Chapter XIV.—Of Blasphemy. One of St. Paul’s Sayings.

But, however, the majority (of Christians) have by this time induced the belief in their mind that it is pardonable if at any time they do what the heathen do, for fear “the Name be blasphemed.” Now the blasphemy which must quite be shunned by us in every way is, I take it, this: If any of us lead a heathen into blasphemy with good cause, either by fraud, or by injury, or by contumely, or any other matter of worthy complaint, in which “the Name” is deservedly impugned, so that the Lord, too, be deservedly angry.  Else, if of all blasphemy it has been said, “By your means My Name is blasphemed,”101    Isa. lii. 5; Ezek. xxxvi. 20, 23. Cf. 2 Sam. xii. 14; Rom. ii. 24. we all perish at once; since the whole circus, with no desert of ours, assails “the Name” with wicked suffrages. Let us cease (to be Christians) and it will not be blasphemed! On the contrary, while we are, let it be blasphemed: in the observance, not the overstepping, of discipline; while we are being approved, not while we are being reprobated. Oh blasphemy, bordering on martyrdom, which now attests me to be a Christian,102    [This play on the words is literally copied from the original—“quæ tunc me testatur Christianum, cum propter ea me detestatur.”] while for that very account it detests me! The cursing of well-maintained Discipline is a blessing of the Name.  “If,” says he, “I wished to please men, I should not be Christ’s servant.”103    St. Paul. Gal. i. 10. But the same apostle elsewhere bids us take care to please all: “As I,” he says, “please all by all means.”104    1 Cor. x. 32, 33. No doubt he used to please them by celebrating the Saturnalia and New-year’s day!  [Was it so] or was it by moderation and patience? by gravity, by kindness, by integrity? In like manner, when he is saying, “I have become all things to all, that I may gain all,”105    1 Cor. ix. 22. does he mean “to idolaters an idolater?” “to heathens a heathen?” “to the worldly worldly?” But albeit he does not prohibit us from having our conversation with idolaters and adulterers, and the other criminals, saying, “Otherwise ye would go out from the world,”106    1 Cor. v. 10. of course he does not so slacken those reins of conversation that, since it is necessary for us both to live and to mingle with sinners, we may be able to sin with them too. Where there is the intercourse of life, which the apostle concedes, there is sinning, which no one permits. To live with heathens is lawful, to die with them107    i.e., by sinning (Oehler), for “the wages of sin is death.” is not. Let us live with all;108    There seems to be a play on the word “convivere” (whence “convivium,” etc.), as in Cic. de Sen. xiii. let us be glad with them, out of community of nature, not of superstition. We are peers in soul, not in discipline; fellow-possessors of the world, not of error.  But if we have no right of communion in matters of this kind with strangers, how far more wicked to celebrate them among brethren! Who can maintain or defend this? The Holy Spirit upbraids the Jews with their holy-days. “Your Sabbaths, and new moons, and ceremonies,” says He, “My soul hateth.”109    Isa. i. 14, etc. By us, to whom Sabbaths are strange,110    [This is noteworthy. In the earlier days sabbaths (Saturdays) were not unobserved, but, it was a concession pro tempore, to Hebrew Christians.] and the new moons and festivals formerly beloved by God, the Saturnalia and New-year’s and Midwinter’s festivals and Matronalia are frequented—presents come and go—New-year’s gifts—games join their noise—banquets join their din! Oh better fidelity of the nations to their own sect, which claims no solemnity of the Christians for itself! Not the Lord’s day, not Pentecost, even if they had known them, would they have shared with us; for they would fear lest they should seem to be Christians. We are not apprehensive lest we seem to be heathens! If any indulgence is to be granted to the flesh, you have it. I will not say your own days,111    i.e., perhaps your own birthdays. [See cap. xvi. infra.]  Oehler seems to think it means, “all other Christian festivals beside Sunday.” but more too; for to the heathens each festive day occurs but once annually:  you have a festive day every eighth day.112    [“An Easter Day in every week.”—Keble.] Call out the individual solemnities of the nations, and set them out into a row, they will not be able to make up a Pentecost.113    i.e., a space of fifty days, see Deut. xvi. 10; and comp. Hooker, Ecc. Pol. iv. 13, 7, ed. Keble.

CAPUT XIV.

Sed enim plerique jam induxerunt animo, ignoscendum 0681B esse, si quando , quae ethnici, faciunt, ne nomen blasphemetur. Porro blasphemia, quae nobis omnino devitanda est, haec opinor est: si quis nostrum ad justam blasphemiam ethnicum deducat, aut fraude, aut injuria, aut contumelia, aliave materia dignae querelae, in qua nomen merito percutitur, ut merito irascatur et Dominus . Caeterum si de omni blasphemia dictum est: vestricaussa nomen meum blasphematur (Rom. II, 24), perimus universi; cum totus circus scelestis suffragiis nullo merito nomen lacessit. Desinamus, et non blasphemabitur. Imo blasphemetur, dum sumus in observatione, non in exorbitatione disciplinae, dum probamur, non dum reprobamur. O blasphemiam martyrii affinem, 0681C quae tunc me testatur Christianum, cum propter eam detestatur! Benedictio est nominis, maledictio custoditae disciplinae. Si hominibus, inquit, vellem placere, servus Christi non essem (Gal., I, 10). Sed idem alibi (I Cor., X, 33) jubet, omnibus placere curemus. Quemadmodum ego, inquit, omnibus per omnia placeo. Nimirum Saturnalia et Kalendas januarias 0682A celebrans hominibus placebat? an modestia et patientia, an gravitate, an humanitate, an integritate? Proinde cum dicit, Omnia omnibus factus sum, ut omnes lucrifaciam (I Cor. IX, 22), numquid idololatris idololatres, numquid ethnicis ethnicus, numquid saecularibus saecularis? Sed etsi non prohibet nos conversari cum idololatris et adulteris et caeteris criminosis, dicens (I Cor., V, 10): caeterum de mundo exiretis ; non utique eas habenas conversationis immutat, ut quoniam necesse sit et convivere nos et commisceri cum peccatoribus, ideo et cum eis peccare possimus. Ibi est commercium vitae, quod Apostolus concedit; hic peccare, quod nemo permittit. Licet convivere cum ethnicis, commori non licet. Convivamus cum omnibus: conlaetemur ex communione naturae 0682B , non superstitionis. Pares anima sumus, non disciplina: compossessores mundi, non erroris. Quod si nobis nullum jus est communionis in ejusmodi cum extraneis, quanto scelestius est, haec inter fratres frequentare ! Quis hoc sustinere aut defendere potest? Judaeis dies suos fastos exprobrat Spiritus sanctus: Sabbata, inquit, vestra et neomenias et caeremonias odit anima mea (Is., I, 14). Nobis quibus sabbata extranea sunt et neomeniae et feriae a Deo aliquando dilectae, Saturnalia, et Januariae, et Brumae , et Matronales frequentantur? munera commeant? strenae consonant? lusus, convivia constrepunt ? O melior fides nationum in suam sectam! quae nullam solemnitatem Christianorum 0682C sibi vindicat, non Dominicum diem, non Pentecosten , etiamsi nossent, nobiscum communicassent; timerent enim ne Christiani viderentur. Nos ne ethnici pronuntiemur, non veremur. Si quid et carni indulgendum est , habes, non dicam duos dies tantum, sed et plures. Nam ethnicis semel annuus dies quisque festus est: tibi octavus 0683A quisque dies . Excerpe singulas solemnitates nationum, et in ordinem texe , Pentecosten implere non poterunt.