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Letter
LIII. To Paulinus.
Jerome urges Paulinus, bishop of Nola, (for whom see
Letter LVIII.) to make a diligent study of the Scriptures and to this
end reminds him of the zeal for learning displayed not only by the
wisest of the pagans but also by the apostle Paul. Then going through
the two Testaments in detail he describes the contents of the several
books and the lessons which may be learned from them. He concludes with
an appeal to Paulinus to divest himself wholly of his earthly wealth
and to devote himself altogether to God. Written in 394 a.d.
1. Our brother Ambrose along with your little gifts has
delivered to me a most charming letter which, though it comes at the
beginning of our friendship, gives assurance of tried fidelity and of
long continued attachment. A true intimacy cemented by Christ Himself
is not one which depends upon material considerations, or upon the
presence of the persons, or upon an insincere and exaggerated flattery;
but one such as ours, wrought by a common fear of God and a joint study
of the divine scriptures.
We read in old tales that men traversed provinces,
crossed seas, and visited strange peoples, simply to see face to face
persons whom they only knew from books. Thus Pythagoras visited the
prophets of Memphis; and Plato, besides visiting Egypt and Archytas of
Tarentum, most carefully explored that part of the coast of Italy which
was formerly called Great Greece. In this way the influential Athenian
master with whose lessons the schools1397
of the Academy resounded became at once
a pilgrim and a pupil choosing modestly to learn what others had to
teach rather than over confidently to propound views of his own. Indeed
his pursuit of learning—which seemed to fly before him all the
world over—finally led to his capture by pirates who sold him
into slavery to a cruel tyrant.1398
Thus he
became a prisoner, a bond-man, and a slave; yet, as he was always a
philosopher, he was greater still than the man who purchased him. Again
we read that certain noblemen journeyed from the most remote parts of
Spain and Gaul to visit Titus Livius,1399
| 1399 Cf. Quint. X. i.
32. | and listen to his eloquence which flowed
like a fountain of milk. Thus the fame of an individual had more power
to draw men to Rome than the attractions of the city itself; and the
age displayed an unheard of and noteworthy portent in the shape of men
who, entering the great city, bestowed their attention not upon it but
upon something else. Apollonius1400
too was a
traveller—the one I mean who
is called the sorcerer1401
by ordinary people
and the philosopher by such as follow Pythagoras. He entered Persia,
traversed the Caucasus and made his way through the Albanians, the
Scythians, the Massagetæ, and the richest districts of India. At
last, after crossing that wide river the Pison,1402
he came to the Brahmans. There he saw Hiarcas1403
| 1403 Philostratus iii.
7. |
sitting upon his golden throne and drinking from his Tantalus-fountain,
and heard him instructing a few disciples upon the nature, motions, and
orbits of the heavenly bodies. After this he travelled among the
Elamites, the Babylonians, the Chaldeans, the Medes, the Assyrians, the
Parthians, the Syrians, the Phenicians, the Arabians, and the
Philistines.1404
| 1404 i.e. dwellers in
Palestine. | Then returning to Alexandria he made
his way to Ethiopia to see the gymnosophists and the famous table of
the sun spread in the sands of the desert.1405
Everywhere he found something to learn, and as he was always going to
new places, he became constantly wiser and better. Philostratus has
written the story of his life at length in eight books.
2. But why should I confine my allusions to the men of
this world, when the Apostle Paul, the chosen vessel1406
the doctor1407
| 1407 A favourite title
for theologians in the Middle Ages. |
of the Gentiles, who could boldly say: “Do ye seek a proof of
Christ speaking in me?”1408
knowing that he
really had within him that greatest of guests—when even he after
visiting Damascus and Arabia “went up to Jerusalem to see Peter
and abode with him fifteen days.”1409
For he who was to be a preacher to the Gentiles had to be instructed in
the mystical numbers seven and eight. And again fourteen years after he
took Barnabas and Titus and communicated his gospel to the apostles
lest by any means he should have run or had run in vain.1410
Spoken words possess an indefinable hidden
power, and teaching that passed directly from the mouth of the speaker
into the ears of the disciples is more impressive than any other. When
the speech of Demosthenes against Æschines was recited before the
latter during his exile at Rhodes, amid all the admiration and applause
he sighed “if you could but have heard the brute deliver his own
periods!”1411
| 1411 Cic. de Orat. iii.
56, the word ‘brute’ is inserted by Jerome. |
3. I do not adduce these instances because I have
anything in me from which you either can or will learn a lesson, but to
show you that your zeal and eagerness to learn—even though you
cannot rely on help from me—are in themselves worthy of praise. A
mind willing to learn deserves commendation even when it has no
teacher. What is of importance to me is not what you find but what you
seek to find. Wax is soft and easy to mould even where the hands of
craftsman and modeller are wanting to work it. It is already
potentially all that it can be made. The apostle Paul learned the Law
of Moses and the prophets at the feet of Gamaliel and was glad that he
had done so, for armed with this spiritual armour, he was able to say
boldly “the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty
through God to the pulling down of strongholds;” armed with these
we war “casting down imaginations and every high thing that
exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into
captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; and being in a
readiness to revenge all disobedience.”1412
He writes to Timothy who had been trained in the holy writings from a
child exhorting him to study them diligently1413
and not to neglect the gift which was given him with the laying on of
the hands of the presbytery.1414
To Titus he gives
commandment that among a bishop’s other virtues (which he briefly
describes) he should be careful to seek a knowledge of the scriptures:
A bishop, he says, must hold fast “the faithful word as he hath
been taught that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to
convince the gainsayers.”1415
In fact want
of education in a clergyman1416
prevents him from
doing good to any one but himself and much as the virtue of his life
may build up Christ’s church, he does it an injury as great by
failing to resist those who are trying to pull it down. The prophet
Haggai says—or rather the Lord says it by the mouth of
Haggai—“Ask now the priests concerning the law.”1417
For such is the important function of the
priesthood to give answers to those who question them concerning the
law. And in Deuteronomy we read “Ask thy father and he will shew
thee; thy elders and they will tell thee.”1418
Also in the one hundred and nineteenth
psalm “thy statutes have been my songs in the house of my
pilgrimage.”1419
| 1419 v.
54. In the Vulg. this psalm
is the 118th. | David too, in the
description of the righteous man whom he compares to the tree of life
in paradise, amongst his other excellences speaks of this, “His
delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day
and night.”1420
In the close of
his most solemn vision Daniel declares that “the righteous shall
shine as the stars; and the wise, that is the learned, as the
firmament.”1421
You can see,
therefore, how great is the difference between righteous ignorance and
instructed righteousness. Those who
have the first are compared with the stars, those who have the second
with the heavens. Yet, according to the exact sense of the Hebrew, both
statements may be understood of the learned, for it is to be read in
this way:—“They that be wise shall shine as the brightness
of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars
forever and ever.” Why is the apostle Paul called a chosen
vessel?1422
Assuredly because he is a repertory
of the Law and of the holy scriptures. The learned teaching of our Lord
strikes the Pharisees dumb with amazement, and they are filled with
astonishment to find that Peter and John know the Law although they
have not learned letters. For to these the Holy Ghost immediately
suggested what comes to others by daily study and meditation; and, as
it is written,1423
they were
“taught of God.” The Saviour had only accomplished his
twelfth year when the scene in the temple took place;1424
but when he interrogated the elders
concerning the Law His wise questions conveyed rather than sought
information.
4. But perhaps we ought to call Peter and John ignorant,
both of whom could say of themselves, “though I be rude in
speech, yet not in knowledge.”1425
Was John a
mere fisherman, rude and untaught? If so, whence did he get the words
“In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God and the
word was God.”1426
Logos in
Greek has many meanings. It signifies word and reason and reckoning and
the cause of individual things by which those which are subsist. All of
which things we rightly predicate of Christ. This truth Plato with all
his learning did not know, of this Demosthenes with all his eloquence
was ignorant. “I will destroy,” it is said, “the
wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the
prudent.”1427
The true wisdom
must destroy the false, and, although the foolishness of preaching1428
is inseparable from the Cross, Paul
speaks “wisdom among them that are perfect, yet not the wisdom of
this world, nor of the princes of this world that come to
nought,” but he speaks “the wisdom of God in a mystery,
even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world.”1429
God’s wisdom is Christ, for Christ,
we are told, is “the power of God and the wisdom of God.”1430
He is the wisdom which is hidden in a
mystery, of which also we read in the heading of the ninth psalm
“for the hidden things of the son.”1431
| 1431 “Upon
Muthlabben” A.V. See Perowne on the words. |
In Him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. He also
who was hidden in a mystery is the same that was foreordained before
the world. Now it was in the Law and in the Prophets that he was
foreordained and prefigured. For this reason too the prophets were
called seers,1432
because they
saw Him whom others did not see. Abraham saw His day and was glad.1433
The heavens which were sealed to a
rebellious people were opened to Ezekiel. “Open thou mine
eyes,” saith David, “that I may behold wonderful things out
of thy Law.”1434
For “the
law is spiritual”1435
and a revelation
is needed to enable us to comprehend it and, when God uncovers His
face, to behold His glory.
5. In the apocalypse a book is shewn sealed with seven
seals,1436
which if you deliver to one that
is learned saying, Read this, he will answer you, I cannot, for it is
sealed.1437
How many there are to-day who
fancy themselves learned, yet the scriptures are a sealed book to them,
and one which they cannot open save through Him who has the key of
David, “he that openeth and no man shutteth; and shutteth and no
man openeth.”1438
In the Acts
of the Apostles the holy eunuch (or rather “man” for so the
scripture calls him1439
) when reading
Isaiah he is asked by Philip “Understandest thou what thou
readest?”, makes answer:—“How can I except some man
should guide me?”1440
To digress for a
moment to myself, I am neither holier nor more diligent than this
eunuch, who came from Ethiopia, that is from the ends of the world, to
the Temple leaving behind him a queen’s palace, and was so great
a lover of the Law and of divine knowledge that he read the holy
scriptures even in his chariot. Yet although he had the book in his
hand and took into his mind the words of the Lord, nay even had them on
his tongue and uttered them with his lips, he still knew not Him,
whom—not knowing—he worshipped in the book. Then Philip
came and shewed him Jesus, who was concealed beneath the letter.
Wondrous excellence of the teacher! In the same hour the eunuch
believed and was baptized; he became one of the faithful and a saint.
He was no longer a pupil but a master; and he found more in the
church’s font there in the wilderness than he had ever done in
the gilded temple of the synagogue.
6. These instances have been just touched upon by me
(the limits of a letter forbid a more discursive treatment of them) to
convince you that in the holy scriptures you can make no progress
unless you have a guide to shew you the way. I say nothing of the
knowledge of grammarians, rhetoricians, philosophers, geometers, logicians, musicians,
astronomers, astrologers, physicians, whose several kinds of skill are
most useful to mankind, and may be ranged under the three heads of
teaching, method, and proficiency. I will pass to the less important
crafts which require manual dexterity more than mental ability.
Husbandmen, masons, carpenters, workers in wood and metal,
wool-dressers and fullers, as well as those artisans who make furniture
and cheap utensils, cannot attain the ends they seek without
instruction from qualified persons. As Horace says1441
| 1441 Hor. Ep. II. 1. 115,
116. |
Doctors alone profess the healing art
And none but joiners ever try to join.
7. The art of interpreting the scriptures is the only
one of which all men everywhere claim to be masters. To quote Horace
again
Taught or untaught we all write poetry.1442
| 1442 Hor. Ep. II. i.
117. |
The chatty old woman, the doting old man, and the wordy
sophist, one and all take in hand the Scriptures, rend them in pieces
and teach them before they have learned them. Some with brows knit and
bombastic words, balanced one against the other philosophize concerning
the sacred writings among weak women. Others—I blush to say
it—learn of women what they are to teach men; and as if even this
were not enough, they boldly explain to others what they themselves by
no means understand. I say nothing of persons who, like myself have
been familiar with secular literature before they have come to the
study of the holy scriptures. Such men when they charm the popular ear
by the finish of their style suppose every word they say to be a law of
God. They do not deign to notice what Prophets and apostles have
intended but they adapt conflicting passages to suit their own meaning,
as if it were a grand way of teaching—and not rather the
faultiest of all—to misrepresent a writer’s views and to
force the scriptures reluctantly to do their will. They forget that we
have read centos from Homer and Virgil; but we never think of calling
the Christless Maro1443
| 1443 Virgil’s
full name was Publius Vergilius Maro. | a Christian
because of his lines:—
Now comes the Virgin back and Saturn’s reign,
Now from high heaven comes a Child newborn.1444
Another line might be addressed by the Father to the
Son:—
Hail, only Son, my Might and Majesty.1445
And yet another might follow the Saviour’s words
on the cross:—
Such words he spake and there transfixed remained.1446
But all this is puerile, and resembles the sleight-of-hand of a
mountebank. It is idle to try to teach what you do not know,
and—if I may speak with some warmth—is worse still to be
ignorant of your ignorance.
8. Genesis, we shall be told, needs no explanation; its
topics are too simple—the birth of the world, the origin of the
human race,1447
the division of the earth,1448
the confusion of tongues,1449
and the descent of the Hebrews into
Egypt!1450
Exodus, no doubt, is equally plain,
containing as it does merely an account of the ten plagues,1451
the decalogue,1452
and sundry mysterious and divine precepts! The meaning of Leviticus is
of course self-evident, although every sacrifice that it describes, nay
more every word that it contains, the description of Aaron’s
vestments,1453
and all the regulations connected
with the Levites are symbols of things heavenly! The book of Numbers
too—are not its very figures,1454
and
Balaam’s prophecy,1455
and the forty-two
camping places in the wilderness1456
so many
mysteries? Deuteronomy also, that is the second law or the
foreshadowing of the law of the gospel,—does it not, while
exhibiting things known before, put old truths in a new light? So far
the ‘five words’ of the Pentateuch, with which the apostle
boasts his wish to speak in the Church.1457
Then, as for Job,1458
| 1458 The mention of Job
at this point is curious: it would seem that in Jerome’s opinion
he was coæval with or very little later than Moses. | that pattern of
patience, what mysteries are there not contained in his discourses?
Commencing in prose the book soon glides into verse and at the end once
more reverts to prose. By the way in which it lays down propositions,
assumes postulates, adduces proofs, and draws inferences, it
illustrates all the laws of logic. Single words occurring in the book
are full of meaning. To say nothing of other topics, it prophesies the
resurrection of men’s bodies at once with more clearness and with
more caution than any one has yet shewn. “I know,” Job
says, “that my redeemer liveth, and that at the last day I shall
rise again from the earth; and I shall be clothed again with my skin,
and in my flesh shall I see God. Whom I shall see for myself, and mine
eyes shall behold, and not another. This my hope is stored up in my own
bosom.”1459
I will pass on to
Jesus the son of Nave1460
| 1460 i.e., Joshua
the son of Nun whose name is so rendered by the LXX. Cf. Ecclus. xlvi. 1, A.V. | —a type of
the Lord in name as well as in deed—who crossed over Jordan,
subdued hostile kingdoms, divided the land among the conquering people
and who, in every city, village,
mountain, river, hill-torrent, and boundary which he dealt with, marked
out the spiritual realms of the heavenly Jerusalem, that is, of the
church.1461
In the book of Judges every one of
the popular leaders is a type. Ruth the Moabitess fulfils the prophecy
of Isaiah:—“Send thou a lamb, O Lord, as ruler of the land
from the rock of the wilderness to the mount of the daughter of
Zion.”1462
Under the figures of Eli’s
death and the slaying of Saul Samuel shews the abolition of the old
law. Again in Zadok and in David he bears witness to the mysteries of
the new priesthood and of the new royalty. The third and fourth books
of Kings called in Hebrew Malâchim give the history of the
kingdom of Judah from Solomon to Jeconiah,1463
| 1463 Also called Coniah
and Jehoiachin. | and of that of Israel from Jeroboam the
son of Nebat to Hoshea who was carried away into Assyria. If you merely
regard the narrative, the words are simple enough, but if you look
beneath the surface at the hidden meaning of it, you find a description
of the small numbers of the church and of the wars which the heretics
wage against it. The twelve prophets whose writings are compressed
within the narrow limits of a single volume,1464
| 1464 They are reckoned
as forming one book in the Hebrew Bible. |
have typical meanings far different from their literal ones. Hosea
speaks many times of Ephraim, of Samaria, of Joseph, of Jezreel, of a
wife of whoredoms and of children of whoredoms,1465
of an adulteress shut up within the chamber of her husband, sitting for
a long time in widowhood and in the garb of mourning, awaiting the time
when her husband will return to her.1466
Joel the
son of Pethuel describes the land of the twelve tribes as spoiled and
devastated by the palmerworm, the canker-worm, the locust, and the
blight,1467
and predicts that after the
overthrow of the former people the Holy Spirit shall be poured out upon
God’s servants and handmaids;1468
the same
spirit, that is, which was to be poured out in the upper chamber at
Zion upon the one hundred and twenty believers.1469
These believers rising by gradual and regular gradations from one to
fifteen form the steps to which there is a mystical allusion in the
“psalms of degrees.”1470
Amos,
although he is only “an herdman” from the country, “a
gatherer of sycomore fruit,”1471
cannot be
explained in a few words. For who can adequately speak of the three
transgressions and the four of Damascus, of Gaza, of Tyre, of
Idumæa, of Moab, of the children of Ammon, and in the seventh and
eighth place of Judah and of Israel? He speaks to the fat kine that are
in the mountain of Samaria,1472
and bears
witness that the great house and the little house shall fall.1473
He sees now the maker of the
grasshopper,1474
now the Lord, standing upon a
wall1475
daubed1476
or made of
adamant,1477
now a basket of apples1478
that brings doom to the transgressors,
and now a famine upon the earth “not a famine of bread, nor a
thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord.”1479
Obadiah, whose name means the servant of
God, thunders against Edom red with blood and against the creature born
of earth.1480
| 1480 ‘Edom’
means ‘red’ and is connected with
‘Adâmâh’=‘the earth.’ | He smites him with the spear of the
spirit because of his continual rivalry with his brother Jacob. Jonah,
fairest of doves, whose shipwreck shews in a figure the passion of the
Lord, recalls the world to penitence, and while he preaches to Nineveh,
announces salvation to all the heathen. Micah the Morasthite a joint
heir with Christ1481
| 1481 Jerome interprets
the Hebrew word ‘Morasthite’ to mean ‘my
possession.’ | announces the
spoiling of the daughter of the robber and lays siege against her,
because she has smitten the jawbone of the judge of Israel.1482
Nahum, the consoler of the world,
rebukes “the bloody city”1483
and when it is overthrown
cries:—“Behold upon the mountains the feet of him that
bringeth good tidings.”1484
Habakkuk, like
a strong and unyielding wrestler,1485
| 1485 The name strictly
means ‘embrace.’ | stands
upon his watch and sets his foot upon the tower1486
that he may contemplate Christ upon the
cross and say “His glory covered the heavens and the earth was
full of his praise. And his brightness was as the light; he had horns
coming out of his hand: and there was the hiding of his power.”1487
Zephaniah, that is the bodyguard and
knower of the secrets of the Lord,1488
hears
“a cry from the fishgate, and an howling from the second, and a
great crashing from the hills.”1489
He proclaims “howling to the
inhabitants of the mortar;1490
| 1490 So R.V. marg.
Probably a place in Jerusalem. | for all the people
of Canaan are undone; all they that were laden with silver are cut
off.”1491
Haggai, that is he who is glad or
joyful, who has sown in tears to reap in joy,1492
is occupied with the rebuilding of the temple. He represents the Lord
(the Father, that is) as saying “Yet once, it is a little while,
and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry
land; and I will shake all nations and he who is desired1493
| 1493 So Vulg.
‘the desire’ A.V. | of all nations shall come.”1494
Zechariah, he that is mindful of his
Lord,1495
| 1495 Strictly ‘the
Lord is mindful.’ | gives us many prophecies. He sees Jesus,1496
| 1496 i.e., Joshua
the High Priest. | “clothed with filthy
garments,”1497
a stone with
seven eyes,1498
a candle-stick all of gold with
lamps as many as the eyes, and two olive trees on the right side of the
bowl1499
and on the left. After he has described
the horses, red, black, white, and grisled,1500
and
the cutting off of the chariot from Ephraim and of the horse from
Jerusalem1501
he goes on to prophesy and predict a
king who shall be a poor man and who shall sit “upon a colt the
foal of an ass.”1502
Malachi, the last
of all the prophets, speaks openly of the rejection of Israel and the
calling of the nations. “I have no pleasure in you, saith the
Lord of hosts, neither will I accept an offering at your hand. For from
the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same, my name is
great among the Gentiles: and in every place incense1503
| 1503 This word is not in
the Vulg. | is offered unto my name, and a pure
offering.”1504
As for Isaiah,
Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel, who can fully understand or adequately
explain them? The first of them seems to compose not a prophecy but a
gospel. The second speaks of a rod of an almond tree1505
and of a seething pot with its face toward
the north,1506
and of a leopard which has changed its
spots.1507
He also goes four times through the
alphabet in different metres.1508
The beginning and
ending of Ezekiel, the third of the four, are involved in so great
obscurity that like the commencement of Genesis they are not studied by
the Hebrews until they are thirty years old. Daniel, the fourth and
last of the four prophets, having knowledge of the times and being
interested in the whole world, in clear language proclaims the stone
cut out of the mountain without hands that overthrows all kingdoms.1509
David, who is our Simonides, Pindar, and
Alcæus, our Horace, our Catullus, and our Serenus all in one,
sings of Christ to his lyre; and on a psaltery with ten strings calls
him from the lower world to rise again. Solomon, a lover of peace1510
| 1510 See note on LII. 3,
p. | and of the Lord, corrects morals, teaches
nature, unites Christ and the church, and sings a sweet marriage song1511
to celebrate that holy bridal. Esther, a
type of the church, frees her people from danger and, after having
slain Haman whose name means iniquity, hands down to posterity a
memorable day and a great feast.1512
The book of
things omitted1513
| 1513 Paraleipomena, the
name given in the LXX. to the books of Chronicles. | or epitome of the
old dispensation1514
| 1514 Veteris instrumenti
᾽επιτομή. | is of such
importance and value that without it any one who should claim to
himself a knowledge of the scriptures would make himself a laughing
stock in his own eyes. Every name used in it, nay even the conjunction
of the words, serves to throw light on narratives passed over in the
books of Kings and upon questions suggested by the gospel. Ezra and
Nehemiah, that is the Lord’s helper and His consoler, are united
in a single book. They restore the Temple and build up the walls of the
city. In their pages we see the throng of the Israelites returning to
their native land, we read of priests and Levites, of Israel proper and
of proselytes; and we are even told the several families to which the
task of building the walls and towers was assigned. These references
convey one meaning upon the surface, but another below it.
9. [In Migne, 8.] You see how, carried away by my love
of the scriptures, I have exceeded the limits of a letter yet have not
fully accomplished my object. We have heard only what it is that we
ought to know and to desire, so that we too may be able to say with the
psalmist:—“My soul breaketh out for the very fervent desire
that it hath alway unto thy judgments.”1515
But the saying of Socrates about himself—“this only I know
that I know nothing”1516
| 1516 Plato, Ap. Soc. 21,
22. | —is fulfilled
in our case also. The New Testament I will briefly deal with. Matthew,
Mark, Luke and John are the Lord’s team of four,1517
| 1517 Quadriga. cf.
Irenæus, Adv. Hær. III. ii. 8. | the true cherubim or store of knowledge.1518
| 1518 Clement of
Alexandria, following Philo, makes cherub mean wisdom. | With them the whole body is full of
eyes,1519
they glitter as sparks,1520
they run and return like lightning,1521
their feet are straight feet,1522
and lifted up, their backs also are
winged, ready to fly in all directions. They hold together each by each
and are interwoven one with another:1523
like wheels
within wheels they roll along1524
and go
whithersoever the breath of the Holy Spirit wafts them.1525
The apostle Paul writes to seven churches1526
(for the eighth epistle—that to the
Hebrews—is not generally counted in with the others). He
instructs Timothy and Titus; he intercedes with Philemon for his
runaway slave.1527
Of him I think
it better to say nothing than to write inadequately. The Acts of the
Apostles seem to relate a mere unvarnished narrative descriptive of the infancy of the newly born
church; but when once we realize that their author is Luke the
physician whose praise is in the gospel,1528
we shall see that all his words are
medicine for the sick soul. The apostles James, Peter, John, and Jude,
have published seven epistles at once spiritual and to the point, short
and long, short that is in words but lengthy in substance so that there
are few indeed who do not find themselves in the dark when they read
them. The apocalypse of John has as many mysteries as words. In saying
this I have said less than the book deserves. All praise of it is
inadequate; manifold meanings lie hid in its every word.
10. [In Migne, 9.] I beg of you, my dear brother, to
live among these books, to meditate upon them, to know nothing else, to
seek nothing else. Does not such a life seem to you a foretaste of
heaven here on earth? Let not the simplicity of the scripture or the
poorness of its vocabulary offend you; for these are due either to the
faults of translators or else to deliberate purpose: for in this way it
is better fitted for the instruction of an unlettered congregation as
the educated person can take one meaning and the uneducated another
from one and the same sentence. I am not so dull or so forward as to
profess that I myself know it, or that I can pluck upon the earth the
fruit which has its root in heaven, but I confess that I should like to
do so. I put myself before the man who sits idle and, while I lay no
claim to be a master, I readily pledge myself to be a fellow-student.
“Every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth;
and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.”1529
Let us learn upon earth that knowledge
which will continue with us in heaven.
11. [In Migne, 10.] I will receive you with open hands
and—if I may boast and speak foolishly like Hermagoras1530
| 1530 A verbose rhetorician
mentioned by Cic. de Inv. i. 6. | —I will strive to learn with you
whatever you desire to study. Eusebius who is here regards you with the
affection of a brother; he1531
| 1531 Eusebius of Cremona,
who for the next five years remained with Jerome, and afterwards
corresponded with him from Italy. See Letter LVII. § 2. Rufinus,
Apol. i. 19. Jerome, Apol. iii. 4, 5, etc. | has made your
letter twice as precious by telling me of your sincerity of character,
your contempt for the world, your constancy in friendship, and your
love to Christ. The letter bears on its face (without any aid from him)
your prudence and the charm of your style. Make haste then, I beseech
you, and cut instead of loosing the hawser which prevents your vessel
from moving in the sea. The man who sells his goods because he despises
them and means to renounce the world can have no desire to sell them
dear. Count as money gained the sum that you must expend upon your
outfit. There is an old saying that a miser lacks as much what he has
as what he has not. The believer has a whole world of wealth; the
unbeliever has not a single farthing. Let us always live “as
having nothing and yet possessing all things.”1532
Food and raiment, these are the
Christian’s wealth.1533
If your
property is in your own power,1534
sell it: if not,
cast it from you. “If any man…will take away thy coat, let
him have thy cloke also.”1535
You are all
for delay, you wish to defer action: unless—so you
argue—unless I sell my goods piecemeal and with caution, Christ
will be at a loss to feed his poor. Nay, he who has offered himself to
God, has given Him everything once for all. The apostles did but
forsake ships and nets.1536
The widow cast
but two brass coins into the treasury1537
and yet she shall be preferred before
Crœsus1538
| 1538 The last king of
Lydia, celebrated for his riches. | with all his wealth. He readily
despises all things who reflects always that he must die.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|
