Chapter VIII.

Hold fast in the meantime this persuasion, while I examine a question which comes in our way. For I already hear it is said, that many other things as well as crowns have been invented by those whom the world believes to be gods, and that they are notwithstanding to be met with both in our present usages and in those of early saints, and in the service of God, and in Christ Himself, who did His work as man by no other than these ordinary instrumentalities of human life. Well, let it be so; nor shall I inquire any further back into the origin of this things. Let Mercury have been the first who taught the knowledge of letters; I will own that they are requisite both for the business and commerce of life, and for performing our devotion to God. Nay, if he also first strung the chord to give forth melody, I will not deny, when listening to David, that this invention has been in use with the saints, and has ministered to God. Let Æsculapius have been the first who sought and discovered cures: Esaias23    Isa. xxxviii. 21. mentions that he ordered Hezekiah medicine when he was sick. Paul, too, knows that a little wine does the stomach good.24    1 Tim. v. 23. Let Minerva have been the first who built a ship: I shall see Jonah and the apostles sailing. Nay, there is more than this: for even Christ, we shall find, has ordinary raiment; Paul, too, has his cloak.25    2 Tim. iv. 13. [This is a useful comment as showing what this φαιλόνη was. Our author translates it by pænula. Of which more when we reach the De Pallio.] If at once, of every article of furniture and each household vessel, you name some god of the world as the originator, well, I must recognise Christ, both as He reclines on a couch, and when He presents a basin for the feet of His disciples, and when He pours water into it from a ewer, and when He is girt about with a linen towel26    John xiii. 1–5.—a garment specially sacred to Osiris. It is thus in general I reply upon the point, admitting indeed that we use along with others these articles, but challenging that this be judged in the light of the distinction between things agreeable and things opposed to reason, because the promiscuous employment of them is deceptive, concealing the corruption of the creature, by which it has been made subject to vanity. For we affirm that those things only are proper to be used, whether by ourselves or by those who lived before us, and alone befit the service of God and Christ Himself, which to meet the necessities of human life supply what is simply; useful and affords real assistance and honourable comfort, so that they may be well believed to have come from God’s own inspiration, who first of all no doubt provided for and taught and ministered to the enjoyment, I should suppose, of His own man. As for the things which are out of this class, they are not fit to be used among us, especially those which on that account indeed are not to be found either with the world, or in the ways of Christ.

8. Tene interim hunc finem, dum incursum quaestionis excutio. Iam enim audio dici et alia multa, ab eis prolata quos saeculum deos credidit, tamen et in nostris hodie usibus et in pristinorum sanctorum et in Dei rebus et in ipso Christo deprehendi, non alias scilicet homine functo quam per communia ista instrumenta exhibitionis humanae. Plane ita sit, nec antiquius adhuc in origines disceptabo. Primus litteras Mercurius enarrauerit : necessarias confitebor et commerciis rerum et nostris erga Deum studiis. Sed et si neruos idem in sonum strinxit, non negabo et hoc ingenium eius sanctis fecisse et Deo ministrasse, audiens Dauid. Primus medellas Aesculapius explorauerit : meminit et Esaias Ezechiae languenti aliquid medicinale mandasse, scit et Paulus stomacho uinum modicum prodesse. Sed et Minerua prima molita sit nauem : uidebo nauigantem Ionan et apostolos. Plus est quod et Christus uestitur; habebit etiam, paenulam Paulus. Si et uniuscuiusque suppellectilis et singulorum uasorum aliquem ex diis saeculi auctorem nominaris, agnoscam necesse est et recumbentem in lectulo Christum, et cum peluem discipulorum pedibus offert, et cum aquam ex urceo ingerit, et cum linteo circumstringitur, propria Osiridis ueste. Huiusmodi quaestioni sic ubique respondeo, admittens quidem utensilium communionem, sed prouocans eam ad rationalium et inrationalium distinctionem, quia passiuitas fallit obumbrans corruptelam conditionis qua subiecta est uanitati. Dicimus enim ea demum et nostris et superioribus usibus et Dei rebus et ipsi Christo competisse, quae meras utilitates et certa subsidia et honesta solacia necessariis uitae humanae procurant, ut et ipso Deo inspirante dantur, priore prospectore et instructore et oblectatore, si forte, hominis sui ; quae uero hunc ordinem excesserunt, ea non conuenire usibus nostris, praesertim quae propterea scilicet nec apud sanctum ullum nec in Dei rebus nec in conuersationibus Christi recognosci est.