Chapter 9.—Who is in Bondage to Signs, and Who Not.

13.  Now he is in bondage to a sign who uses, or pays homage to, any significant object without knowing what it signifies:  he, on the other hand, who either uses or honors a useful sign divinely appointed, whose force and significance he understands, does not honor the sign which is seen and temporal, but that to which all such signs refer.  Now such a man is spiritual and free even at the time of his bondage, when it is not yet expedient to reveal to carnal minds those signs by subjection to which their carnality is to be overcome.  To this class of spiritual persons belonged the patriarchs and the prophets, and all those among the people of Israel through whose instrumentality the Holy Spirit ministered unto us the aids and consolations of the Scriptures.  But at the present time, after that the proof of our liberty has shone forth so clearly in the resurrection of our Lord, we are not oppressed with the heavy burden of attending even to those signs which we now understand, but our Lord Himself, and apostolic practice, have handed down to us a few rites in place of many, and these at once very easy to perform, most majestic in their significance, and most sacred in the observance; such, for example, as the sacrament of baptism, and the celebration of the body and blood of the Lord.  And as soon as any one looks upon these observances he knows to what they refer, and so reveres them not in carnal bondage, but in spiritual freedom.  Now, as to follow the letter, and to take signs for the things that are signified by them, is a mark of weakness and bondage; so to interpret signs wrongly is the result of being misled by error.  He, however, who does not understand what a sign signifies, but yet knows that it is a sign, is not in bondage.  And it is better even to be in bondage to unknown but useful signs than, by interpreting them wrongly, to draw the neck from under the yoke of bondage only to insert it in the coils of error.

CAPUT IX. Quis signorum servitute premitur, quis non. Baptismus. Eucharistia.

13. Sub signo enim servit qui operatur aut veneratur aliquam rem significantem, nesciens quid significet: qui vero aut operatur, aut veneratur utile signum divinitus institutum, cujus vim significationemque intelligit, non hoc veneratur quod videtur et transit, sed illud potius quo talia cuncta referenda sunt Talis autem homo spiritualis et liber est, etiam tempore servitutis, quo carnalibus animis nondum oportet signa illa revelari, quorum jugo edomandi sunt 0071 Tales autem spirituales erant Patriarchae ac Prophetae, omnesque in populo Israel per quos nobis Spiritus sanctus ipsa Scripturarum et auxilia et solatia ministravit. Hoc vero tempore posteaquam resurrectione Domini nostri manifestissimum indicium nostrae libertatis illuxit, nec eorum quidem signorum, quae jam intelligimus, operatione gravi onerati sumus; sed quaedam pauca pro multis, eademque factu facillima, et intellectu augustissima, et observatione castissima ipse Dominus et apostolica tradidit disciplina: sicuti est Baptismi sacramentum, et celebratio corporis et sanguinis Domini. Quae unusquisque cum percipit, quo referantur imbutus agnoscit, ut ea non carnali servitute, sed spirituali potius libertate veneretur. Ut autem litteram sequi, et signa pro rebus quae iis significantur accipere, servilis infirmitatis est; ita inutiliter signa interpretari, male vagantis erroris est. Qui autem non intelligit quid significet signum, et tamen signum esse intelligit, nec ipse premitur servitute. Melius est autem vel premi incognitis, sed utilibus signis, quam inutiliter ea interpretando, a jugo servitutis eductam cervicem laqueis erroris inserere.