Chapter 1.—This Work Not Intended
as a Treatise on Rhetoric.
1. This
work of mine, which is entitled On Christian Doctrine, was
at the commencement divided into two parts. For, after a preface, in which I answered by anticipation those who were likely to take exception to the work, I said, “There are two things on which all interpretation of Scripture depends: the mode of ascertaining the proper meaning, and the mode of making known the meaning when it is ascertained. I shall treat first of the mode of ascertaining, next of the mode of making known, the meaning.” As, then, I have already said a great deal about the mode of ascertaining the meaning, and have given three books to this one part of the subject, I shall only say a few things about the mode of making known the meaning, in order if possible to bring them all within the compass of one book, and so finish the whole work in four books.
2. In the first place, then, I
wish by this preamble to put a stop to the expectations of readers
who may think that I am about to lay
down rules of rhetoric
such as I have learnt, and taught too, in the secular schools, and
to warn them that they need not look for any such from me. Not
that I think such rules of no use, but that whatever use they have
is to be learnt elsewhere; and if any good man should happen to
have leisure for learning them, he is not to ask me to teach them
either in this work or any other.