 The Second Epistle of Clements from the Anti-Nicene Fathers Collection Volume 9 by Alan Mendez translated by John Keith. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Chapter 1. We ought to think highly of Christ. Brethren, it is fitting that you should think of Jesus Christ as of God. As the judge of the living and the dead. And it does not become us to think lightly of our salvation. For if we think little of Him, we shall also hope but to obtain little from Him. And those of us who hear carelessly of these things, as if they were of small importance, commits sin, not knowing whence we have been called and by whom, and to what place, and how much Jesus Christ submitted to suffer for our sakes. What return, then, shall we make to Him? Or what fruit, that we shall be worthy of that which He has given to us? For indeed, how great are the benefits which we owe to Him? He has graciously given us light as a Father. He has called us sons. He has saved us when we were ready to perish. What praise, then, shall we give to Him? Or what return shall we make for the things which we have received? We were deficient in understanding, worshipping stones and wood and gold and silver and brass, the works of men's hands, and our whole life was nothing else than death, involved in blindness and with such darkness before our eyes. We have received sight, and through His will have laid aside that cloud by which we were enveloped, for He had compassion on us and mercifully saved us, observing the many errors in which we were entangled, as well as the destruction to which we were exposed, and that we had no hope of salvation, except it came to us from Him. For He called us when we were not, and willed that out of nothing we should attain a real existence. Chapter 2. The church, formerly barren, is now fruitful. Rejoice, thou barren, that barris not. Break forth and cry, thou that has travailus not. For she that is desolate hath many more children than she that hath an husband. In that he said, rejoice, thou barren, that barris not. He referred to us, for our church was barren before that children were given to her. When he said, cry out, thou that travailus not. He means this, that we should sincerely offer up our prayers to God, and should not, like women in travail, show signs of weakness. And in that he said, for she that is desolate hath many more children than she that hath a husband. He means that our people seem to be outcast from God, but now, through believing, hath become more numerous than those who are reckoned to possess God. And another scripture saith, I came not to call the righteous, but sinners. This means that those who are perishing must be saved, for it is indeed a great and admirable thing to establish not the things which are standing, but these that are falling. Thus also did Christ desire to save the things which were perishing, and has saved many by coming and calling us when hastening to destruction. Chapter 3, The Duty of Confessing Christ Since then, he has displayed so great mercy towards us, and especially in this respect, that we who are living should not offer sacrifices to gods that are dead, or pay them worship, but should attain through him to the knowledge of the true Father, whereby shall we show that we do indeed know him, but by not denying him through whom this knowledge has been attained. For he himself declares, whosoever shall confess me before men, I will confess him before my Father. This then is our reward, if we shall confess him by whom we have been saved. But in what way shall we confess him? By doing what he says, and not transgressing his commandments, and by honoring him, not with our lips only, but with all our hearts and all our mind. For he says in Isaiah, this people honoreth me with their lips, but their hearts is far from me. Chapter 4, True Confession of Christ Let us then not only call him Lord, for that will not save us, for he saith not everyone that saith to me, Lord, Lord shall be saved, but he that worketh righteousness. Wherefore, brethren, let us confess him by our works, by loving one another, by not committing adultery, or speaking evil of one another, or cherishing envy, but being continent, compassionate, and good. We ought also to sympathize with one another, and not be avaricious. By such works let us confess him, and not by those that are of the opposite kind. And it is not fitting that we should fear men, but rather God. For this reason, if we should do such wicked things, the Lord hath said, Even though ye were gathered together to me in my very bosom, yet if ye were not to keep my commandments, I would cast you off, and would say unto you, Depart from me, I know not whence ye are, ye workers of iniquity. Chapter 5, This world should be despised Wherefore, brethren, leaving willingly our sojourn in this present world, let us do the will of him that called us, and not fear to depart out of this world. For the Lord saith, Ye shall be as lambs in the midst of wolves. And Peter answered, and said unto him, What then, if the wolves shall tear in pieces the lambs? Jesus said unto Peter, The lambs have no cause after they are dead to fear the wolves. And in like manner, fear not ye them that kill you, and could do nothing more unto you. But fear him who, after you are dead, has power over both soul and body to cast them into the hellfire. And consider, brethren, that the sojourning in the flesh in this world is but brief and transient, but the promise of Christ is great and wonderful, even the rest of the kingdom to come and of life everlasting. By what course of conduct then shall we attain these things, but by leading a holy and righteous life, and by deeming these worldly things as not belonging to us, and not fixing our desires upon them. For if we desire to possess them, we fall away from the path of righteousness. Chapter 6 The present and future worlds are enemies to each other. Now the Lord declares, No servant can serve two masters. If we desire then to serve both God and Mammon, it will be unprofitable for us. For what will it profit if a man gain the whole world and lose his own soul? This world and the next are two enemies. The one urges to adultery and corruption, avarice and deceit. The other bids farewell to these things. We cannot therefore be the friends of both. It behooves us by renouncing the one to make sure of the other. Let us reckon that it is better to hate the things present, since they are trifling and transient and corruptible. And to love those which are to come as being good and incorruptible. For if we do the will of Christ, we shall find rest. Otherwise nothing shall deliver us from eternal punishment. If we disobey his commandments. For thus also sayeth the scripture in Ezekiel. If Noah, Job and Daniel should rise up, they should not deliver their children in captivity. Now if men so eminently righteous were not able by their righteousness to deliver their children, how can we hope to enter into the royal residence of God unless we keep our baptism holy and undefiled? Or who shall be our advocates unless we be found possessed of works of holiness and righteousness? Chapter 7 We must strive in order to be crowned. Wherefore then, my brethren, let us struggle with all earnestness, knowing that the contest is, in our case, close at hand, that many undertake long voyages to strive for a corruptible reward. Yet all are not crowned, but those only that have labored hard and striven gloriously. Let us therefore so strive that we may all be crowned. Let us run the straight course, even the race that is incorruptible. And let us in great numbers set out for it and strive that we may be crowned. And should we not all be able to obtain the crown, let us at least come near to it. We rust remember that he who strives in the corruptible contests, if he be found acting unfairly, is taken away and scourged and cast forth from the lists. What then, think ye, if one does anything unseemly in an incorruptible contest, what shall he have to bear? For of those who do not preserve the seal unbroken, the scripture sayeth, their warmth shall not die, and their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be a spectacle to all flesh. Chapter 8, The Necessity of Repentance While We Are on Earth As long, therefore, as we are upon earth, let us practice repentance, for we are as clay in the hand of the artificer. For as the potter, if he make a vessel, and it be distorted or broken in his hands, fashions it over again. But if he have before this cast it into the furnace of fire, can no longer find any help for it. So let us also, while we are in this world, repent with our whole hearts of the evil deeds we have done in the flesh, that we may be saved by the Lord, while we have yet an opportunity of repentance. For after we have gone out of the world, no further power of confessing or repenting will there belong to us. Wherefore, brethren, by doing the will of the Father, and keeping the flesh holy, and observing the commandments of the Lord, we shall obtain eternal life. For the Lord sayeth in the Gospel, ye have not kept that which was small. Who will commit to you the great? For I say unto you, that he that is faithful, and that which is least, is faithful also in much. This, then, is what he means. Keep the flesh holy, and the seal undefiled, that ye may receive eternal life. Chapter 9. We shall be judged in the flesh. Let no one of you say that this very flesh shall not be judged nor rise again. Consider ye in what state ye were saved, in what ye received sights, if not while ye were in the flesh. We must therefore preserve the flesh as the temple of God, for as ye were called in the flesh, ye shall also come to be judged in the flesh. As Christ the Lord who saved us, though he was first a spirit, became flesh, and thus called us, so shall we also receive the reward in this flesh. Let us therefore love one another, that we may all attain to the kingdom of God. While we have an opportunity of being healed, let us yield ourselves to God that healeth us, and give to him a recompense of what sort. Repentance out of a sincere heart, for he knows all things beforehand, and is acquainted with what is in our hearts. Let us therefore give him praise, not with the mouth only, but also with the heart, that he may accept us as sons. For the Lord has said, those are my brethren who do the will of my Father. Chapter 10. Vice is to be forsaken, and virtue followed. Wherefore, my brethren, let us do the will of the Father who called us, that we may live, and let us earnestly follow after virtue, but forsake every wicked tendency, which would lead to transgression, and flee from ungodliness, lest evils overtake us. For if we are diligent in doing good, we will follow. On this account, such men cannot find it, i.e. peace, as are influenced by human terrors, and prefer rather present enjoyment to the promise which shall afterwards be fulfilled. And they know not what torment present enjoyment incurs, or what felicity is involved in the future promise. If indeed they themselves only did such things, it would be the more tolerable. But now they persist in imbuing innocent souls with their pernicious doctrines, not knowing that they shall receive a double condemnation, both they and those that hear them. Chapter 11. We ought to serve God, trusting in His promises. Let us therefore serve God with a pure heart, and we shall be righteous. But if we do not serve Him, because we believe not the promise of God, we shall be miserable. For the prophetic word also declares, wretched are those of a double mind, and who doubt in their heart, who say, all these things have we heard even in the times of our fathers. But though we have waited day by day, we have seen none of them accomplished. Ye fools, compare yourselves to a tree, take for instance the vine. First of all it sheds its leaves, then the bud appears, after that the sour grape, and then the fully ripened fruit. So likewise, my people have borne disturbances and afflictions, but afterwards shall they receive their good things. Wherefore, my brethren, let us not be of a double mind, but let us hope and endure that we may obtain the reward, for he is faithful, who has promised that he will bestow on everyone a reward according to his works. If therefore, we shall do righteousness in the sight of God, we shall enter into his kingdom, and shall receive the promises, which year hath not heard, nor I seen, nor have entered into the heart of man. Chapter 12 We are constantly to look for the kingdom of God. Let us expect therefore, hour by hour, the kingdom of God in love and righteousness, since we know not the day of the appearing of God, for the Lord himself being asked by one when his kingdom would come, replied, when two shall be one, that which is without, as that which is within. In the male with the female, either male nor female. Now two are one, when we speak the truth one to another, and there is unfamely one soul in two bodies, and that which is without, as that which is within meaneth this. He calls the soul that which is within, that which is without. As then, thy body is visible to sight, so also that thy soul be manifest by good works. In the male with the female, neither male nor female. This he saith, that brother seeing sister may have no thought concerning her as female, that she may have no thought concerning him as male. If ye do these things saith he, the kingdom of my father shall come. Chapter 13 God's Name, not to be blasphemed. Brethren, then, let us now at length repent, let us soberly turn to that which is good, for we are full of abundant folly and wickedness. Let us wipe out from us our former sins, and repenting from the heart be saved. Let us not be men pleasers, nor be willing to please one another, but also the men without, for righteousness' sake, the name may not be because of us blasphemed. For the Lord saith, continually my name is blasphemed among all nations, and more for my name is blasphemed. Blasphemed in what? In your not doing the things which I wish, for the nations hearing from our mouth the oracles of God marvel at their excellence and worth. Thereafter, learning that our deeds are not worthy of the words which we speak, receiving this occasion, they turn to blasphemy, saying that they are a fable and a delusion, for whenever they hear from us that God saith, no thank have ye, if ye love them which love you, but ye have thank if ye love your enemies, and them which hate you. Whenever they hear these words, they marvel at the surpassing measure of their goodness. But when they see that not only do we not love those who hate, but we love not even those who love, they laugh us to scorn, and the name is blasphemed. Chapter 14 The Church Spiritual So then brethren, if we do the will of our Father God, we shall be members of the first church, the spiritual, that which was created before the sun and moon. But if we shall not do the will of the Lord, we shall come under the scripture which saith, my house became a den of robbers. So then, let us elect to belong to the church of life that we may be saved. I think not that ye are ignorant that the living church is the body of Christ. For the scripture saith, God created man, male, and female. The male is Christ, the female the church. And that the books and the apostle teach that the church is not of the present, but from the beginning. For it was spiritual as was also our Jesus and was made manifest at the end of days in order to save us. The church being spiritual was made manifest in the flesh of Christ, signifying to us that if any one of us shall preserve it in the flesh and corrupt it not, he shall receive it in the Holy Spirit. For this flesh is the type of the Spirit. No one therefore having corrupted the type will receive afterwards the anti-type. Therefore it is then that he saith, Brethren, preserve ye the flesh that ye may become partakers of the Spirit. If we say that the flesh is the church and the Spirit Christ, then it follows that he who shall offer outrage to the flesh is guilty of outrage on the church. Such in one therefore will not partake of the Spirit which is Christ. Such is the life and immortality which this flesh may afterwards receive, the Holy Spirit cleaving to it. And no one can either express or utter what things the Lord had prepared for his elect. Chapter 15 He who saves and he who is saved. I think not that I counted trivial counsel concerning consonants. Following it a man will not repent thereof, but will save both himself and me unannounced. For it is no small reward to turn back a wandering and perishing soul for its salvation. For this recompense we are able to render to God who created us. For he who speaks and hears both speak and hear with faith and love. Let us therefore continue in that course in which we righteous and holy believe. With that confidence we may ask God who saith, Willst thou art still him? For these words are a token of a great promise. For the Lord saith that he is more ready to give than he who asks. So great then being the goodness of which we are partakers. Let us not grudge one another under the attainment of so great blessings. For in proportion to the pleasure with which these words are fraught to those who shall follow them. And that proportion is the condemnation with which they are fraught to them. Chapter 16 Preparation for the Day of Judgment So then brethren having received no small occasion to repent while we have opportunity let us turn to God who called us while yet we have one to receive us. For if we renounce these indulgences and conquer the soul by not fulfilling its wicked desires we shall be partakers of the mercy of Jesus. No ye that the Day of Judgment draweth nigh like a burning oven in the heavens and all the earth will melt like lead melting in fire and then will appear the hidden and manifest deeds of men. Good then is alms as repentance from sin. Better is fasting than prayer and alms than both. Charity covers a multitude of sins and prayer out of a good conscience delivereth from death. Blessed is everyone that shall be found complete in these. For alms lightens the burden of sin. Chapter 17. Same subject continued. Let us then repent with our whole heart that no one of us may perish and miss. For if we have commands and engage in withdrawing from idols and instructing others how much more ought a soul already knowing God not to perish rendering therefore mutual help let us raise the weak also in that which is good that all of us may be saved and convert one another and admonish. And not only now let us seem to believe and give heed when we are admonished by the elders, but also when we take our departure home let us remember the commandments of the Lord and not be a Lord backed by worldly lusts. Let us often and often draw near and try to make progress in the Lord's commands that we all having the same mind may be gathered together for life. For the Lord said I come to gather all nations kindreds and tongues this means the day if is appearing when he will come and redeem us each one according to his works and the unbelievers will see his glory and might and when they see the empire of the world in Jesus they will be surprised saying woe to us because thou watched and we knew not and believe not and obeyed not the elders who show us plainly of our salvation and their worms shall not die neither shall their fire be quenched and they shall be a spectacle unto all flesh. It is of the great day of judgment he speaks when they shall see those among us who were guilty of ungodliness and erred in their estimate of the commands of Jesus Christ the righteous having succeeded both in enduring the trials and hitting the indulgences of the soul whenever they witness how those who have swerved and denied Jesus by words or deeds are punished with grievous torments we will give glory to their God and say there will be hope for him who has served God with his whole heart. Chapter 18 the author sinful yet pursuing and let us then be of the number of those who give thanks who have served God and not the ungodly who are judged for I myself though a sinner every wit and not yet fleeing temptation but continuing in the midst of the tools of the devil study to follow after righteousness that I may make be its only some approach to it fearing the judgment to come. Chapter 19 the Lord of the righteous although they may suffer so then brothers and sisters after the God of truth I address to you an appeal that he may give heed to the words written that he may save both yourselves and him who reads an address in your midst for as a reward I ask of you repentance with a whole heart while you bestow upon yourself salvation in life for by so doing we shall set a mark for all the young who wish to be diligent in godliness and the goodness of God and let not us in our folly feel displeasure and indignation whenever anyone admonishes us and turns us from unrighteousness to righteousness for there are some wicked deeds which we commit and know it not because of the double-mindedness and unbelief present in our interests and our understanding is darkened by vain desires but is therefore work righteousness that we may be saved to the end blessed are they who obey these commands even if for a brief space they suffer in this world and they will gather the imperishable fruit of the resurrection but not the godly man therefore grieve if for the present he suffer afflictions blessed is the time that awaits him there rising up to life again with the father's fuel or choice forever without a grief chapter 20 godliness not gain the true riches but let it not even trouble your mind that we see the unrighteous possessed of riches and the servants of God straightened let us therefore brothers and sisters believe in a trial of the living God we strive and are exercised in the present life that we may obtain the crown in that which is to come no one of the righteous received fruit speedily but waited for it for if God tendered the reward of the righteous in a trice straight way were it commerce that we practice and not godliness for it were as if we were righteous by following after not godliness but gain and for this reason the divine judgment baffled the spirit that is unrighteous and heavily weighed the fetter to the only god invisible father of truth who sent forth to us the savior and author of immortality through whom he also manifested to us the truth and the heavenly life to him be glory forever and ever amen end of the second epistle of clements from the antiniscene father's collection volume 9 by Alan Meniz translated by John Keith Spinoza and the Bible by Matthew Arnold Part 1 read by Daniel Davison this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Spinoza and the Bible by the sentence of the angels by the decree of the saints the anathematized cut off curse and execrate Baruch Spinoza in the presence of these sacred books with the 613 precepts which are written therein with the anathema where with Joshua anathematized Jericho with the cursing where with Elisha cursed the children with all the cursings which are written in the book of the law cursed be he by day and cursed by night cursed when he lieth down and cursed when he riseth up cursed when he goeth out and cursed when he cometh in the Lord pardon him never the wrath and fury of the Lord burn upon this man and bring upon him all the curses which are written in the book of the law the Lord blot out his name under heaven the Lord set him apart for destruction from all the tribes of Israel with all the curses of the firmament which are written in the book of this law there shall no man speak to him no man write to him no man show him any kindness no man stay under the same roof with him no man come nigh him with these amenities the current compliments of theological partying the Jews of the Portuguese synagogue at Amsterdam took in 1656 and not in 1660 as has till now been commonly supposed their leave of their erring brother Baruch or Benedict Spinoza they remain children of Israel and he became a child of modern Europe that was in 1656 and Spinoza died in 1677 at the early age of 44 glory had not found him out his short life a life of unbroken diligence kindness and purity was passed in seclusion but in spite of that seclusion in spite of the shortness of his career in spite of the hostility of the dispensers of renown in the 18th century of Voltaire's disparagement and Bale's detraction in spite of the repellent form which he has given to his principal work in spite of the exterior semblance of a rigid dogmatism alien to the most essential tendencies of modern philosophy in spite finally of the immense weight of disfavor cast upon him by the long repeated charge of atheism Spinoza's name has silently risen in important the man and his work have attracted a steadily increasing notice and bid fair to become soon what they deserve to become in the history of modern philosophy the central point of interest an avowed translation of one of his works his Troctatus Theologico Politicus has at last made its appearance in English it is the principal work which Spinoza published in his lifetime his book on ethics the work on which his fame rests is posthumous the English translator has not done his task well of the character of his version there can I am afraid be no doubt one such passage as the following is decisive I confess that while with them the theologians I have never been able sufficiently to admire the unfathomed mysteries of scripture I have still found them giving utterance to nothing but Aristotelian in platonic speculations artfully dressed up and cunningly accommodated to holy writ lest the speakers should show themselves too plainly as a result of the Grecian heathens nor was it enough for these men to discourse with the Greeks they have further taken to raving with the Hebrew prophets this professes to be a translation of these words of Spinoza fateo eos nun quamsatis mirare potuissi scriptorei profondissima misteria attamen praiter arresto telecorum well platonicorum speculationes nihil docuissi video at que his negentidis sectarei vidirentor scriptoron accommoda veron non satis hisfuit com greekis insanere sed profetis comis dem deliravisse volueron after one such specimen of a translator's force the experienced reader has a sort of instinct that he may as well close the book at once with a smile or a sigh according as he happens to be a follower of the weeping or of the laughing philosopher if in spite of this instinct he persists in going on with the English version of the tractatus theological politicus he will find many more such specimens it is not however my intention to fill my space with these or with strictures upon their author I prefer to remark that he renders a service to literary history by pointing out in his preface how to bail may be trace the disfavor in which the name of Spinoza was so long held that in his observations on the system of the church of England he shows a laudable freedom from the prejudices of ordinary English liberals of that advanced school to which he clearly belong lastly, that though he manifests little familiarity with Latin he seems to have considerable familiarity with philosophy and to be well able to follow and comprehend speculative reasoning let me advise him to unite his forces with those of someone who has that accurate knowledge of Latin which he himself has not and then perhaps of that union a really good translation of Spinoza will be the result and having given him this advice let me again turn for little to the Tractatus Theologico Politicus itself this work as I have already said is a work on the interpretation of scripture it treats of the Bible what was it exactly which Spinoza thought about the Bible and its inspiration that will be at the present moment the central point of interest for the English readers of his treatise now it is to be observed that just on this very point the treatise interesting and remarkable as it is will fail to satisfy the reader it is important to seize this notion quite firmly and not to quit hold of it while one is reading Spinoza's work the scope of that work is this Spinoza sees that the life and practice of Christian nations professing the religion of the Bible are not the due fruits of the religion of the Bible he sees only hatred, bitterness and strife where he might have expected to see love joy and peace in believing and he asks himself the reason of this the reason is he says that these people misunderstand their Bible well then is his conclusion I will write a Tractatus Theologico Politicus I will show these people that taking the Bible for granted taking it to be all which it asserts itself to be taking it to have all the authority which it claims it is not what they imagine it to be it does not say what they imagine it to say I will show them what it really does say and I will show them that they will do well to accept this real teaching of the Bible instead of the phantom with which they have so long been cheated I will show their governments that they will do well to remodel the national churches to make of them institutions informed with the spirit of the true Bible instead of institutions informed with the spirit of this false phantom the comments of men Spinoza said had been foisted into the Christian religion the pure teaching of God had been lost sight of he determined therefore to go again to the Bible to read it over and over with a perfectly unprejudiced mind and to accept nothing as its teaching which it did not clearly teach he began by constructing a method or set of conditions indispensable for the adequate interpretation of Scripture these conditions are such he points out that a perfectly adequate interpretation of Scripture is now impossible for example to understand any prophet thoroughly we ought to know the life, character, and pursuits of that prophet under what circumstances his book was composed and in what state and through what hands it has come down to us and in general most of this we cannot now know still the main sense of the books of Scripture may be clearly seized by us himself a Jew with all the learning of his nation and a man of the highest natural powers Spinoza had in the difficult task of seizing this sense every aid with special knowledge or preeminent faculties could supply in what then he asked does Scripture interpreted by its own aid and not by the aid of rabbinical traditions or Greek philosophy alleged its own divinity to consist in a revelation given by God to the prophets now all knowledge is a divine revelation but prophecy as represented in Scripture is one of which the laws of human nature considered in themselves alone cannot be the cause therefore nothing must be asserted about it except what is clearly declared by the prophets themselves for they are our only source of knowledge on a matter which does not fall within the scope of our ordinary knowing faculties but ignorant people not knowing the Hebrew genius and phraseology and not attending to the circumstances of the speaker often imagine the prophets to assert things which they do not the prophets clearly declare themselves to have received the revelation of God through the means of words and images not as Christ through immediate communication of the mind with the mind of God therefore the prophets excelled other men by the power and vividness of their representing and imagining faculty not by perfection of their mind this is why they perceived almost everything through figures and expressed themselves so variously and so improperly concerning the nature of God Moses imagined that God could be seen and attributed to him the passions of anger and jealousy Micaiah imagined him sitting on a throne with a host of heaven on his right and left hand Daniel as an old man with a white garment and white hair Ezekiel as fire the disciples of Christ thought they saw the spirit of God in the form of a dove the apostles in the form of fiery tongues whence then could the prophets be certain of the truth of a revelation which they received through the imagination and not by a mental process for only an idea can carry the sense of its own certainty along with it not an imagination to make them certain of the truth of what was revealed to them a reasoning process came in they had to rely on the testimony of a sign and above all on the testimony of their own conscience that they were good men and spoke for God's sake either testimony was incomplete without the other even the good prophet needed for his message the confirmation of a sign but the bad prophet the utter of an immoral doctrine had no certainty for his doctrine no truth in it even though he confirmed it by a sign the testimony of a good conscience was therefore the prophet's grand source of certitude even this however was only a moral certitude not a mathematical one for no man can be perfectly sure of his own goodness the power of imagining the power of feeling what goodness is but a practicing goodness were therefore the sole essential qualifications of a true prophet but for the purpose of the message the revelation which God designed him to convey these qualifications were not the sum and substance of this revelation was simply believe in God and lead a good life to be the organ of this revelation did not make a man more learned it left his scientific knowledge found it this explains the contradictory and speculatively false opinions about God and the laws of nature which the patriarchs the prophets the apostles entertained Abraham and the patriarchs knew God only as El Shaddai the power which gives to every man that which suffices him Moses knew him as Jehovah a self existent being but imagined him with the passions of a man Samuel imagined that God could not repent of his sentences Jeremiah that he could Joshua on a day of great victory the ground being white with hail seen the daylight last longer than usual and imaginatively seizing this as a special sign of the help divinely promise to him declared that the son was standing still to be obeyers of God themselves and inspired leaders of others to obedience and good life did not make Abraham and Moses metaphysicians or Joshua a natural philosopher his revelation no more changed the speculative opinions of each prophet and it changed his temperament or style the wrathful Elisha required the natural sedative of music before he could be the messenger of good fortune to your forum the hybrid Isaiah and whom have the style proper to their condition and the rustic Ezekiel and Amos the style proper to theirs we are not therefore bound to pay heed to the speculative opinions of this or that prophet for in uttering these he spoke as a mere man only in exhorting his hears to obey God and lead a good life was he the organ of a divine revelation to know and love God is the highest blessedness man and of all men alike to this all mankind are called and not any one nation in particular the divine law properly so named is the method of life for taining this height of human blessedness this law is universal written in the heart and one for all mankind human law is the method of life for taining and preserving temporal security and prosperity this law is dictated by a law given and every nation has its own in the case of the Jews this law was dictated by revelation through the prophets its fundamental preset was to obey God and to keep his commandments and it is therefore in a secondary sense called divine but it was nevertheless framed in respect of temporal things only even the truly moral and divine precept of this law to practice for God's sake justice and mercy towards one's neighbor meant for the Hebrew of the Old Testament his Hebrew neighbor only and had respect to the concord and stability of the Hebrew commonwealth the Jews were to obey God and to keep his commandments that they might continue long in the land given to them and that it might be well with them there their election was a temporal one and lasted as their state it is now over and the only election the Jews now have is that of the pious the remnant which takes place and has always taken place in every other nation also scripture itself teaches that there is a universal divine law that this is common to all nations alike and is the law which truly confers eternal blessedness Solomon the wisest of the Jews knew this law as the few wisest men in all nations have ever known it but for the mass of the Jews as for the mass of mankind everywhere this law was hidden and they had no notion of its moral action it's vera vita which conducts to eternal blessedness except so far as this action was enjoined upon them by the prescriptions of their temporal law when the ruin of their state brought with it the ruin of their temporal law they would have lost altogether their only clue to eternal blessedness Christ came when that fabric of the Jewish state for the sake of which the Jewish law existed was about to fall and he proclaimed the universal divine law a certain moral action is prescribed by this law as a certain moral action was prescribed by the Jewish law but he who truly conceives the universal divine law conceives God's decrees adequately as eternal truths and for him moral action has liberty and self-knowledge while the prophets of the Jewish law inadequately conceived God's decrees as mere rules and commands and for them moral action had no liberty and no self-knowledge Christ who beheld the decrees of God as God himself beholds them as eternal truths proclaimed the love of God and the love of our neighbor as commands only because of the ignorance of the multitude to those to whom it was given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God he announced them as he himself perceived them as eternal truths and the apostles like Christ spoke to many of their hears as unto carnal not spiritual presented to them that is the love of God and their neighbor as a divine command authenticated by the life and death of Christ not as an eternal idea of reason carrying its own warrant along with it the presentation of it as this latter their hears were not able to bear the apostles more over though they preached and confirmed the doctrine by signs as prophets wrote their epistles not as prophets but as doctors and reasoners the essentials they took not from reason but like the prophets from fact and revelation they preached belief in God and goodness of life as a Catholic religion existing by virtue of the passion of Christ as the prophets had preached belief in God and goodness of life as a national religion existing by virtue of the mosaic covenant but while the prophets announced their message in a form purely dogmatical the apostles developed theirs with the forms of reasoning and argumentation according to each apostles ability and way of thinking and as they might best commend their message to their hears and for their reasonings they themselves claim no divine authority submitting them to the judgment of their hears thus each apostle built essential religion on a non-essential foundation of his own and as Saint Paul says avoided building on the foundations of another apostle which might be quite different from his own hence the discrepancies between the doctrine of one apostle and another between that of Saint Paul for example and that of Saint James but these discrepancies are in the non-essentials not given to them by revelation and not in essentials human churches seizing these discrepant non-essentials essentials one maintaining one of them another another have filled the world with unprofitable disputes have turned the church into an academy and religion into a science or rather a wrangling and have fallen into endless schism what then are the essentials of religion according to both the old and the New Testament very few and very simple the precept to love God and our neighbor the precepts of the first chapter of Isaiah wash you make you clean put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes cease to do evil learn to do well seek judgment relieve the oppressed judge the fatherless plead for the widow the precepts of the sermon on the mount which add to the forego in the injunction that we should cease to do evil and learn not to our brethren and fellow citizens only but to all mankind it is by following these precepts that belief in God is to be shown if we believe in him we shall keep his commandment and this is his commandment that we love one another it is because it contains these precepts that the Bible is properly called the word of God in spite of its containing much that is mere history and like all history sometimes true sometimes false in spite of its containing much that is mere reasoning and like all reasoning sometimes sound sometimes hollow these precepts are also the precepts of the universal divine law written in our hearts and it is only by this that the divinity of scripture is established by its containing namely precepts identical with those of this inly written and self-proving law this law was in the world as St. John says before the doctrine of Moses or the doctrine of Christ and what need was there then for these doctrines because the world at large knew not this original divine law in which precepts our ideas and the belief in God the knowledge and contemplation of him reason gives us this law reason tells us that it leads to eternal blessedness and that those who have no need of any other but reason could not have told us that the moral action of the universal divine law followed not from a sense of its intrinsic goodness truth and necessity but simply in proof of obedience for both the Old and New Testament are but one long discipline of obedience simply because it is so commanded by Moses in virtue of the covenant simply because it is so commanded by Christ in virtue of his life and passion can lead to eternal blessedness which means for reason eternal knowledge reason could not have told us this and this is what the Bible tells us this is that thing which had been kept secret since the foundation of the world it is thus that by means of the foolishness of the world God confounds the wise and with things that are not brings to not things are of the truth of the promise thus made to obedience without knowledge we can have no mathematical certainty for we can have a mathematical certainty only of things deduced by reason from elements which she in herself possesses but we can have a moral certainty of it a certainty such as the prophets had themselves arising out of the goodness and pureness of those to whom this mission has been made and rendered possible for us by its contradicting no principles of reason it is a great comfort to believe it because as it is only the very small minority who can pursue a virtuous life by the sole guidance of reason we should unless we had this testimony of scripture be in doubt respecting the salvation of nearly the whole human race it follows from that philosophy has her own independent sphere and theology hers and that neither has the right to invade and try to subdue the other theology demands perfect obedience philosophy perfect knowledge the obedience demanded by theology and the knowledge demanded by philosophy are like saving as speculative opinions about God theology requires only such as are indispensable to the reality of this obedience the belief that God is that he is a rewarder of them that seek him and that the proof of seeking him is a good life these are the fundamentals of faith and they are so clear and simple that none of the inaccuracies provable in the Bible narrative the least affect them and they have indubitably come to us uncorrupted he who holds them may make as the patriarchs and prophets did without God most erroneous and yet their faith is complete and saving may be on these fundamentals speculative opinions are pious or impious not as they are true or false but as they confirm or shake the believer in the practice of obedience the tourist speculative opinion about the nature of God is impious if it makes its holder rebellious the falsest speculative opinion is pious if it makes him obedient should never render themselves the tools of ecclesiastical ambition by promulgating as fundamentals of the national church's faith more than these and should concede the fullest liberty of speculation but the multitude which respects only what astonishes terrifies and overwhelms it by no means takes this simple view of its own religion to the multitude religion seems imposing only when it is subversive of reason confirmed by miracles conveyed in documents materially sacred and infallible and dooming to damnation all without its pale but this religion of the multitude is not the religion which a true interpretation of scripture finds in scripture reason tells us that a miracle understanding by a miracle a breach of the laws of nature is impossible and that to think it possible is to dishonor God for the laws of nature or the laws of God and to say that God violates the laws of nature is to say that he violates his own nature reason sees to that miracles can never attain the professed object that of bringing us to a higher knowledge of God since our knowledge of God is raised only by perfecting and clearing our conceptions and the alleged design of miracles is to baffle them but neither does scripture anywhere assert as a general truth that miracles are possible indeed it asserts the contrary for Jeremiah declares that nature follows an invariable order scripture however like nature herself does not lay down speculative propositions scriptura definitiones non tradit ut nec et iam natura it relates matters in such an order and with such phraseology as a speaker often not perfectly instructed himself wanted to impress the hears with a lively sense of God's greatness and goodness would naturally employ as Moses for instance relates to the Israelites the passage of the Red Sea without any mention of the east wind which attended it and which is brought accidentally to our knowledge in another place so that to know exactly what scripture means in the relation of each seeming miracle we ought to know besides the tropes and phrases of the Hebrew language the circumstances and also since everyone is swayed in the manner of presenting facts by his own preconceived opinions and we have seen what those of the prophets were the preconceived opinions of each speaker but this mode of interpreting scripture is fatal to the vulgar notion of its verbal inspiration of a sanctity and absolute truth in all the words and sentences of which it is composed this vulgar notion is made a palpable air it is demonstrable from the internal testimony of the scriptures themselves that the books from the first of the Pentateuch to the last of kings were put together after the first destruction of Jerusalem by a compiler probably Ezra who designed to relate the history of the Jewish people from its origins to that destruction it is demonstrable moreover that the compiler did not put his last word into the work but left it with its extracts from various and conflicting sources sometimes unreconciled left it with airs of text and unsettled readings the prophetic books are mere fragments of the prophets collected by the rabbins where they could find them and inserted in the canon according to their discretion they at first proposed to admit neither the book of Proverbs nor the book of prophecies into the canon and only admitted them because there were found in them passages which commended the law of Moses Ezekiel also they had determined to exclude but one of their number remodeled him so as to procure his admission the books of Ezra, Nehemiah Esther and Daniel are the work of a single author and were not written till after Judas Maccabeus had restored the worship of the temple was collected and arranged at the same time before this time there was no canon of the sacred writings and the great synagogue by which the canon was fixed was first convened after the Macedonian conquest of Asia of that synagogue none of the prophets were members the learned men who composed it were guided by their own fallible judgment in like manner the uninspired judgment of human councils determined the canon of the New Testament end of Spinoza and the Bible by Matthew Arnold part one Spinoza and the Bible by Matthew Arnold part two read by Daniel Davidson this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Spinoza and the Bible such reduced to the briefest and plainest terms possible stripped of the developments and proofs with which he delivers it and divested of the metaphysical language in which much of it is clothed by him is the doctrine of Spinoza's treatise on the interpretation of scripture by the whole scope and drift of its argument by the spirit in which the subject is throughout treated his work undeniably is most interesting and stimulating to the general culture of Europe there are alleged contradictions in scripture and the question which the general culture of Europe informed of this asks with real interest is what then Spinoza addresses himself to this question all secondary points of criticism he touches with the utmost possible brevity he points out that Moses could never have written and the Canaanite was then in the land still at the death of Moses he points out that Moses could never have written there rose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses he points out how such a passage as these are the kings that reigned in Adam before there reigned any king over the children of Israel clearly indicates an author writing not before the times of the kings he points out how the account of Ag's iron bedstead the king of Bashan remained of the remnant of giants behold his bedstead was a bedstead of iron is it not in Rabath of the children of Amon probably indicates an author writing after David had taken Rabath and found there abundance of spoil amongst it the iron bedstead the gigantic relic of another age he points out how the language of this passage and of such a passage as that in the book of Samuel before time in Israel when a man went to inquire of God thus he spake come and let us go to the seer for he that is now called prophet was a foretime called seer is certainly the language of a writer describing the events of a long past age and not the language of a contemporary but he devotes to all this no more space than is absolutely necessary he apologizes for delaying over such matters so long for him the interesting question is not whether the fanatical devotee of the letter is to continue for a longer or for a shorter time to believe that Moses sat in the land of Moab writing the description of his own death but what he is to believe when he does not believe this is he to take for the guidance of his life a great gloss put upon the book of David is he to take for the guidance of his life a great gloss put upon the Bible by theologians who not content with going mad themselves with Plato and Aristotle want to make Christ and the prophets go mad with them too or the Bible itself is he to be presented by his national church with metaphysical formularies for his creed or with the real fundamentals of Christianity if with the former religion will never produce its due fruits a few elect will still be saved but the vast majority of mankind will remain without grace and without good works hateful and hating one another therefore he calls urgently upon governments to make the national church what it should be this is the conclusion of the whole matter for him a fervent appeal to the state to save us from the untoward generation of metaphysical article makers and therefore anticipating Mr. Gladstone he called his book the church in its relations with the state such is really the scope of Spinoza's work he pursues a great object and pursues it with signal ability but it is important to observe that he nowhere gives his opinion about the Bible's fundamental character he takes the Bible as it stands as he might take the phenomena of nature and he discusses it as he finds it revelation differs from natural knowledge he says not by being more divine or more certain than natural knowledge but by being conveyed in a different way it differs from it because it is a knowledge of which the laws of human nature considered in themselves alone cannot be the cause what is really its cause he says we need not here inquire for we take scripture which contains this revelation and do not ask how it arose proceeding on this principle Spinoza leaves the attentive reader somewhat baffled and disappointed clear as is his way of treating his subject and remarkable as are the conclusions with which he presents us he starts we feel from what is to him a hypothesis and we want to know what he really thinks about this hypothesis his greatest novelties are all within limits fixed for him by this hypothesis he says that the voice which called Samuel was an imaginary voice he says that the waters of the Red Sea retreated before strong wind he says that the shunamite sun was revived by the natural heat of Elisha's body he says that the rainbow which was made a sign to Noah appeared in the ordinary course of nature scripture itself rightly interpreted says he affirms all this but he asserts that the divine voice which uttered the commandments on Mount Sinai was a real voice a vera vox he says indeed that this voice could not really give to the Israelites that proof which they imagined it gave to them of the existence of God and that God on Sinai was dealing with the Israelites only according to their imperfect knowledge still he asserts the divine voice to have been a real one and for this reason that we do violence to scripture if we do not admit it to have been a real one nisi scriptorai vim inferi verimus omnino conchedendomest israelitas veram vocum audivisi the attentive reader wants to know what Spinoza himself thought about this vera vox and its possibility he is much more interested in knowing this than in knowing what Spinoza considered scripture to affirm about the matter the feeling of perplexity thus caused is not diminished by the language of the chapter on miracles in this chapter Spinoza broadly affirms a miracle to be an impossibility but he himself contrasts the method of demonstration a priori by which he claims to have established this proposition with the method which he has pursued in treating of prophetic revelation this revelation he says is a matter out of human reach and therefore I was bound to take it as I found it monere volo me alia proses methodo kerca miracula prokesisi quam kerca profetiam quad etiam consulto fecchi quia de profetia quando quidem ipsa captum humanum superat et questio mere theologica est nihil affirmare neque etiam schirei poterram incuo ipsa potissimum consti terret nisi ex fondamentis revelatis the reader feels that Spinoza proceeding on the hypothesis has presented him with the assertion of a miracle and afterwards proceeding a priori has presented him with the assertion that a miracle is impossible he feels that Spinoza does not adequately reconcile these two assertions by declaring that any event really miraculous if found recorded in scripture must be a spurious addition made to scripture by sacrilegious men is then he asked the veravox of Mount Sinai in Spinoza's opinion a spurious addition made to scripture by sacrilegious men or if not how is it not miraculous Spinoza in his own mind regarded the bible as a vast collection of miscellaneous documents many of them quite disparate and not at all to be harmonized with others. Documents of unequal value in a varying applicability some of them convey ideas salutary for one time others for another but in the tractatus theologico politicus he by no means always deals in this free spirit with the bible sometimes he chooses to deal with it in the spirit of the various worshipper of the letter sometimes he chooses to treat the bible as if all its parts were so to speak equipolent to snatch an isolated text which suits his purpose without caring whether it is annulled by the context by the general drift of scripture or by other passages of more weight and authority the great critic thus becomes voluntarily as uncritical as Exeter Hall the epicurean Solomon whose ecclesiastes the Hebrew doctors even after they had received it into the canon forbade the young and weak-minded among their community to read Spinoza quotes as of the same authority with the severe Moses he uses promiscuously as documents of identical force without discriminating between their essentially different character the soften cosmopolitan teaching of the prophets of the captivity and the national teaching of the instructors of Israel's youth he is capable of extracting from a chance expression of Jeremiah the assertion of a speculative idea which Jeremiah certainly never entertained and from which he would have recoiled in dismay the idea namely that miracles are impossible just as the ordinary Englishman can extract from God's words to Noah be fruitful and multiply and exhortation to himself to have a large family. Spinoza I repeat knew perfectly well what this verbal mode of dealing with a Bible was worth but he sometimes uses it because of the hypothesis from which he set out because of his having agreed to take Scripture as it stands and not to ask how it arose no doubt the sagacity of Spinoza's rules for biblical interpretation the power of his analysis of the contents of the Bible the interest of his reflections in history are in spite of this very great and have an absolute worth of their own independent of the silence or ambiguity of their author upon a point of cardinal importance few candid people will read his rules of interpretation without exclaiming that they are the very dictates of good sense that they have always believed in them and without adding after a moment's reflection that they have passed their lives in violating them what can be more interesting than to find that perhaps the main cause of the decay of the Jewish polity was one of which from our English Bible which entirely mistranslates the 26th verse of the 20th chapter of Ezekiel we hear nothing the perpetual reproach of impurity and rejection cast upon the priesthood of the tribe of Levi what can be more suggestive after Mr. Mill and Dr. Stanley in telling us how great an element of strength to the Hebrew nation was the institution of prophets then to hear from the ablest of Hebrews how this institution seems to him to have been to his nation one of her main elements of weakness no intelligent man can read the tractatus theologico politicus without being profoundly instructed by it but neither can he read it without feeling that as a speculative work it is to use a French military expression in the air that in a certain sense it is in want of a base and in want of supports that this base and these supports are at any rate not to be found in the work itself and if they exist must be sought for in other works of the author the genuine speculative opinions of Spinoza which the tractatus theologico politicus but imperfectly reveals may in his ethics and in his letters be found set forth clearly it is however the business of criticism to deal with every independent work as with an independent whole and instead of establishing between the tractatus theologico politicus and the ethics of Spinoza a relation which Spinoza himself has not established to sees in dealing with the tractatus theologico politicus the important fact that this work has its source not in the axioms and definitions of the ethics but in a hypothesis the ethics are not yet translated into English and I have not here to speak of them then will be the right time for criticism to try and sees the special character and tendencies of that remarkable work when it is dealing with it directly the criticism of the ethics is far too serious a task to be undertaken incidentally and merely as a supplement to the criticism of the tractatus theologico politicus nevertheless on certain governing ideas of Spinoza which receive their systematic expression indeed in the ethics and on which the tractatus theologico politicus is not formally based but which are yet never absent from Spinoza's mind in the composition of any work which breathe through all his works and fill them with a peculiar effect and power I have a word or two to say a philosopher's real power over mankind resides not in his metaphysical formulas but in the spirit and tendencies which have led him to adopt those formulas Spinoza's critic therefore has rather to bring to light that spirit and those tendencies of his author then to exhibit his metaphysical formulas propositions about substance passed by mankind at large like the idle win which mankind at large guards not it will not even listen to a word about these propositions unless it first learns what their author was driving at with them and finds that this object of his is one with which it sympathizes one at any rate which commands its attention and mankind is so far right that the object of the author is really as has been said that which is most important that which sets all his work in motion that which is the secret attraction for other minds which by different ways pursue the same object Mr. Morris seeking for the cause of Goethe's great admiration for Spinoza thinks that he finds it in Spinoza's Hebrew genius he spoke of God says Mr. Morris as an actual being to those who had fancied him a name in a book the child of the circumcision had a message for Lessing and Goethe which the pagan schools of philosophy could not bring this seems to me confess fanciful an intensity and impressiveness which came to him from his Hebrew nature Spinoza no doubt has but the two things which are most remarkable about him and by which as I think he chiefly impressed Goethe seemed to me not to come to him from his Hebrew nature at all I mean his denial of final causes and his stoicism a stoicism not passive but active for mine like Goethe's a found a impartial and passionately aspiring after the science not of men only but of universal nature the popular philosophy which explains all things by reference to man and regards universal nature is existing for the sake of man and even of certain classes of men was utterly repulsive unchecked this philosophy would gladly maintained that the donkey exists in order that the invalid Christian may have donkeys milk before breakfast and such views of nature as this were exactly what Goethe's whole soul abhor creation he thought should be made of sternest stuff he desired to rest the donkey's existence on larger grounds more than any philosopher who has ever lived Spinoza satisfied him here the full exposition of the counter doctrine to the popular doctrine of final causes is to be found in the ethics but this denial of final causes was so essential an element of all Spinoza's thinking that we shall as has been said already find it in the work with which we are here concerned the tractotus theological politicus and indeed permeating that work and all his works from the tractotus theological politicus one may take as good a general statement of this denial as any which is to be found in the ethics Deus natorum derigit a use legis one of us allies known out on pro ut human I not or I particular as legis xigunt adio quedeus non solely as human a generous said totias not or I ratio them have it God directs nature according as the universal laws of nature but not according as the particular laws of human nature require and so God has regard not of the human race only but of entire nature and as a pendant to this denial by Spinoza of final causes comes his stoicism non stood a must or not or a novice said Contra or not or I Parayamos our desire is not that nature may obey us but on the contrary that we may obey nature here is a second source of his attractiveness for Gerta and Gerta is but the eminent representative of a whole order of minds whose admiration has made Spinoza's fame Spinoza first impresses Gerta and any man like Gerta and then he composes him first he fills and satisfies his imagination by the width and grandeur of his view of nature and then he fortifies and stills his mobile straining passionate temperament by the moral lesson he draws from his view of nature and a moral lesson not of mere resigned acquiescence not of melancholy quietism but of joyful activity within the limits of man's true sphere ipsa hominus e sentia es conatus quo unos quiscue sum e se conservare conato wordus hominus est ipsa hominus e sentia quatenus a solo conatus sum e se conservande definitor feliquitas sineo consistit quod homo sum e se conservare potest laititia est hominus transitio ad maiorum perfektionum tristitia est hominus transitio ad minorum perfektionum verescence is the effort where with each man's drives to maintain his own being man's virtue is this verescence so far as it is defined by the single effort to maintain his own being happiness consists in a man's being able to maintain his own being joy is man's passage to a greater perfection sorrow is man's passage to a lesser perfection it seems to me that neither of these his grand characteristic doctrines is Spinoza truly Hebrew or truly Christian his denial of final causes is essentially alien to the spirit of the Old Testament and his cheerful and self-sufficing stoicism is essentially alien to the spirit of the new the doctrine that God directs nature not according as the particular laws of human nature but according as the universal laws of nature require is that utter variance with that Hebrew mode of representing God's dealings which make the locusts visit Egypt to punish Pharaoh's hardness of heart and the falling dew avert itself from the fleece of Gideon the doctrine that all sorrow is a passage to a lesser perfection is that utter variance with the Christian recognition of the blessedness of sorrow working repentance to salvation not to be repented of of sorrow which in Dante's words remarries us to God Spinoza's repeated in earnest assertions that the love of God is mansumum bonum do not remove the fundamental diversity between his doctrine and the Hebrew and Christian doctrines by the love of God he does not mean the same thing which the Hebrew and Christian religions mean by the love of God he makes the love of God to consist in the knowledge of God and as we know God only through his manifestation of himself in the laws of all nature it is by knowing these laws that we love God and the more we know them the more we love him this may be true but this is not what the Christian means by the love of God Spinoza's ideal is the intellectual life the Christian's ideal is the religious life between the two conditions there is all the difference which there is between the being in love and the following with delighted comprehension a reasoning of Plato for Spinoza undoubtedly the crown of the intellectual life is a transport as for the saint the crown of the religious life is a transport but the two transports are not the same this is true yet it is true also that by thus crowning the intellectual life with a sacred transport by thus retaining in philosophy amid the discontented murmurs of all the army of atheism the name of God Spinoza maintains a profound affinity with that which is truest in religion and inspires an indestructible interest one of his admirers M. van Vlauten has recently published at Amsterdam a supplementary volume to Spinoza's works containing the interesting document of Spinoza's sentence of excommunication from which I have already quoted and containing besides several lately found works alleged to be Spinoza's which seem to me to be of doubtful authenticity and even if authentic of no great importance M. van Vlauten who let me be permitted to say in passing writes a Latin which would make one think that the art of writing Latin must be now a lost art in the country of Lipsius is very anxious that Spinoza's unscientific retention of the name of God should not collect his readers with any doubts as to his perfect scientific orthodoxy. It is a great mistake he cries to disperse Spinoza as merely one of the dogmatists before Kant by keeping the name of God while he did away with his person and character he has done himself an injustice. Those who look to the bottom of things will see that long ago as he lived he had even then reached the point to which the post Hegelian philosophy and the study of natural science has only just brought our own times. Leibniz expressed his apprehension, lest those who did away with final causes should do away with God at the same time. But it is in his having done away with final causes and with God along with them that Spinoza's true merit consists. Now it must be remarked that to use Spinoza's denial of final causes in order to identify him with the horrify of atheism is to make a false use of Spinoza's denial of final causes just as to use his assertion of the all importance of loving God to identify him with the saints would be to make a false use of his assertion of the all importance of loving God. He is no more to be identified with the post Hegelian philosophers than he is to be identified with Saint Augustine. Unction indeed Spinoza's writings have not. That name does not precisely fit in equality which they exhibit and yet so all important in the sphere of religious thought is the power of edification that in this sphere a great fame like Spinoza's can never be founded without it. A court of literature can never be very severe to Voltaire. With that inimitable wit and clear sense of his he cannot write a page in which the fullest head may not find something suggestive. Still because handling religious ideas he yet with all his wit and clear sense handles them wholly without the power of edification his fame as a great man is equivocal. Strauss has treated the question of scripture miracles with an acuteness and fullness which even to the most informed minds is instructive but because he treats it wholly without the power of edification his fame as a serious thinker is equivocal. But in Spinoza there is not a trace either Voltaire's passion for mockery or Strauss's passion for demolition his whole soul was filled with desire of the love and knowledge of God and of that only philosophy always proclaims herself on the way to the sumum bonum but too often on the road she seems to forget her destination and suffers her hears to forget it also. Spinoza never forgets his destination the love of God is man's highest happiness and blessedness and the final end and aim of all human actions the supreme reward for keeping God's word is that word itself namely to know him and with free will and pure and constant heart love him these sentences are the keynote to all he produced and were the inspiration of all his labors this is why he turned so sternly upon the worshipers of the letter the editors of the Massara the editor of the record because their doctrine imperils our love and knowledge of God what he cries our knowledge of God to depend upon these perishable things which Moses can dash to the ground and break to pieces like the first tables of stone or of which the originals can be lost like the original book of the Covenant like the original of God like the book of the wars of God which can come to us confused imperfect miswritten by copyists tampered with by doctors and you accuse others of impiety it is you who are impious to believe that God would commit the treasure of the true record of himself to any substance less enduring than the heart and Spinoza's life was not unworthy of this elevated strain a philosopher who professed that knowledge was its own reward a devotee who professed that the love of God was its own reward this philosopher and this devotee believed in what he said Spinoza led a life the most spotless perhaps to be found among the lives of the philosophers he lived simple, studious even tempered, kind declining honors, declining riches declining notoriety he was poor and his admirer the priest sent him two thousand Florence he refused them the same friend left him his fortune he returned it to the heir he was asked to dedicate one of his works to the magnificent pattern of letters in his century Louis the 14th he declined his great work his ethics published after his death he gave injunctions to his friends to publish anonymously for fear he should give his name to a soul truth he thought should bear no man's name and finally unless he said I had known that my writings would in the end advance the cause of true religion I would have suppressed them it was in this spirit that he lived and this spirit gives to all he writes not exactly unction I've already said so but a kind of sacred solemnity not of the same order as the saints he yet follows the same service doubtless thou art our father though Abraham be ignorant of us and Israel acknowledge us not therefore he has been in a certain sphere edifying and has inspired in many powerful minds an interest and an admiration such as no other philosopher has inspired since Plato the lonely precursor of German philosophy he still shines when the light of his successors is fading away in the end of the century Spinoza has fame not because his peculiar system of philosophy has had more adherents than theirs on the contrary it has had fewer but schools of philosophy arise and fall their bands of adherents inevitably dwindle no master can long persuade a large body of disciples that they give to themselves just the same account of the world as he does a very fantastic who can think themselves sure that they possess the whole mind of Plato or Spinoza or Hegel at all the very mature and the very sober can even hardly believe that these philosophers possessed it themselves enough to put it all into their works and to let us know entirely how the world seemed to them what a remarkable philosopher really does for human thought is to throw into circulation ideas and expressions and to stimulate with them the thought and imagination of his century or of after times so Spinoza has made his distinction between adequate and inadequate ideas a current notion for educated Europe so Hegel seized a single pregnant sentence of her a clientess and cast it with a thousand striking applications into the world of modern thought but to do this is only enough to make him noteworthy it is not enough to make him great to be great he must have something in him which can influence character which is edifying he must in short have a noble and lofty character himself a character to recur to that much criticized expression of mine in the grand style this is what Spinoza had and because he had it he stands out from the multitude of philosophers and has been able to make powerful minds a feeling which the most remarkable philosophers without this grandiose character could not inspire there is no possible view of life but Spinoza's said lessing Goethe has told us how he was calmed and edified by him in his youth and how he again went to him for support in his maturity Heiner the man in spite of his faults of truest genius that Germany has produced since and with faults as I have said immense faults the greatest of them being that he could reverence so little reverence Spinoza Hegel's influence ran off him like water I have seen Hegel he cries seated with his doleful air of a hatching hen upon his unhappy eggs and I have heard his dismal clucking how easily one can cheat oneself into thinking that one understands everything and has learnt only how to construct dialectical formulas but of Spinoza Heiner said his life was a copy of the life of his divine kinsman Jesus Christ and therefore when M. van Floten violently presses the parallel with the post Hegelians one feels that the parallel with Saint Augustine is the far truer one compared with the soldier of a religion M. van Floten would have him believe Spinoza is religious it is true one may say to the wise and devout Christian Spinoza's conception of Beatitude is not yours and cannot satisfy you but whose conception of Beatitude would you accept to satisfy not even that of the devoutest of your fellow Christians Fra Angelico the sweetest and most inspired of devout souls has given us in his great picture of the last judgment of Beatitude the elect are going round in a ring on long grass under laden fruit trees two of them more restless than the others are flying up a battlemented street a street blank with all the ennui of the middle ages across a gulf is visible for the delectation of the saints a blazing cauldron in which Beelzebub is sousing the damned this is hardly more your conception of Beatitude than Spinoza's is but in my father's house are many mansions only to reach any one of these mansions there are needed the wings of a genuine sacred transport of an immortal longing these wings Spinoza had and because he had them his own language about himself about his aspirations and his course are true his foot is in the vera vita his eye is in the beatific vision end of Spinoza and the Bible by Matthew Arnold this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain