A Theologico-Political Treatise part 3 | Page 8

be said so rightly that it cannot be twisted into wrong. (11)
Those who wish to give rein to their lusts are at no loss for an excuse,
nor were those men of old who possessed the original Scriptures, the
ark of the covenant, nay, the prophets and apostles in person among
them, any better than the people of to-day. (12) Human nature, Jew as
well as Gentile, has always been the same, and in every age virtue has
been exceedingly rare.
(13) Nevertheless, to remove every scruple, I will here show in what
sense the Bible or any inanimate thing should be called sacred and
Divine; also wherein the law of God consists, and how it cannot be

contained in a certain number of books; and, lastly, I will show that
Scripture, in so far as it teaches what is necessary for obedience and
salvation, cannot have been corrupted. (14) From these considerations
everyone will be able to judge that I have neither said anything against
the Word of God nor given any foothold to impiety.
(15) A thing is called sacred and Divine when it is designed for
promoting piety, and continues sacred so long as it is religiously used:
if the users cease to be pious, the thing ceases to be sacred: if it be
turned to base uses, that which was formerly sacred becomes unclean
and profane. (16) For instance, a certain spot was named by the
patriarch Jacob the house of God, because he worshipped God there
revealed to him: by the prophets the same spot was called the house of
iniquity (see Amos v:5, and Hosea x:5), because the Israelites were
wont, at the instigation of Jeroboam, to sacrifice there to idols. (17)
Another example puts the matter in the plainest light. (18) Words gain
their meaning solely from their usage, and if they are arranged
according to their accepted signification so as to move those who read
them to devotion, they will become sacred, and the book so written will
be sacred also. (19) But if their usage afterwards dies out so that the
words have no meaning, or the book becomes utterly neglected,
whether from unworthy motives, or because it is no longer needed, then
the words and the book will lose both their use and their sanctity: lastly,
if these same words be otherwise arranged, or if their customary
meaning becomes perverted into its opposite, then both the words and
the book containing them become, instead of sacred, impure and
profane.
(20) From this it follows that nothing is in itself absolutely sacred, or
profane, and unclean, apart from the mind, but only relatively thereto.
(21) Thus much is clear from many passages in the Bible. (22)
Jeremiah (to select one case out of many) says (chap. vii:4), that the
Jews of his time were wrong in calling Solomon's Temple, the Temple
of God, for, as he goes on to say in the same chapter, God's name
would only be given to the Temple so long as it was frequented by men
who worshipped Him, and defended justice, but that, if it became the
resort of murderers, thieves, idolaters, and other wicked persons, it
would be turned into a den of malefactors.
(23) Scripture, curiously enough, nowhere tells us what became of the

Ark of the Covenant, though there is no doubt that it was destroyed, or
burnt together with the Temple; yet there was nothing which the
Hebrews considered more sacred, or held in greater reverence. (24)
Thus Scripture is sacred, and its words Divine so long as it stirs
mankind to devotion towards God: but if it be utterly neglected, as it
formerly was by the Jews, it becomes nothing but paper and ink, and is
left to be desecrated or corrupted: still, though Scripture be thus
corrupted or destroyed, we must not say that the Word of God has
suffered in like manner, else we shall be like the Jews, who said that
the Temple which would then be the Temple of God had perished in
the flames. (25) Jeremiah tells us this in respect to the law, for he thus
chides the ungodly of his time, "Wherefore, say you we are masters,
and the law of the Lord is with us? (26) Surely it has been given in vain,
it is in vain that the pen of the scribes " (has been made) - that is, you
say falsely that the Scripture is in your power, and that you possess the
law of God; for ye have made it of none effect.
(27) So also, when Moses broke the first tables of the law, he did not
by any means cast the Word of God from his hands in anger and shatter
it - such an action would be