Contents
Table of Contents
Preface, Explaining His Design in Undertaking This Work.
Cæsar’s Statement Regarding the Universal Custom of an Enemy When Sacking a City.
That Not Even the Romans, When They Took Cities, Spared the Conquered in Their Temples.
Of the Advantages and Disadvantages Which Often Indiscriminately Accrue to Good and Wicked Men.
Of the Reasons for Administering Correction to Bad and Good Together.
That the Saints Lose Nothing in Losing Temporal Goods.
Of the End of This Life, Whether It is Material that It Be Long Delayed.
Of the Burial of the Dead: that the Denial of It to Christians Does Them No Injury.
Reasons for Burying the Bodies of the Saints.
Of the Captivity of the Saints, and that Divine Consolation Never Failed Them Therein.
Of Suicide Committed Through Fear of Punishment or Dishonor.
Of the Violence Which May Be Done to the Body by Another’s Lust, While the Mind Remains Inviolate.
Of Lucretia, Who Put an End to Her Life Because of the Outrage Done Her.
That Christians Have No Authority for Committing Suicide in Any Circumstances Whatever.
Of the Cases in Which We May Put Men to Death Without Incurring the Guilt of Murder.
That Suicide Can Never Be Prompted by Magnanimity.
That in that Virtue in Which Regulus Excels Cato, Christians are Pre-Eminently Distinguished.
That We Should Not Endeavor By Sin to Obviate Sin.
That in Certain Peculiar Cases the Examples of the Saints are Not to Be Followed.
Whether Voluntary Death Should Be Sought in Order to Avoid Sin.
That Those Who Complain of Christianity Really Desire to Live Without Restraint in Shameful Luxury.
By What Steps the Passion for Governing Increased Among the Romans.
Of the Establishment of Scenic Entertainments.
That the Overthrow of Rome Has Not Corrected the Vices of the Romans.
Of the Limits Which Must Be Put to the Necessity of Replying to an Adversary.
Recapitulation of the Contents of the First Book.
Of the Obscenities Practiced in Honor of the Mother of the Gods.
That the Gods of the Pagans Never Inculcated Holiness of Life.
That It Was Vanity, Not Reason, Which Created Some of the Roman Gods.
Of the Rape of the Sabine Women, and Other Iniquities Perpetrated in Rome’s Palmiest Days.
Cicero’s Opinion of the Roman Republic.
That the Roman Gods Never Took Any Steps to Prevent the Republic from Being Ruined by Immorality.
Of the Deeds of Sylla, in Which the Demons Boasted that He Had Their Help.
The external calamities of Rome.
Of Varro’s Opinion, that It is Useful for Men to Feign Themselves the Offspring of the Gods.
That the Gods Exacted No Penalty for the Fratricidal Act of Romulus.
Of the Destruction of Ilium by Fimbria, a Lieutenant of Marius.
Whether Rome Ought to Have Been Entrusted to the Trojan Gods.
Whether It is Credible that the Peace During the Reign of Numa Was Brought About by the Gods.
By What Right or Agreement The Romans Obtained Their First Wives.
What Manner of Life and Death the Roman Kings Had.
Of the Calamity of the Second Punic War, Which Consumed the Strength of Both Parties.
Of the Edict of Mithridates, Commanding that All Roman Citizens Found in Asia Should Be Slain.
Of the Civil Dissension Occasioned by the Sedition of the Gracchi.
Of the Various Kinds of Wars Which Followed the Building of the Temple of Concord.
Of the Civil War Between Marius and Sylla.
Of the Victory of Sylla, the Avenger of the Cruelties of Marius.
That empire was given to Rome not by the gods, but by the One True God.
Of the Things Which Have Been Discussed in the First Book.
Of Those Things Which are Contained in Books Second and Third.
How Like Kingdoms Without Justice are to Robberies.
Of the Runaway Gladiators Whose Power Became Like that of Royal Dignity.
What Opinions Those Have Followed Who Have Set Divers Gods Over Divers Parts of the World.
Concerning the Many Gods Whom the Pagan Doctors Defend as Being One and the Same Jove.
Concerning Those Who Assert that Only Rational Animals are Parts of the One God.
Whether It is Suitable for Good Men to Wish to Rule More Widely.
Whether, If the Highest Power Belongs to Jove, Victoria Also Ought to Be Worshipped.
With What Reason They Who Think Felicity and Fortune Goddesses Have Distinguished Them.
Of the Scenic Plays, the Celebration of Which the Gods Have Exacted from Their Worshippers.
Concerning the Three Kinds of Gods About Which the Pontiff Scævola Has Discoursed.
That the Times of All Kings and Kingdoms are Ordained by the Judgment and Power of the True God.
Of fate, freewill, and God’s prescience, and of the source of the virtues of the ancient Romans.
On the Difference in the Health of Twins.
In What Manner the Mathematicians are Convicted of Professing a Vain Science.
Concerning Twins of Different Sexes.
Concerning the Choosing of a Day for Marriage, or for Planting, or Sowing.
Whether Our Wills are Ruled by Necessity.
Concerning the Universal Providence of God in the Laws of Which All Things are Comprehended.
Concerning the Temporal Reward Which God Granted to the Virtues of the Romans.
Concerning the Difference Between True Glory and the Desire of Domination.
That It is as Shameful for the Virtues to Serve Human Glory as Bodily Pleasure.
The Durations and Issues of War Depend on the Will of God.
What Was the Happiness of the Christian Emperors, and How Far It Was True Happiness.
Concerning the Prosperity Which God Granted to the Christian Emperor Constantine.
Concerning the Mythic, that Is, the Fabulous, Theology, and the Civil, Against Varro.
Concerning the Likeness and Agreement of the Fabulous and Civil Theologies.
Concerning the Special Offices of the Gods.
Concerning the More Secret Doctrine of the Pagans, and Concerning the Physical Interpretations.
Whether It is Reasonable to Separate Janus and Terminus as Two Distinct Deities.
Concerning the Power of Jupiter, and a Comparison of Jupiter with Janus.
Whether the Distinction Between Janus and Jupiter is a Proper One.
That Jupiter is Also Called Pecunia.
Concerning the Offices of Mercury and Mars.
Concerning Certain Stars Which the Pagans Have Called by the Names of Their Gods.
That Even Varro Himself Pronounced His Own Opinions Regarding the Gods Ambiguous.
A More Credible Cause of the Rise of Pagan Error.
Concerning the Interpretations Which Compose the Reason of the Worship of Saturn.
Concerning the Rites of Eleusinian Ceres.
Concerning the Shamefulness of the Rites Which are Celebrated in Honor of Liber.
Concerning Neptune, and Salacia and Venilia.
The Interpretation of the Mutilation of Atys Which the Doctrine of the Greek Sages Set Forth.
Concerning the Abomination of the Sacred Rites of the Great Mother.
That the Doctrine of Varro Concerning Theology is in No Part Consistent with Itself.
What Benefits God Gives to the Followers of the Truth to Enjoy Over and Above His General Bounty.
Concerning the Two Schools of Philosophers, that Is, the Italic and Ionic, and Their Founders.
Concerning the Meaning of the Platonists in that Part of Philosophy Called Physical.
That the Platonists Hold the First Rank in Moral Philosophy Also.
Concerning that Philosophy Which Has Come Nearest to the Christian Faith.
That the Excellency of the Christian Religion is Above All the Science of Philosophers.
How Plato Has Been Able to Approach So Nearly to Christian Knowledge.
What Apuleius the Platonist Thought Concerning the Manners and Actions of Demons.
Of the Impiety of the Magic Art, Which is Dependent on the Assistance of Malign Spirits.
That We Must, Notwithstanding the Opinion of Apuleius, Reject the Worship of Demons.
Concerning Those Things Which May Be Common to the Holy Angels and to Men.
That All the Religion of the Pagans Has Reference to Dead Men.
Concerning the Nature of the Honor Which the Christians Pay to Their Martyrs.
Of those who allege a distinction among demons, some being good and others evil.
The Point at Which the Discussion Has Arrived, and What Remains to Be Handled.
The Opinion of the Peripatetics and Stoics About Mental Emotions.
Whether the Intercession of the Demons Can Secure for Men the Friendship of the Celestial Gods.
Of the Opinion of the Platonists, that the Souls of Men Become Demons When Disembodied.
Whether Men, Though Mortal, Can Enjoy True Blessedness.
Of the Man Christ Jesus, the Mediator Between God and Men.
That Even Among Their Own Worshippers the Name ‘Demon’ Has Never a Good Signification.
Of the Kind of Knowledge Which Puffs Up the Demons.
To What Extent the Lord Was Pleased to Make Himself Known to the Demons.
The Difference Between the Knowledge of the Holy Angels and that of the Demons.
Porphyry’s doctrine of redemption.
The Opinion of Plotinus the Platonist Regarding Enlightenment from Above.
That Sacrifice is Due to the True God Only.
Of the True and Perfect Sacrifice.
Concerning Theurgy, Which Promises a Delusive Purification of the Soul by the Invocation of Demons.
Of Porphyry’s Epistle to Anebo, in Which He Asks for Information About the Differences Among Demons.
Of the Miracles Wrought by the True God Through the Ministry of the Holy Angels.
Of the Ministry of the Holy Angels, by Which They Fulfill the Providence of God.
Of the Supreme and True Sacrifice Which Was Effected by the Mediator Between God and Men.
Whence the Saints Derive Power Against Demons and True Purification of Heart.
Of the Principles Which, According to the Platonists, Regulate the Purification of the Soul.
Of the One Only True Principle Which Alone Purifies and Renews Human Nature.
Of Porphyry’s Weakness in Wavering Between the Confession of the True God and the Worship of Demons.
Of the Impiety of Porphyry, Which is Worse Than Even the Mistake of Apuleius.
How It is that Porphyry Has Been So Blind as Not to Recognize the True Wisdom—Christ.
Of This Part of the Work, Wherein We Begin to Explain the Origin and End of the Two Cities.
Of the Authority of the Canonical Scriptures Composed by the Divine Spirit.
That the World and Time Had Both One Beginning, and the One Did Not Anticipate the Other.
What We are to Understand of God’s Resting on the Seventh Day, After the Six Days’ Work.
What the Scriptures Teach Us to Believe Concerning the Creation of the Angels.
How We are to Understand the Words, ‘The Devil Sinneth from the Beginning.’
What, Seemingly, We are to Understand by the Words, ‘God Divided the Light from the Darkness.’
Of the Error in Which the Doctrine of Origen is Involved.
Of the Divine Trinity, and the Indications of Its Presence Scattered Everywhere Among Its Works.
Of the Division of Philosophy into Three Parts.
Of Existence, and Knowledge of It, and the Love of Both.
Of the Seventh Day, in Which Completeness and Repose are Celebrated.
Of the Opinion that the Angels Were Created Before the World.
Of the creation of angels and men, and of the origin of evil.
That the Nature of the Angels, Both Good and Bad, is One and the Same.
That in All Natures, of Every Kind and Rank, God is Glorified.
That We Ought Not to Expect to Find Any Efficient Cause of the Evil Will.
Of the Misdirected Love Whereby the Will Fell Away from the Immutable to the Mutable Good.
Of the Falseness of the History Which Allots Many Thousand Years to the World’s Past.
Of Worlds Without End, or Ages of Ages.
That There Was Created at First But One Individual, and that the Human Race Was Created in Him.
Of the Nature of the Human Soul Created in the Image of God.
Whether the Angels Can Be Said to Be the Creators of Any, Even the Least Creature.
That God Alone is the Creator of Every Kind of Creature, Whatever Its Nature or Form.
That death is penal, and had its origin in Adam’s sin.
Of the Fall of the First Man, Through Which Mortality Has Been Contracted.
Of that Death Which Can Affect an Immortal Soul, and of that to Which the Body is Subject.
Of the Evil of Death in General, Considered as the Separation of Soul and Body.
Of the Death Which the Unbaptized Suffer for the Confession of Christ.
That the Saints, by Suffering the First Death for the Truth’s Sake, are Freed from the Second.
Of the Life of Mortals, Which is Rather to Be Called Death Than Life.
Whether One Can Both Be Living and Dead at the Same Time.
What Was the First Punishment of the Transgression of Our First Parents.
In What State Man Was Made by God, and into What Estate He Fell by the Choice of His Own Will.
Against Those Who Affirm that Earthly Bodies Cannot Be Made Incorruptible and Eternal.
Of the punishment and results of man’s first sin, and of the propagation of man without lust.
What It is to Live According to Man, and What to Live According to God.
Of the Character of the Human Will Which Makes the Affections of the Soul Right or Wrong.
Of the Perturbations of the Soul Which Appear as Right Affections in the Life of the Righteous.
Of the Nature of Man’s First Sin.
That in Adam’s Sin an Evil Will Preceded the Evil Act.
Of the Pride in the Sin, Which Was Worse Than the Sin Itself.
Of the Justice of the Punishment with Which Our First Parents Were Visited for Their Disobedience.
Of the Nakedness of Our First Parents, Which They Saw After Their Base and Shameful Sin.
Of the Shame Which Attends All Sexual Intercourse.
Of the Foolish Beastliness of the Cynics.
Of the Conjugal Union as It Was Originally Instituted and Blessed by God.
Of True Blessedness, Which This Present Life Cannot Enjoy.
That We are to Believe that in Paradise Our First Parents Begat Offspring Without Blushing.
Of the Nature of the Two Cities, the Earthly and the Heavenly.
The progress of the earthly and heavenly cities traced by the sacred history.
Of the Two Lines of the Human Race Which from First to Last Divide It.
Of the Children of the Flesh and the Children of the Promise.
That Sarah’s Barrenness was Made Productive by God’s Grace.
Of the Conflict and Peace of the Earthly City.
Of the Cause of Cain’s Crime and His Obstinacy, Which Not Even the Word of God Could Subdue.
What Cain’s Reason Was for Building a City So Early in the History of the Human Race.
Of the Long Life and Greater Stature of the Antediluvians.
Of Methuselah’s Age, Which Seems to Extend Fourteen Years Beyond the Deluge.
Whether, in Computing Years, We Ought to Follow the Hebrew or the Septuagint.
That the Years in Those Ancient Times Were of the Same Length as Our Own.
Of the Two Fathers and Leaders Who Sprang from One Progenitor.
The Significance of Abel, Seth, and Enos to Christ and His Body the Church.
The Significance Of Enoch’s Translation.
Of the Anger of God, Which Does Not Inflame His Mind, Nor Disturb His Unchangeable Tranquillity.
That the Ark Which Noah Was Ordered to Make Figures In Every Respect Christ and the Church.
The history of the city of God from Noah to the time of the kings of Israel.
What Was Prophetically Prefigured in the Sons of Noah.
Of the Generations of the Three Sons of Noah
Of the Diversity of Languages, and of the Founding of Babylon.
Of God’s Coming Down to Confound the Languages of the Builders of the City.
What We are to Understand by God’s Speaking to the Angels.
Whether Certain Monstrous Races of Men are Derived from the Stock of Adam or Noah’s Sons.
Whether We are to Believe in the Antipodes.
Of the Genealogy of Shem, in Whose Line the City of God is Preserved Till the Time of Abraham.
Of the Era in Abraham’s Life from Which a New Period in the Holy Succession Begins.
Of the Years of Terah, Who Completed His Lifetime in Haran.
Of the Order and Nature of the Promises of God Which Were Made to Abraham.
Of the Parting of Lot and Abraham, Which They Agreed to Without Breach of Charity.
Of Sarah’s Handmaid, Hagar, Whom She Herself Wished to Be Abraham’s Concubine.
Of Rebecca, the Grand-Daughter of Nahor, Whom Isaac Took to Wife.
What is Meant by Abraham’s Marrying Keturah After Sarah’s Death.
Of the Oracle and Blessing Which Isaac Received, Just as His Father Did, Being Beloved for His Sake.
Of the Things Mystically Prefigured in Esau and Jacob.
The Reason Why Jacob Was Also Called Israel.
Of the Blessing Which Jacob Promised in Judah His Son.
Of the Sons of Joseph, Whom Jacob Blessed, Prophetically Changing His Hands.
The history of the city of God from Noah to the time of the kings of Israel.
Whether the Truth of This Promised Peace Can Be Ascribed to Those Times Passed Away Under Solomon.
Of David’s Concern in the Writing of the Psalms.
Of the 69th Psalm, in Which the Obstinate Unbelief of the Jews is Declared.
Of Those Things Down to the Times of the Saviour Which Have Been Discussed in the Seventeen Books.
Of the Times of Jacob and His Son Joseph.
Of Apis King of Argos, Whom the Egyptians Called Serapis, and Worshipped with Divine Honors.
Who Were Kings of Argos, and of Assyria, When Jacob Died in Egypt.
Who Were Kings When Joseph Died in Egypt.
Who Were Kings When Moses Was Born, and What Gods Began to Be Worshipped Then.
When the City of Athens Was Founded, and What Reason Varro Assigns for Its Name.
What Varro Reports About the Term Areopagus, and About Deucalion’s Flood.
What Fables Were Invented at the Time When Judges Began to Rule the Hebrews.
What Varro Says of the Incredible Transformations of Men.
That Æneas Came into Italy When Abdon the Judge Ruled Over the Hebrews.
Of the Succession of the Line of Kings Among the Israelites After the Times of the Judges.
Of the Kings of Latium, the First and Twelfth of Whom, Æneas and Aventinus, Were Made Gods.
That Rome Was Founded When the Assyrian Kingdom Perished, at Which Time Hezekiah Reigned in Judah.
Of the Things Pertaining to the Gospel of Christ Which Hosea and Amos Prohesied.
What Things are Predicted by Isaiah Concerning Christ and the Church.
What Micah, Jonah, and Joel Prophesied in Accordance with the New Testament.
Of the Predictions Concerning the Salvation of the World in Christ, in Obadiah, Nahum, and Habakkuk.
Of the Prophecy that is Contained in the Prayer and Song of Habakkuk.
Of the Prophecy of Daniel and Ezekiel, Other Two of the Greater Prophets.
Of the Prophecy of the Three Prophets, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi.
About Esdras and the Books of the Maccabees.
That Prophetic Records are Found Which are More Ancient Than Any Fountain of the Gentile Philosophy.
About the Hebrew Written Characters Which that Language Always Possessed.
That the Catholic Faith May Be Confirmed Even by the Dissensions of the Heretics.
Of the Social Life, Which, Though Most Desirable, is Frequently Disturbed by Many Distresses.
Of the Error of Human Judgments When the Truth is Hidden.
The Reward Prepared for the Saints After They Have Endured the Trial of This Life.
Of the Happiness of the Eternal Peace, Which Constitutes the End or True Perfection of the Saints.
What Produces Peace, and What Discord, Between the Heavenly and Earthly Cities.
How Different the Uncertainty of the New Academy is from the Certainty of the Christian Faith.
Of the Dress and Habits of the Christian People.
That the Saints are in This Life Blessed in Hope.
Whether There Ever Was a Roman Republic Answering to the Definitions of Scipio in Cicero’s Dialogue.
Whether the God Whom the Christians Serve is the True God to Whom Alone Sacrifice Ought to Be Paid.
Porphyry’s Account of the Responses Given by the Oracles of the gods Concerning Christ.
That Where There is No True Religion There are No True Virtues.
That the Peace of Those Who Serve God Cannot in This Mortal Life Be Apprehended in Its Perfection.
Of the last judgment, and the declarations regarding it in the Old and New Testaments.
That in the Mingled Web of Human Affairs God’s Judgment is Present, Though It Cannot Be Discerned.
What is the First Resurrection, and What the Second.
Of the Binding and Loosing of the Devil.
What is to Be Replied to Those Who Think that Resurrection Pertains Only to Bodies and Not to Souls.
Whether the Time of the Persecution or Antichrist Should Be Reckoned in the Thousand Years.
Who the Dead are Who are Given Up to Judgment by the Sea, and by Death and Hell.
Of the New Heaven and the New Earth.
Of the Endless Glory of the Church.
What the Apostle Peter Predicted Regarding the Last Judgment.
What is Meant by the Good Going Out to See the Punishment of the Wicked.
Passages from the Psalms of David Which Predict the End of the World and the Last Judgment.
Of the eternal punishment of the wicked in hell, and of the various objections urged against it.
Whether It is Possible for Bodies to Last for Ever in Burning Fire.
Whether Bodily Suffering Necessarily Terminates in the Destruction of the Flesh.
Examples from Nature Proving that Bodies May Remain Unconsumed and Alive in Fire.
That There are Many Things Which Reason Cannot Account For, and Which are Nevertheless True.
That the Ultimate Reason for Believing Miracles is the Omnipotence of the Creator.
Of Hell, and the Nature of Eternal Punishments.
Whether It is Just that the Punishments of Sins Last Longer Than the Sins Themselves Lasted.
Of the Temporary Punishments of This Life to Which the Human Condition is Subject.
The Laws of Grace, Which Extend to All the Epochs of the Life of the Regenerate.
Of the Creation of Angels and Men.
Of the Eternal and Unchangeable Will of God.
Of the Promise of Eternal Blessedness to the Saints, and Everlasting Punishment to the Wicked.
That the World’s Belief in Christ is the Result of Divine Power, Not of Human Persuasion.
Whether Infants Shall Rise in that Body Which They Would Have Had Had They Grown Up.
Whether the Bodies of All the Dead Shall Rise the Same Size as the Lord’s Body.
What is Meant by the Conforming of the Saints to the Image of The Son of God.
Whether the Bodies of Women Shall Retain Their Own Sex in the Resurrection.
Of the Perfect Man, that Is, Christ; And of His Body, that Is, The Church, Which is His Fullness.
Of the New Spiritual Body into Which the Flesh of the Saints Shall Be Transformed.
Of the Blessings with Which the Creator Has Filled This Life, Obnoxious Though It Be to the Curse.
Of the Eternal Felicity of the City of God, and of the Perpetual Sabbath.
Introductory Note by the Editor
Contents of Christian Doctrine
Containing a General View of the Subjects Treated in Holy Scripture
What a Thing Is, and What A Sign.
Some Things are for Use, Some for Enjoyment.
Difference of Use and Enjoyment.
The Trinity the True Object of Enjoyment.
In What Sense God is Ineffable.
What All Men Understand by the Term God.
God to Be Esteemed Above All Else, Because He is Unchangeable Wisdom.
All Acknowledge the Superiority of Unchangeable Wisdom to that Which is Variable.
To See God, the Soul Must Be Purified.
Wisdom Becoming Incarnate, a Pattern to Us of Purification.
In What Sense the Wisdom of God Came to Us.
How the Wisdom of God Healed Man.
Christ Purges His Church by Medicinal Afflictions.
Christ, by Forgiving Our Sins, Opened the Way to Our Home.
Bodily and Spiritual Death and Resurrection.
The Resurrection to Damnation.
Neither Body Nor Soul Extinguished at Death.
Man Needs No Injunction to Love Himself and His Own Body.
No Man Hates His Own Flesh, Not Even Those Who Abuse It.
A Man May Love Something More Than His Body, But Does Not Therefore Hate His Body.
The Command to Love God and Our Neighbor Includes a Command to Love Ourselves.
How We are to Decide Whom to Aid.
We are to Desire and Endeavor that All Men May Love God.
Whether Angels are to Be Reckoned Our Neighbors.
God Uses Rather Than Enjoys Us.
In What Way Man Should Be Enjoyed.
The Fulfillment and End of Scripture is the Love of God and Our Neighbor.
Dangers of Mistaken Interpretation.
He Who is Mature in Faith, Hope and Love, Needs Scripture No Longer.
Signs, Their Nature and Variety.
Of the Kind of Signs We are Now Concerned with.
Among Signs, Words Hold the Chief Place.
Scripture Translated into Various Languages.
Use of the Obscurities in Scripture Which Arise from Its Figurative Language.
How We Should Proceed in Studying Scripture.
Unknown or Ambiguous Signs Prevent Scripture from Being Understood.
Knowledge of Languages, Especially of Greek and Hebrew, Necessary to Remove Ignorance or Signs.
A Diversity of Interpretations is Useful. Errors Arising from Ambiguous Words.
How Faulty Interpretations Can Be Emended.
How the Meaning of Unknown Words and Idioms is to Be Discovered.
Among Versions a Preference is Given to the Septuagint and the Itala.
Origin of the Legend of the Nine Muses.
No Help is to Be Despised, Even Though It Come from a Profane Source.
Two Kinds Of Heathen Knowledge.
The Superstitious Nature of Human Institutions.
The Folly of Observing the Stars in Order to Predict the Events of a Life.
Why We Repudiate Arts of Divination.
The Intercourse and Agreement with Demons Which Superstitious Observances Maintain.
What Human Contrivances We are to Adopt, and What We are to Avoid.
Some Departments of Knowledge, Not of Mere Human Invention, Aid Us in Interpreting Scripture.
To What Extent History is an Aid.
To What Extent Natural Science is an Exegetical Aid.
What the Mechanical Arts Contribute to Exegetics.
Use of Dialectics. Of Fallacies.
Valid Logical Sequence is Not Devised But Only Observed by Man.
False Inferences May Be Drawn from Valid Reasonings, and Vice Versa.
It is One Thing to Know the Laws of Inference, Another to Know the Truth of Opinions.
The Science of Definition is Not False, Though It May Be Applied to Falsities.
The Rules of Eloquence are True, Though Sometimes Used to Persuade Men of What is False.
Use of Rhetoric and Dialectic.
The Science of Numbers Not Created, But Only Discovered, by Man.
To Which of the Above-Mentioned Studies Attention Should Be Given, and in What Spirit.
Whatever Has Been Rightly Said by the Heathen, We Must Appropriate to Our Uses.
What Kind of Spirit is Required for the Study of Holy Scripture.
Summary of the Foregoing Books, and Scope of that Which Follows.
Rule for Removing Ambiguity by Attending to Punctuation.
How Pronunciation Serves to Remove Ambiguity. Different Kinds of Interrogation.
How Ambiguities May Be Solved.
It is a Wretched Slavery Which Takes the Figurative Expressions of Scripture in a Literal Sense.
Utility of the Bondage of the Jews.
The Useless Bondage of the Gentiles.
The Jews Liberated from Their Bondage in One Way, the Gentiles in Another.
Who is in Bondage to Signs, and Who Not.
How We are to Discern Whether a Phrase is Figurative.
Rule for Interpreting Phrases Which Seem to Ascribe Severity to God and the Saints.
Error of Those Who Think that There is No Absolute Right and Wrong.
Rule for Interpreting Figurative Expressions.
Rule for Interpreting Commands and Prohibitions.
Some Commands are Given to All in Common, Others to Particular Classes.
We Must Take into Consideration the Time at Which Anything Was Enjoyed or Allowed.
Wicked Men Judge Others by Themselves.
Consistency of Good Men in All Outward Circumstances.
David Not Lustful, Though He Fell into Adultery.
Rule Regarding the Narrative of Sins of Great Men.
The Character of the Expressions Used is Above All to Have Weight.
The Same Word Does Not Always Signify the Same Thing.
Obscure Passages are to Be Interpreted by Those Which are Clearer.
One Passage Susceptible of Various Interpretations.
It is Safer to Explain a Doubtful Passage by Other Passages of Scripture Than by Reason.
The Knowledge of Tropes is Necessary.
This Work Not Intended as a Treatise on Rhetoric.
It is Lawful for a Christian Teacher to Use the Art of Rhetoric.
The Proper Age and the Proper Means for Acquiring Rhetorical Skill.
The Duty of the Christian Teacher.
Wisdom of More Importance Than Eloquence to the Christian Teacher.
The Sacred Writers Unite Eloquence with Wisdom.
Examples of True Eloquence Drawn from the Epistles of Paul and the Prophecies of Amos.
How, and with Whom, Difficult Passages are to Be Discussed.
The Necessity for Perspicuity of Style.
The Christian Teacher Must Speak Clearly, But Not Inelegantly.
The Hearer Must Be Moved as Well as Instructed.
Beauty of Diction to Be in Keeping with the Matter.
The Christian Teacher Should Pray Before Preaching.
Human Directions Not to Be Despised, Though God Makes the True Teacher.
Threefold Division of The Various Styles of Speech.
The Christian Orator is Constantly Dealing with Great Matters.
The Christian Teacher Must Use Different Styles on Different Occasions.
Examples of the Various Styles Drawn from Scripture.
The Necessity of Variety in Style.
How the Various Styles Should Be Mingled.
The Effects Produced by the Majestic Style.
How the Temperate Style is to Be Used.
In Every Style the Orator Should Aim at Perspicuity, Beauty, and Persuasiveness.
The Man Whose Life is in Harmony with His Teaching Will Teach with Greater Effect.
Truth is More Important Than Expression. What is Meant by Strife About Words.
The Preacher Should Commence His Discourse with Prayer to God.