renounced it all, and lived and died as a true Cynic. He was called the “door-opener,” because it was his practice to visit every house at Athens and rebuke its inmates.
395:4756A common form of Gnostic error revived many centuries afterwards by the Anabaptists.
395:4757 395:4758 395:4759 395:4760 396:4761The most celebrated physician of antiquity. Born about b.c. 460, died about 357.
396:4762Born at Pergamum a.d. 130, died probably in the year 200. His writings are considered to have had a more extensive influence on medical science than even those of Hippocrates.
396:4763Fabricius was censor in b.c. 275, and devoted himself to repressing the prevalent taste for luxury. The story of his expelling from the Senate P. Cornelius Rufinus because he possessed ten pounds’ weight of silver-plate is well-known.
396:4764Curius Dentatus, Consul b.c. 290 with P. Cornelius Rufinus to whom allusion has just been made, was no less distinguished for simplicity of life than was Fabricius. He was censor b.c. 272.
397:4765 397:4766Or, “an ante-room to the closet”—Meditatorium. Comp. Tertullian, Treatise on Fasting, ch. 6.
397:4767The Peripatetic philosopher, geographer, and historian, a disciple of Aristotle and the friend of Theophrastus.
397:4768Chæremon was chief librarian of the Alexandrian library. He afterwards became one of Nero’s tutors.
397:4769Wars, Book II., ch. viii. 2 sq.; Antiquities, Bk. xviii. I. 2 sq. Josephus nowhere says that the Essenes abstained from flesh and wine, or fasted daily. Philo commends them for so doing. Jerome here, as above, borrows from Porphyry. The “Wars of the Jews or History of the Destruction of Jerusalem,” are here called the “History of the Jewish Captivity.”
397:4770Philo the Jew. His exact date cannot be given; but he was advanced in years when he went to Rome (a.d. 40) on his famous embassy in behalf of his countrymen.
397:4771Neanthes lived about b.c. 241. He was a voluminous writer, chiefly on historical subjects.
397:4772There were many physicians of this name.
397:4773 397:4774Supposed to be the same as the Bardesanes born at Edessa in Mesopotamia, who flourished in the latter half of the second century. Jerome again refers to him in the book on Illustrious Men, c. 33.
398:4775Xenocrates was born b.c. 396, died b.c. 314.
398:4776Triptolemus was the legendary inventor of the plough and of agriculture.
398:4777Poems ascribed to the mythical Orpheus are quoted by Plato. The extant poems which bear his name are forgeries of Christian grammarians and philosophers of the Alexandrine school; but some fragments of the old Orphic poetry are said to be remaining.
398:4778Antisthenes was the founder of the Cynic philosophy. He was a devoted disciple of Socrates and flourished about b.c. 366.
398:4779The distinguished Peripatetic philosopher and historian. He lived, probably, about the time of Ptolemy Philopator (b.c. 222–205).
398:4780 399:4781 399:4782 399:4783 399:4784Deut. xxxii. 15. “Beloved” (dilectus). Correctly Jeshurun, that is, the Upright, a name of Israel.
399:4785 399:4786The curious custom of representing Moses with horns arose from a mistake in the Vulgate rendering. The Hebrew verb לוקּ, to emit rays, is derived from a word which, meaning mostly a horn, has in the dual the signification rays of light. See Hab. iii. 4.
399:4787 399:4788 399:4789 399:47901 Sam. xiv. 24. Heb. “entered into the wood.” The English version follows the Hebrew. The Sept. ἠρἱστα (Jerome’s prandebat) is perhaps only a repetition of the preceding thought. Another rendering inserts the negative, οὐκ ἠρίστα.
399:4791 399:4792 400:4793 400:4794 400:4795Gen. xviii. 23 sq.
400:4796 400:4797 400:4798 400:4799Dan. ix. 23. Heb. A man of desires. A.V. greatly beloved.
400:4800The story is in the apocryphal part of the book of Daniel.
400:4801 400:4802 400:4803 400:4804 400:4805 400:4806 400:4807S. Luke ii. 36.
400:4808S. Jerome is in accord with the Vulgate, Peshito, and certain manuscripts, but the R.V. omits S. Matt. xvii. 21 (Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting) and in S. Mark ix. 29 omits the words respecting fasting. S. Luke does not refer to our Lord’s supposed remark.
400:4809 400:4810 400:4811 400:4812 400:4813Prov. xvi. 26. Sept.
401:4814S. Matt. xi. 12.
401:4815 401:4816Rom. xiv. 14 sq.
401:4817 401:4818Rom. xiv. 5 sq.
401:4819S. Matt. v. 6.
401:4820S. John iv. 32.
401:4821S. Matt. v. 34. (Rather, not to be anxious about it.)
401:4822 401:4823S. Luke xv. 19-31.
401:4824S. Matt. 16:17, 18.
401:4825 401:4826Mark 5:43, Luke 8:55. Our Lord is not related to have given the command in the case of the son of the widow of Nain, or in that of Lazarus.
401:4827S. John xii. 2.
401:4828Acts x. 10. In our version “the housetop.”
401:4829S. John iv. 6.
402:4830Isa. lviii. 5 sq.
402:4831 402:4832Numb. xi. 34. Tertullian also speaks of the graves remaining.
402:4833 402:4834Joel 1:14, Joel 2:15. Jerome agrees with the Sept. Θεραπέια. The Heb. root signifies to close or bind; hence the meaning healing. But others translate Θεραπέια by worship, or service. The correct rendering appears to be a solemn assembly as in A.V.
402:4835S. Matt. xxv. 34.
402:4836S. Matt. xxv. 41.
402:4837S. John viii. 44.
403:4838Matt. 19:29, Mark 10:29, 30, Luke 18:29, 30.
403:4839S. John vi. 56.
403:4840S. John xiv. 23.
403:4841S. John xiv. 2.
403:4842 403:4843S. John xvii. 20-23.
404:4844In Cyprus, where Zeno the founder of the Stoic school was born.
404:4845i.e., Jovinianus. Jerome for the moment addresses the reader.
404:4846Persius I. 128, Conington’s translation.
404:4847Ezek. 34:17, 20, 21.
404:4848 404:4849Rom. xii. 3 sq.
405:4850 405:48511 Cor. iii. 6 sq.
405:48521 Cor. iii. 10 sq.
405:48531 Cor. 4:1, 2.
405:48541 Cor. ix. 13 sq.
405:4855 405:4856 405:48571 Cor. xii. 28 sq.
406:48581 Cor. 13:8, 9, 10.
406:4859 406:4860 406:4861 406:4862 406:4863 406:4864 406:4865 406:4866 406:4867 406:4868 406:4869 407:4870 407:4871See Acts xxvii. 23 and the context.
407:4872 407:48731 Sam. xxx. 1 sq.
407:4874S. Luke xiii. 4.
407:4875 407:4876 407:4877S. Matt. xxv. 13.
408:4878S. John xix. 6.
408:4879 408:4880 408:4881 408:4882Matt. 19:29, Mark 10:30, Luke 18:30. In S. Matthew some authorities agree with S. Luke in reading “manifold.”
408:4883 409:4884S. Luke xvii. 5.
409:4885 409:4886 409:4887Jer. 31:33, 34.
409:4888S. Matt. v. 19.
409:4889S. Luke xiv. 9.
409:4890 409:4891S. Matt. xx. 23.
409:4892S. John xiv. 3.
409:4893 409:4894 410:4895 410:4896Correctly, a portion of two, i.e., the portion of a first-born. Deut. xxi. 17.
410:4897Luke 7:0, Matt. 26:0, Mark 14:0, John 12:0.
410:4898S. John 17:20, 21.
410:4899 410:4900S. John xvii. 23.
410:4901 410:4902S. John vi. 57 sq.
410:4903 410:4904 411:4905 411:4906S. Luke xi. 34.
411:4907 411:4908 411:4909 411:4910 411:4911 411:4912 412:4913 412:4914 412:4915 412:4916S. Matt. xx. 26.
412:4917S. Luke vii. 47.
412:4918S. Matt. xxv. 15 sq.
413:4919 413:4920 413:4921 413:4922S. Luke 12:47, 48.
413:4923Ps. cxix. in our arrangement of the Psalter. The psalm is divided into twenty-two portions, which begin with the successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The following fifteen psalms are called in our Authorized Version, Songs of Degrees (Vulgate, graduum, steps). For the origin of the title, Wordsworth, or Neal and Littledale on Ps. cxx. may be consulted.
413:4924 413:4925 413:4926 413:4927 413:4928Ex. xxviii. etc.
414:4929 414:4930Aristippus though the disciple of Socrates, taught that pleasure was the highest good.
414:4931 414:4932 414:4933 415:4934Jovinianus’s doctrine is said to have influenced some who had taken a vow of virginity, to marry.
415:4935 415:4936Pythagoras asserted that he had once been the Trojan Euphorbus.
415:4937 415:4938 415:4939 415:4940 415:4941 415:4942 416:4943
