Chapter 18.—No Help is to Be
Despised, Even Though It Come from a Profane Source.
28. But whether the fact is as
Varro has related, or is not so, still we ought not to give up
music because of the superstition of the heathen, if we can derive
anything from it
that is of use for the
understanding of Holy Scripture; nor does it follow that we must
busy ourselves with their theatrical trumpery because we enter upon
an investigation about harps and other instruments, that may help
us to lay hold upon spiritual things. For we ought not to refuse
to learn letters because they say that Mercury discovered them; nor
because they have dedicated temples to Justice and Virtue, and
prefer to worship in the form of stones things that ought to have
their place in the heart, ought we on that account to forsake
justice and virtue. Nay, but let every good and true Christian
understand that wherever truth may be found, it belongs to his
Master; and while he recognizes and acknowledges the truth, even in
their religious literature, let him reject the figments of
superstition, and let him grieve over and avoid men who, “when
they knew God, glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but
became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was
darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made
like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and
creeping things.”
1803
1803
Rom. i. 21–23
.