Chapter 40.—Whatever Has Been Rightly Said by the Heathen, We Must Appropriate to Our Uses.

60.  Moreover, if those who are called philosophers, and especially the Platonists, have said aught that is true and in harmony with our faith, we are not only not to shrink from it, but to claim it for our own use from those who have unlawful possession of it.  For, as the Egyptians had not only the idols and heavy burdens which the people of Israel hated and fled from, but also vessels and ornaments of gold and silver, and garments, which the same people when going out of Egypt appropriated to themselves, designing them for a better use, not doing this on their own authority, but by the command of God, the Egyptians themselves, in their ignorance, providing them with things which they themselves were not making a good use of;116    Ex. iii. 21, 22; xii. 35, 36. in the same way all branches of heathen learning have not only false and superstitious fancies and heavy burdens of unnecessary toil, which every one of us, when going out under the leadership of Christ from the fellowship of the heathen, ought to abhor and avoid; but they contain also liberal instruction which is better adapted to the use of the truth, and some most excellent precepts of morality; and some truths in regard even to the worship of the One God are found among them.  Now these are, so to speak, their gold and silver, which they did not create themselves, but dug out of the mines of God’s providence which are everywhere scattered abroad, and are perversely and unlawfully prostituting to the worship of devils.  These, therefore, the Christian, when he separates himself in spirit from the miserable fellowship of these men, ought to take away from them, and to devote to their proper use in preaching the gospel.  Their garments, also,—that is, human institutions such as are adapted to that intercourse with men which is indispensable in this life,—we must take and turn to a Christian use.

61.  And what else have many good and faithful men among our brethren done?  Do we not see with what a quantity of gold and silver and garments Cyprian, that most persuasive teacher and most blessed martyr, was loaded when he came out of Egypt?  How much Lactantius brought with him?  And Victorinus, and Optatus, and Hilary, not to speak of living men!  How much Greeks out of number have borrowed!  And prior to all these, that most faithful servant of God, Moses, had done the same thing; for of him it is written that he was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians.117    Acts vii. 22.  And to none of all these would heathen superstition (especially in those times when, kicking against the yoke of Christ, it was persecuting the Christians) have ever furnished branches of knowledge it held useful, if it had suspected they were about to turn them to the use of worshipping the One God, and thereby overturning the vain worship of idols.  But they gave their gold and their silver and their garments to the people of God as they were going out of Egypt, not knowing how the things they gave would be turned to the service of Christ.  For what was done at the time of the exodus was no doubt a type prefiguring what happens now.  And this I say without prejudice to any other interpretation that may be as good, or better.

CAPUT XL. Ab Ethnicis si quid recte dictum, in nostrum usum est convertendum.

60. Philosophi autem qui vocantur, si qua forte vera et fidei nostrae accommodata dixerunt, maxime Platonici, non solum formidanda non sunt, sed ab eis etiam tanquam injustis possessoribus in usum nostrum vindicanda. Sicut enim Aegyptii non solum idola habebant et onera gravia, quae populus Israel detestaretur et fugeret, sed etiam vasa atque ornamenta de auro et argento, et vestem, quae ille populus exiens de Aegypto, sibi potius tanquam ad usum meliorem clanculo vindicavit; non auctoritate propria, sed praecepto Dei, ipsis Aegyptiis nescienter commodantibus ea, quibus non bene utebantur (Exod. III, 22, et XII, 35): sic doctrinae omnes Gentilium non solum simulata et superstitiosa figmenta gravesque sarcinas supervacanei laboris habent, quae unusquisque nostrum duce Christo de societate Gentilium exiens, debet abominari atque devitare; sed etiam liberales disciplinas usui veritatis aptiores, et quaedam morum praecepta utilissima continent, deque ipso uno Deo colendo nonnulla vera inveniuntur apud eos; quod eorum tanquam aurum et argentum, quod non ipsi instituerunt, sed de quibusdam quasi metallis divinae providentiae, quae ubique infusa est, eruerunt, et quo perverse atque injuriose ad obsequia daemonum abutuntur, cum ab eorum misera societate sese animo separat, debet ab eis auferre christianus ad usum justum praedicandi Evangelii. Vestem quoque illorum, id est, hominum quidem instituta, sed tamen accommodata humanae societati, qua in hac vita carere non possumus, accipere atque habere licuerit in usum convertenda christianum.

61. Nam quid aliud fecerunt multi boni fideles nostri? Nonne aspicimus quanto auro et argento et veste suffarcinatus exierit de Aegypto Cyprianus doctor suavissimus et martyr beatissimus? quanto Lactantius? quanto Victorinus, Optatus, Hilarius, ut de vivis taceam? quanto innumerabiles Graeci? Quod prior ipse fidelissimus Dei famulus Moyses fecerat, de quo scriptum est quod eruditus fuerit omni sapientia Aegyptiorum (Act. VII, 22). Quibus omnibus viris superstitiosa Gentium consuetudo, et maxime illis temporibus, cum Christi recutiens jugum Christianos persequebatur, disciplinas quas utiles habebat, nunquam commodaret, si eas in usum colendi unius Dei, quo vanus idolorum cultus exscinderetur, conversum iri suspicaretur: sed dederunt aurum, et argentum, et vestem suam exeunti populo Dei de Aegypto, nescientes quemadmodum illa quae dabant, in Christi obsequium cederent. Illud enim in Exodo factum, sine dubio figuratum est, ut hoc praesignaret; quod sine praejudicio alterius, aut paris, aut melioris intelligentiae dixerim.