De Specialibus Legibus (lib. i‑iv)

And is not the man who would offer such gifts the most shameless of all men, if he offers a portion of the things which he has acquired by doing injury, or by rapine, or by false denial, or by robbery, to God as if he were a partner in his wickedness? O most miserable of all men! I should say to such a man, "You must be expecting one of two things. Either that you will be able to pass undetected, or that you will be discovered.

Therefore, if you expect to be able to pass undetected, you are ignorant of the power of God, by which he at the same time sees everything and hears everything. And if you think that you will be discovered, you are most audacious in (when you ought rather to endeavour to conceal the wicked actions which you have committed) bringing forward to light specimens of all your iniquitous deeds, and giving yourself airs, and dividing the fruits of them with God, bringing him unholy first fruits. And have you not considered this, that the law does not admit of lawlessness, nor does the light of the sun admit of darkness; but God is the archetypal model of all laws, and the sun, which can be appreciated only by the intellect, is the archetypal model of that which is visible to the senses, bringing forth from its invisible fountains visible light to afford to him who sees."

Moreover, there are other commandments relating to the altar. [*](Text moved here in the Cohn edition. Before that it begins a document titled: "A TREATISE ON THE COMMANDMENT THAT THE WAGES OF A HARLOT ARE NOT TO BE RECEIVED IN THE SACRED TREASURY.")

This injunction also is very admirably and properly set down in the sacred tablets of the law, that the wages of a harlot are not to be received into the temple, and inasmuch as she has earned them by selling her beauty, having chosen a most infamous life for the sake of shameful gain; [*]( Deuteronomy xxiii. 18.)

but if the gifts which proceed from a woman who has lived as a concubine are unholy, how can those be different which proceed from a soul which is defiled in the same manner, which has voluntarily abandoned itself to shame and to the lowest infamy, to drunkenness and gluttony, and covetousness and ambition, and love of pleasure, and to innumerable other kinds of passions, and diseases, and wickednesses? For what time can be long enough to efface those defilements, I indeed do not know.

Very often in truth time has put an end to the occupation of a harlot, since, when women have outlived their beauty, no one any longer approaches them, their prime having withered away like that of some flowers; and what length of time can ever transform the harlotry of the soul which from its youth has been trained in early and habitual incontinence, so as to bring it over to good order? No time could do this, but God alone, to whom all things are possible, even those which among us are impossible.

Accordingly, the man who is about to offer a sacrifice ought to examine and see, not whether the victim is without blemish, but whether his mind is sound, and entire, and perfect. Let him likewise investigate the causes for which he is about to offer the sacrifice; for it must be as an expression of thankfulness for kindnesses which have been shown to him, or else of supplication for the permanence of his present blessings, or for the acquisition of some future good, or else to avert some evil either present or expected; for all which objects he should labour to bring his reason into a state of good health and sanity;

for if he is giving thanks for benefits conferred upon him, he must take care not to behave like an ungrateful man, [*]( Deuteronomy xxiii. 18.) becoming wicked, for the benefits are conferred on a virtuous man; or if his object be to secure the permanence of his present prosperity and happiness, and to be enabled to look forward to such for the future, he must still show himself worthy of his good fortune, and behave virtuously; or if he is asking to escape from evils, let him not commit actions deserving of correction and punishment. [*](end of text moved in the Cohn/Wendland edition.)

The law says, "A fire shall be kept burning on the altar which shall never be extinguished, but shall be kept burning for ever." [*]( Leviticus vi. 9.) I think with great reason and propriety; for, since the graces of God are everlasting, and unceasing, and uninterrupted, which we now enjoy day and night, and since the symbol of gratitude is the sacred flame, it is fitting that it [*]( Leviticus vi. 9.)

And, perhaps, the lawgiver designed by this command to connect the old with the new sacrifices, and to unite the two by the duration and presence of the same fire by which all such sacrifices are consecrated, in order to demonstrate the fact that all perfect sacrifices consisted in thanksgiving, although, according to the diversity of the occasions on which they are offered, more victims are offered at one time and fewer at another.

But some are verbal symbols of things appreciable only by the intellect, and the mystical meaning which is concealed beneath them must be investigated by those who are eager for truth in accordance with the rules of allegory. The altar of God is the grateful soul of the wise man, being compounded of perfect numbers undivided and indivisible; for no part of virtue is useless.

On this soul the sacred fire is continually kept burning, preserved with care and unextinguishable. But the light of the mind is wisdom; as, on the contrary, the darkness of the soul is folly. For what the light discernible by the outward senses is to the eyes, that is knowledge to reason with a view to the contemplation of incorporeal things discernible only by the intellect, the light of which is continually shining and never extinguished.

After this the law says, "On every offering you shall add salt." [*](Leviticus ii, 13.) By which injunction, as I have said before, he figuratively implies a duration for ever; for salt is calculated to preserve bodies, being placed in the second rank as inferior only to the soul; for as the soul is the cause of bodies not being destroyed, so likewise is salt, which keeps them together in the greatest degree, and to some extent makes them immortal.

On which account the law calls the altar θυσιατήριον, giving it a peculiar name of especial honour, from its preserving (διατηρέω) the sacrifices (τὰς θυσίας) in a proper manner, and this too though the flesh is consumed by fire; so as to afford the most evident proof possible that God looks not upon the victims as forming the real sacrifice, but on the mind and willingness of him who offers them, that so the durability and firmness of the altar may be ensured by virtue.

Moreover, it also ordains that every sacrifice shall be offered up without any leaven or honey, not thinking it fit that either of these things should be brought to the altar. The honey, [*](Leviticus ii, 13.)

Or else this may be forbidden as a figurative declaration that all superfluous pleasure is unholy, making, indeed, the things which are eaten sweet to the taste, but inflicting bitter pains difficult to be cured at a subsequent period, by which the soul must of necessity be agitated and thrown into confusion, not being able to settle on any sure resting place.

And leaven is forbidden on account of the rising which it causes; this prohibition again having a figurative meaning, intimating that no one who comes to the altar ought at all to allow himself to be elated, being puffed up by insolence; but that such persons may keep their eyes fixed on the greatness of God, [*](This refers to the same idea so beautifully expressed by Virgil,mGeorgics iv. 548. Haud mora; continuo matris precepta facessit. Ad delubra venit, monstratas excitat aras; Quatuor eximios prestanti corpore tauros Ducit, et intacta totidem cervice juvencas. Post, ubi nona suos Aurora induxerat ortus, Inferias Orphei mittit, lucumque revisit. Hic vero subitum ac dictu mirabile monstrum Adspiciunt, liquefacta boum per viscera toto Stridere apes utero, et ruptis effervere costis Immensasque trahi nubes; jamque arbore summa Confluere, et lentis uvam demittere ramis. Or as it is translated by Dryden, "His mother’s precepts he performs with care; The temple visits and adores with prayer; Four altars raises; from his herd he culls, For slaughter, four the fairest of his bulls; Four heifers from his female store he took, All fair and all unknowing of the yoke, Nine mornings thence with sacrifice and prayers, The powers atoned, he to the grove repairs. Behold a prodigy! for from within The broken bowels and the bloated skin, A buzzing noise of bees his ears alarms: Straight issue through the sides assembling swarms, Dark as a cloud they make a wheeling flight, Then on a neighbouring tree, descending light; Like a large cluster of black grapes they show, And make a large dependance from the bough.")

But if the Creator and maker of the universe, who has no need of anything which he has created, not looking at the exceeding greatness of his own power and at his own authority, but at your weakness, gives you a share of his own merciful power, supplying the deficiencies with which you are overwhelmed, how do you think it fitting that you should behave towards men who are akin to you by nature, and who are springing from the same elements with yourself, when you have brought nothing into the world, not even yourself?

For, my fine fellow, you came naked into the world, and you shall leave it again naked, having received the interval between your birth and death as a loan from God; during which what ought you to do rather than take care to live in communion and harmony with your fellow creatures, studying equality, and humanity, and virtue, repudiating unequal, and unjust, and irreconcilable unsociable wickedness, which makes that animal which is by nature the most gentle of all, namely, man, a cruel and untractable monster?

Again, the law commands that candles shall be kept burning from evening until morning [*]( Leviticus xxiv. 2.) on the sacred candlesticks within the veil, on many accounts. One of which is that the holy places may be kept illuminated without any interruption after the cessation of the light of day, being always kept free from any participation in darkness, just as the stars themselves are, for they too, when the sun sets, exhibit their own light, never forsaking the place which was originally appointed for them in the world.

Secondly, in order that by night, also, a rite akin to and closely resembling the sacrifices by day may be performed so as to give pleasure to God, and that no time or occasion fit for offering thanksgiving may ever be left out, which is a duty most suitable and natural for night; for it is not improper to call the blaze of the most sacred light in the innermost shrine itself a sacrifice.