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 schools^13971397    Gymnasia. 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.^13981398    Dionysius of Syracuse. 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,^13991399    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. Apollonius^14001400    Apollonius of Tyana, whose strange life and adventures have been written for us by Philostratus. too was a traveller—the one 97I mean who is called the sorcerer^14011401    Magus. 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,^14021402    Gen. ii. 11. he came to the Brahmans. There he saw Hiarcas^14031403    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.^14041404    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.^14051405    Herod. iii. 17, 18. 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 vessel^14061406    Acts ix. 15. the doctor^14071407    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?”^14081408    2 Cor. xiii. 3. 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.”^14091409    Gal. i. 17, 18. 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.^14101410    Gal. ii. 1, 2. 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!”^14111411    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.”^14121412    2 Cor. x. 4–6. He writes to Timothy who had been trained in the holy writings from a child exhorting him to study them diligently^14131413    2 Tim. iii. 14, 15. and not to neglect the gift which was given him with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery.^14141414    1 Tim. iv. 14. 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.”^14151415    Tit. i. 9. In fact want of education in a clergyman^14161416    Sancta rusticitas. 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.”^14171417    Hag. ii. 11. 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.”^14181418    Deut. xxxii. 7. Also in the one hundred and nineteenth psalm “thy statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage.”^14191419    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.”^14201420    Ps. i. 2. 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.”^14211421    Dan. xii. 3. You can see, therefore, how great is the difference between righteous ignorance and instructed righteous98ness. 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?^14221422    Acts ix. 15. 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,^14231423    1 Thess. iv. 9. they were “taught of God.” The Saviour had only accomplished his twelfth year when the scene in the temple took place;^14241424    Luke ii. 46. 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.”^14251425    2 Cor. xi. 6. 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.”^14261426    Joh. i. 1. 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.”^14271427    1 Cor. i. 19. The true wisdom must destroy the false, and, although the foolishness of preaching^14281428    1 Cor. i. 21. 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.”^14291429    1 Cor. ii. 6, 7. God’s wisdom is Christ, for Christ, we are told, is “the power of God and the wisdom of God.”^14301430    1 Cor. i. 24. 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.”^14311431    “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,^14321432    1 Sam. ix. 9. because they saw Him whom others did not see. Abraham saw His day and was glad.^14331433    Joh. viii. 56. 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.”^14341434    Ps. cxix. 18. For “the law is spiritual”^14351435    Rom. vii. 14. 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,^14361436    Rev. v. 1. which if you deliver to one that is learned saying, Read this, he will answer you, I cannot, for it is sealed.^14371437    Isa. xxix. 11. 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.”^14381438    Rev. iii. 7. In the Acts of the Apostles the holy eunuch (or rather “man” for so the scripture calls him^14391439    Acts viii. 27.) when reading Isaiah he is asked by Philip “Understandest thou what thou readest?”, makes answer:—“How can I except some man should guide me?”^14401440    Acts viii. 30, 31. 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, philoso99phers, 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 says^14411441    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.^14421442    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 Maro^14431443    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.^14441444    Virg. E. iv. 6, 7.

Another line might be addressed by the Father to the Son:—

Hail, only Son, my Might and Majesty.^14451445    Virg. A. i. 664.

And yet another might follow the Saviour’s words on the cross:—

Such words he spake and there transfixed remained.^14461446    Virg. A. ii. 650.

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,^14471447    Cc. 1–2. the division of the earth,^14481448    C. x. the confusion of tongues,^14491449    C. xi. and the descent of the Hebrews into Egypt!^14501450    C. xlvi. Exodus, no doubt, is equally plain, containing as it does merely an account of the ten plagues,^14511451    Cc. vii–xii. the decalogue,^14521452    C. xx. 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,^14531453    C. viii. and all the regulations connected with the Levites are symbols of things heavenly! The book of Numbers too—are not its very figures,^14541454    C. xxvi. and Balaam’s prophecy,^14551455    Cc. xxiii., xxiv. and the forty-two camping places in the wilderness^14561456    C. xxxiii. See Letter lxxviii. 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.^14571457    1 Cor. xiv. 19. Then, as for Job,^14581458    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.”^14591459    Job xix. 25–27, Vulg. I will pass on to Jesus the son of Nave^14601460    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 100who, 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.^14611461    Gal. iv. 26. 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.”^14621462    Isa. xvi. 1, Vulg. ‘the rock of the wilderness’=Moab. 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,^14631463    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,^14641464    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,^14651465    Hos. i. 2. 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.^14661466    Hos. iii. 1, 3, 4. 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,^14671467    Joel i. 4. and predicts that after the overthrow of the former people the Holy Spirit shall be poured out upon God’s servants and handmaids;^14681468    Joel ii. 29. the same spirit, that is, which was to be poured out in the upper chamber at Zion upon the one hundred and twenty believers.^14691469    Acts i. 13, 15. 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.”^14701470    The allusion is to Psalms cxx.–cxxxiv. One hundred and twenty is the sum of the numerals one to fifteen. Amos, although he is only “an herdman” from the country, “a gatherer of sycomore fruit,”^14711471    Amos vii. 14. 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,^14721472    Amos iv. 1. and bears witness that the great house and the little house shall fall.^14731473    Amos vi. 11. He sees now the maker of the grasshopper,^14741474    Amos vii. 1. now the Lord, standing upon a wall^14751475    Amos vii. 7. daubed^14761476    So the Vulgate. or made of adamant,^14771477    So the LXX. now a basket of apples^14781478    Amos viii. 1. 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.”^14791479    Amos viii. 11. Obadiah, whose name means the servant of God, thunders against Edom red with blood and against the creature born of earth.^14801480    ‘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 Christ^14811481    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.^14821482    Mic. v. 1, Vulg. Nahum, the consoler of the world, rebukes “the bloody city”^14831483    i.e., Nineveh—Nahum iii. 1. and when it is overthrown cries:—“Behold upon the mountains the feet of him that bringeth good tidings.”^14841484    Nahum i. 15. Habakkuk, like a strong and unyielding wrestler,^14851485    The name strictly means ‘embrace.’ stands upon his watch and sets his foot upon the tower^14861486    Hab. ii. 1. 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.”^14871487    Hab. iii. 3, 4. Zephaniah, that is the bodyguard and knower of the secrets of the Lord,^14881488    Strictly ‘the Lord guards’ or ‘hides.’ hears “a cry from the fishgate, and an howling from the second, and a great crashing from the hills.”^14891489    Zeph. i. 10. He proclaims “howling to the inhabitants of the mortar;^14901490    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.”^14911491    Zeph. i. 11, R.V. Haggai, that is he who is glad or joyful, who has sown in tears to reap in joy,^14921492    Ps. cxxvi. 5. 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 101and he who is desired^14931493    So Vulg. ‘the desire’ A.V. of all nations shall come.”^14941494    Hag. ii. 6, 7. Zechariah, he that is mindful of his Lord,^14951495    Strictly ‘the Lord is mindful.’ gives us many prophecies. He sees Jesus,^14961496    i.e., Joshua the High Priest. “clothed with filthy garments,”^14971497    Zech. iii. 3. a stone with seven eyes,^14981498    Zech. iii. 9. a candle-stick all of gold with lamps as many as the eyes, and two olive trees on the right side of the bowl^14991499    Zech. iv. 2, 3. and on the left. After he has described the horses, red, black, white, and grisled,^15001500    Zech. vi. 1–3. and the cutting off of the chariot from Ephraim and of the horse from Jerusalem^15011501    Zech. ix. 10. 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.”^15021502    Zech. ix. 9. 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 incense^15031503    This word is not in the Vulg. is offered unto my name, and a pure offering.”^15041504    Mal. i. 10, 11, R.V. 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 tree^15051505    Jer. i. 11. and of a seething pot with its face toward the north,^15061506    Jer. i. 13. and of a leopard which has changed its spots.^15071507    Jer. xiii. 23. He also goes four times through the alphabet in different metres.^15081508    Lamentations cc. I.–IV., each verse in which begins with a different letter of the alphabet. 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.^15091509    Dan. ii. 45. 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 peace^15101510    See note on LII. 3, p. and of the Lord, corrects morals, teaches nature, unites Christ and the church, and sings a sweet marriage song^15111511    The Song of Songs. 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.^15121512    i.e. the feast of Purim—Esth. ix. 20–32. The book of things omitted^15131513   Paraleipomena, the name given in the LXX. to the books of Chronicles. or epitome of the old dispensation^15141514    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.”^15151515    Ps. cxix. 20, PBV. But the saying of Socrates about himself—“this only I know that I know nothing”^15161516    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,^15171517    Quadriga. cf. Irenæus, Adv. Hær. III. ii. 8. the true cherubim or store of knowledge.^15181518    Clement of Alexandria, following Philo, makes cherub mean wisdom. With them the whole body is full of eyes,^15191519    Ezek. i. 18, Vulg. they glitter as sparks,^15201520    Ezek. i. 7. they run and return like lightning,^15211521    Ezek. i. 14. their feet are straight feet,^15221522    Ezek. i. 7. 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:^15231523    Ezek. i. 11. like wheels within wheels they roll along^15241524    Ezek. i. 16. and go whithersoever the breath of the Holy Spirit wafts them.^15251525    Ezek. i. 20. The apostle Paul writes to seven churches^15261526    i.e. those of Rome, Corinth, Galatia, Ephesus, Philippi, Colosse, Thessalonica. (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.^15271527    Onesimus. 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 descrip102tive 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,^15281528    Col. iv. 14; 2 Cor. viii. 18. 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.”^15291529    Matt. vii. 8. 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 Hermagoras^15301530    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; he^15311531    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.”^15321532    2 Cor. vi. 10. Food and raiment, these are the Christian’s wealth.^15331533    1 Tim. vi. 8. If your property is in your own power,^15341534    Cf. Acts v. 4. sell it: if not, cast it from you. “If any man…will take away thy coat, let him have thy cloke also.”^15351535    Matt. v. 40. 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.^15361536    Matt. iv. 18–22. The widow cast but two brass coins into the treasury^15371537    Mark xii. 41–44. and yet she shall be preferred before Crœsus^15381538    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.