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45. But these writings of the apostles, though clear, are yet
profound, and are so written that one
who is not content with a superficial acquaintance, but desires to
know them thoroughly, must not
only read and hear them, but must have an expositor. Let us, then,
study these various modes of
speech as they are exemplified in the writings of men who, by
reading the Scriptures, have
attained to the knowledge of divine and saving truth, and have
ministered it to the Church.
Cyprian of blessed memory writes in the subdued style in his
treatise on the sacrament of the cup.
In this book he resolves the question, whether the cup of the Lord
ought to contain water only, or
water mingled with wine. But we must quote a passage by way of
illustration. After the
customary introduction, he proceeds to the discussion of the point
in question. "Observe," he
says, "that we are instructed, in presenting the cup, to maintain
the custom handed down to us
from the Lord, and to do nothing that our Lord has not first done
for us: so that the cup which is
offered in remembrance of Him should be mixed with wine. For, as
Christ says, 'I am the true
vine,' it follows that the blood of Christ is wine, not water; and
the cup cannot appear to contain
His blood by which we are redeemed and quickened, if the wine be
absent; for by the wine is the
blood of Christ typified, that blood which is foreshadowed and
proclaimed in all the types and
declarations of Scripture. For we find that in the book of Genesis
this very circumstance in regard
to the sacrament is foreshadowed, and our Lord's sufferings
typically set forth, in the case
of Noah, when he drank wine, and was drunken, and was uncovered
within his tent, and his
nakedness was exposed by his second son, and was carefully hidden
by his elder and his younger
sons. It is not necessary to mention the other circumstances in
detail, as it is only necessary to
observe this point, that Noah, foreshadowing the future reality,
drank, not water, but wine, and
thus showed forth our Lord's passion. In the same way we see the
sacrament of the Lord's supper
prefigured in the case of Melchizedek the priest, according to the
testimony of the Holy
Scriptures, where it says: 'And Melchizedek king of Salem brought
forth bread and wine: and he
was the priest of the most high God. And he blessed Abraham.' Now,
that Melchizedek was a
type of Christ, the Holy Spirit declares in the Psalms, where the
Father addressing the Son says,
'Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.'" In
this passage, and in all of the letter
that follows, the subdued style is maintained, as the reader may
easily satisfy himself.
46. St. Ambrose also, though dealing with a question of very great
importance, the equality of
the Holy Spirit with the Father and the Son, employs the subdued
style, because the object he has
in view demands, not beauty of diction, nor the swaying of the
mind by the stir of emotion,
but facts and proofs. Accordingly, in the introduction to his
work, we find the following passage
among others: "When Gideon was startled by the message he had
heard from God, that, though
thousands of the people failed, yet through one man God would
deliver His people from their
enemies, he brought forth a kid of the goats, and by direction of
the angel laid it with unleavened
cakes upon a rock, and poured the broth over it; and as soon as
the angel of God touched it with
the end of the staff that was in his hand, there rose up fire out
of the rock and consumed the
offering. Now this sign seems to indicate that the rock was a type
of the body of Christ, for it is
written, 'They drank of that spiritual rock that followed them,
and that rock was Christ;' this, of
course, referring not to Christ's divine nature, but to His flesh,
whose ever-flowing fountain of
blood has ever satisfied the hearts of His thirsting people. And
so it was at that time declared in a
mystery that the Lord Jesus, when crucified, should abolish in His
flesh the sins of the whole
world, and not their guilty acts merely, but the evil lusts of
their hearts. For the kid's flesh refers
to the guilt of the outward act, the broth to the allurement of
lust within, as it is written, 'And the
mixed multitude that was among them fell a lusting; and the
children of Israel also wept again and
said, Who shall give us flesh to eat?' When the angel, then,
stretched out his staff and touched the
rock, and fire rose out of it, this was a sign that our Lord's
flesh, filled with the Spirit of God,
should burn up all the sins of the human race. Whence also the
Lord says, 'I am come to send fire
on the earth.'" And in the same style he pursues the subject,
devoting himself chiefly to proving
and enforcing his point.
47. An example of the temperate style is the celebrated encomium
on virginity from Cyprian:
"Now our discourse addresses itself to the virgins, who, as they
are the objects of higher honour,
are also the objects of greater care. These are the flowers on the
tree of the Church, the glory and
ornament of spiritual grace, the joy of honour and praise, a work
unbroken and unblemished, the
image of God answering to the holiness of the Lord, the brighter
portion of the flock of Christ.
The glorious fruitfulness of their mother the Church rejoices in
them, and in them flourishes more
abundantly; and in proportion as bright virginity adds to her
numbers, in the same proportion does
the mother's joy increase." And at another place in the end of the
epistle, "As we have borne," he
says, "the image of the earthly, we shall also bear the image of
the heavenly." Virginity bears this
image, integrity bears it, holiness and truth bear it; they bear
it who are mindful of the chastening
of the Lord, who obscene justice and piety, who are strong in
faith, humble in fear, steadfast in the
endurance of suffering, meek in the endurance of injury, ready to
pity, of one mind and of one
heart in brotherly peace. And every one of these things ought ye,
holy virgins, to obscene, to
cherish, and fulfill, who having hearts at leisure for God and for
Christ, and having chosen the greater and better part, lead and
point the way to the Lord, to whom you have pledged your vows. Ye
who are advanced in age, exercise control over the younger. Ye who
are younger, wait upon the elders, and encourage your equals; stir
up one another by mutual exhortations; provoke one another to
glory by emulous examples of virtue; endure bravely, advance in
spirituality, finish your course with joy; only be mindful of us
when your virginity shall begin to reap its reward of honour."
48. Ambrose also uses the temperate and ornamented style when
he is holding up before virgins who have made their profession a
model for their imitation, and says: "She was a virgin not in body
only, but also in mind; not mingling the purity of her affection
with any dross of hypocrisy; serious in speech; prudent in
disposition; sparing of words; delighting in study; not placing
her confidence in uncertain riches, but in the prayer of the poor;
diligent in labour; reverent in word; accustomed to look to God,
not man, as the guide of her conscience; injuring no one, wishing
well to all; dutiful to her elders, not envious of her equals;
avoiding boastfulness, following reason, loving virtue. When did
she wound her parents even by a look? When did she quarrel with
her neighbours? When did she spurn the humble, laugh at the weak,
or shun the indigent? She is accustomed to visit only those haunts
of men that pity would not blush for, nor modesty pass by. There
is nothing haughty in her eyes, nothing bold in her words, nothing
wanton in her gestures: her bearing is not voluptuous, nor her
gait too free, nor her voice petulant; so that her outward
appearance is an image of her mind, and a picture of purity. For a
good house ought to be known for such at the very threshold, and
show at the very entrance that there is no dark recess within, as
the light of a lamp set inside sheds its radiance on the outside.
Why need I detail her sparingness in food, her superabundance in
duty,--the one falling beneath the demands of nature, the other
rising above its powers? The latter has no intervals of
intermission, the former doubles the days by fasting; and when the
desire for refreshment does arise, it is satisfied with food such
as will support life, but not minister to appetite." Now I have
cited these latter passages as examples of the temperate style,
because their purpose is not to induce those who have not yet
devoted themselves to take the vows of virginity, but to show of
what character those who have taken vows ought to be. To prevail
on any one to take a step of such a nature and of so great
importance, requires that the mind should be excited and set on
fire by the majestic style. Cyprian the martyr, however, did not
write about the duty of taking up the profession of virginity, but
about the dress and deportment of virgins. Yet that great bishop
urges them to their duty even in these respects by the power of a
majestic eloquence.
49. But I
shall select examples of the
majestic style from their treatment of a subject which both of
them have touched. Both have
denounced the women who colour, or rather discolour, their faces
with paint. And the first, in
dealing with this topic, says: "Suppose a painter should depict in
colours that rival nature's the
features and form and completion of some man, and that, when the
portrait had been finished with
consummate art, another painter should put his hand over it, as if
to improve by his superior skill
the painting already completed; surely the first artist would feel
deeply insulted, and his
indignation would be justly roused. Dost thou, then, think that
thou wilt carry off with impunity
so audacious an act of wickedness, such an insult to God the great
artifices? For, granting that
thou art not immodest in thy behaviour towards men, and that thou
art not polluted in mind by
these meretricious deceits, yet, in corrupting and violating what
is God's, thou provest thyself
worse than an adulteress. The fact that thou considerest thyself
adorned and beautified by such
arts is an impeachment of God's handiwork, and a violation of
truth. Listen to the warning voice
of the apostle: 'Purge out the old leaven, that ye may be a new
lump, as ye are unleavened. For
even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us: therefore let us
keep the feast, not with old leaven,
neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the
unleavened bread of sincerity and
truth.' Now can sincerity and truth continue to exist when what is
sincere is polluted, and what is
true is changed by meretricious colouring and the deceptions of
quackery into a lie? Thy Lord
says, 'Thou can't not make one hair white or black;' and dost thou
wish to have greater power so
as to bring to nought the words of thy Lord? With rash and
sacrilegious hand thou wouldst fain
change the colour of thy hair: I would that, with a prophetic look
to the future, thou shouldst dye
it the color of flame." It would be too long to quote all that
follows.
50. Ambrose again,
inveighing against such practices, says: "Hence arise these
incentives to vice, that women, in their
fear that they may not prove attractive to men, paint their faces
with carefully-chosen colours, and
then from stains on their features go on to stains on their
chastity. What folly it is to change the
features of nature into those of a painting, and from fear of
incurring their husband's disapproval,
to proclaim openly that they have incurred their own! For the
woman who desires to alter her
natural appearance pronounces condemnation on herself; and her
eager endeavours to please
another prove that she has first been displeasing to herself. And
what testimony to thine ugliness
can we find, O woman, that is more unquestionable than thine own,
when thou art afraid to show
thyself? If thou art comely why dost thou hide thy comeliness? If
thou art plain, why test thou lyingly pretend to be beautiful, when thou can't not enjoy the
pleasure of the lie either in thine own
consciousness or in that of another? For he loves another woman,
thou desires to please another
man; and thou art angry if he love another, though he is taught
adultery in thee. Thou art the evil
promptress of thine own injury. For even the woman who has been
the victim of a pander shrinks
from acting the pander's part, and though she be vile, it is
herself she sins against and not another.
The crime of adultery is almost more tolerable than thine; for
adultery tampers with modesty, but
thou with nature." It is sufficiently clear, I think, that this
eloquence calls passionately upon
women to avoid tampering with their appearance by deceitful arts,
and to cultivate modesty and
fear. Accordingly, we notice that the style is neither subdued nor
temperate, but majestic
throughout. Now in these two authors whom I have selected as
specimens of the rest, and in other
ecclesiastical writers who both speak the truth and speak it
well,--speak it, that is, judiciously,
pointedly, and with beauty and power of expression,--many examples
may be found of the three
styles of speech, scattered through their various writings and
discourses; and the diligent student
may by assiduous reading, intermingled with practice on his own
part, become thoroughly imbued
with them all.
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