PARS PRIMA.

But we penetrate deeper, and join the sense to the words and the Spirit to the Letter. We possess both the soul and the body. Some separate the soul from the body, others separate the body from the soul; and both incur death, since death is the necessary consequence of the division of their parts. Conversely, while the Church does not separate what God has joined, it does not permit the division between soul and body, nor the sword between Spirit and Letter; and thus it always remains in possession of life, since this consists in the union of those two. It condemns, with St. Jerome (in ch. 13 of Isaiah), those who are carried away into figures while neglecting the history; but at the same time, with the same Holy Father, it condemns those who cling to the simple narration of events, while scorning the figures altogether. It acknowledges with St. Augustine that Holy Scripture contains nothing that is not divine, and there is no diction of it that does not hide an admirable sense: but likewise (with the same Doctor, Lib. de util. cred. c. 3. and books de doctr. Christ.), it admits that this is not always the sense that appears from the terms. Finally, it clearly professes with the Apostle (2 Tim. 3) that all Scripture, divinely inspired, comes from God for our instruction and teaching; but it also warns with the same Doctor of the Gentiles that if the Spirit which gives life is taken from Scripture, only the Letter remains, which kills. In the beginning, says St. Augustine (l. 3. de doctr. Christ. c. 4.), one must be careful not to take a figurative expression literally: for this belongs to what the Apostle says, The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. For when that which is said figuratively is taken as if it were said properly, it is understood carnally, nor is any death of the soul more fittingly named than when understanding is subjected by following the letter. The same Holy Doctor, writing against Celsus, says that when the Apostle spoke of the letter, he understood the words that kill; and when he spoke of the Spirit, he designated the sense that gives life. This he confirms in his book de Spir. & Lit. ad Marcellin., chapter 4, where he warns: That we should not accept something written figuratively, whose propriety is absurd, as the letter sounds, but rather, looking to what else it signifies, we should nourish the inner man with spiritual understanding: since to think according to the flesh is death, but to think according to the Spirit is life and peace: just as if one were to take many things written in the Canticles carnally, not for the fruitful light of charity, but for the lustful affection of carnality. The same, in his book de utilit. credendi, chapter 3: In the precepts and mandates of the law, he says, nothing is more pernicious than to take whatever is there literally, that is, word for word: nothing more wholesome than for it to be revealed by the Spirit: hence, The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. We should not think, says St. Jerome in his Comment. ad Galat., that the Gospel is in the words of the Scriptures, but in the sense; not in the surface, but in the marrow. The same in his book against the Luciferians: If we follow the letter, we can also compose dogmas, asserting