134 successfully cultivated them: David, for instance, who was a proficient in the theory and practice of music; and Moses, whose attainments in geometry are so conspicuous in his account of the dimensions of the tabernacle. Abraham also rose "through nature up to nature's God" by that long series of observations upon the starry heavens, and upon the motions of the planetary bodies, which have given him so high a reputation for skill in astronomy; and he also arrived at an equal proficiency in the sister science of arithmetic. This he demonstrates in the following terms :-" When Abraham heard that Lot was carried away captive, he armed his three hundred and eighteen trained servants,135 attacked the enemy, and conquered a greatly superior force. It is said that the numeral for 300 () is the sign of the Lord's cross, and that the iota and eta (n), which stand for 18, denote the saving name (Inoss the Saviour.) Showing forth, therefore, that they are the servants of Abraham, as it respects salvation, who fly to the cross and name of the Lord, and overcome those that lead into captivity, and the many Gentile nations who follow them."136 Here it will be observed, that Clement tacitly corrects the blunder of Barnabas, but, 134 For this notion he was indebted to Philo Judæus, spì Aßpáαμ., p. 282 B. A book, the purport of which is to show that Abraham attained to the knowledge of divine things, with which he was favoured, by dint of his researches in astronomy and other branches of philosophy. Clement's Christianity was built altogether upon Philo's Judaism. The wretched philosophising of Josephus and Philo upon the miracles of the Old Testament, is now taken much advantage of by the infidel writers on the Continent. It has long been a prevalent notion in the East, that Abraham was a great astronomer. The origin of it being merely that he was a native of Chaldæa, which was afterwards celebrated for such pursuits.-Fab. Cod. Pseud. Vet. Test. Vol. I., pp. 341., e. s. 135 Gen. xiv. 14. 136 6 Strom., § 11. notwithstanding, is quite as successful in giving a pious application to the mystery. It is, therefore, evidently of no importance whether the mystical cypher represent the number of Abraham's trained servants that went forth to fight, or (by a mistake of the commentator) the number of males in his household who underwent the rite of circumcision. For we find that, though the mistake suggested the interpretation, a little ingenuity has discovered an equally edifying paraphrase upon it, when the blunder is corrected! But we are by no means to imagine, that the principal of the school of philosophy at Alexandria would rest contented with the humble office of copyist and corrector of Barnabas. He also has favoured us with his own variations upon so promising a theme. It is in the following strain of sublimity :-"The number three hundred is a triad in a century: the decad (10) is, without controversy, the all-perfect number: and the eight is the first cube, having equality in all its dimensions length, breadth, and thickness. The days of man,' says the word, shall be one hundred and twenty years; 137 this number is, by synthesis, the fifteenth from the monad,138 and the moon becomes full on the fifteenth day. Otherwise, 120 is a triangular number, (a multiple of three), and is composed of the numbers 64 and 56. Sixty-four is composed of the first cube 8, being an even number of uneven parts ascending in arithmetical progression from the monad;139 fifty-six is compounded of 137 Gen. vi. 3. 138 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7+ 8+ 9+ 10+ 11 + 12 +13 + 14 + 15 = 120. 139 1 + 3 + 5 + 7 + 9 + 11+13 + 15 = 64. He means that there are eight terms in this progression, and that all of them are old numbers. an odd number of even parts, commencing with the dyad, (2) that odd number being seven, one of the perfect numbers.140 By another signification, 120, is compounded of four numbers, fifteen a triangle (3 x 5); twenty-five a square (52): thirty-five a pentagon (7 x 5); forty-five a hexagon;141 these numbers are constructed upon the analogy of the number five, which is the basis of all of them. Now the number twenty-five is said to be the symbol of the tribe of Levi,"142 &c. &c. &c. Mr. Faber, in his admirable work on prophecy, speaks of a school-boy with a slate and pencil adjusting the numerical name of the seven-headed monster in the apocalypse! I would only remark upon the preceding quotation, that I know what the school-boy would deserve, who should prostitute his slate and pencil to the intolerable nonsense which our Alexandrian philosopher gravely propounds as the very summit and perfection of Christian knowledge. Let me not be told that the Pythagoreans and Cabbalists had already awakened a taste for researches into the hidden properties of numbers, and that Clement merely wrote in accordance with the philosophy of the times. The perfect Revelation of God is invested with a dignity and simplicity which ought always to have guarded it against such profanations, from those 140 2 + 4 + 6 + 8 + 10 + 12 + 14 = 56. This progression consists of seven even numbers. 141 So says the author, and so it certainly ought to be, to answer the purpose of his argument; but, unfortunately, there is an arithmetical objection to the arrangement, which probably he got over thus :-6 × 5 30 the hexagon; and the remaining fifteen, which completes the fortyfive, is a repetition of the triangle, with which the series commenced. 15 + 25+ 35+ 45 (that is, 30 + 15) = 120. I suppose that this is the philosopher's meaning; if it is not, "I am free to confess" that I dont know what he meant. 142 6 Strom., § 11. who profess themselves its defenders. And, moreover, the entire insanity of mystical arithmetic had been already most ably exposed, and by his immediate predecessor, Irenæus; with whose works he was evidently very familiar. I have the more pleasure in laying before the reader an extract from his masterly argument, because I have to acknowledge that it has completely exploded a few grains of this folly, which still lurked in my own mind, regarding the triad and the heptad. He is confuting the dogma of the Marcosian heretics, that the divine nature existed in ogdoads, or eights :-" We will grant that their argument is a perfectly true one; and that the instances they give us of the occurrence of the number eight in Scripture, are deduced from thence by a correct rule of interpretation, and to be received.143 But we contend that there is another number, which neither aids their argument, nor concurs with their figment, but which, nevertheless, rests upon a much more extended basis of Scripture authority. There are five letters in the name Σwrp Saviour, and the words Tarp father, and άyαлη love, are formed also of the same number. Our Lord blessed five loaves, and with them satisfied the hunger of five thousand persons. He also informs us that there were five wise virgins and five foolish. Again, there were five persons with our Lord at his transfiguration, Peter, James, John, Moses, and Elias; Dives, in hell, told Abraham that he had five brothers. The pool of Bethesda had five gates. The form of the cross has five points; the four extremities of the two beams, and that in the middle, which sustains the 143 Adv. Hær., lib. 2. c. 42. I have here somewhat paraphrased the original, in order to connect it with the subject of the two preceding chapters; in which he shows the foolish and unwarrantable liberties they have taken with the text to obtain the number they wanted. person to be crucified.144 There are also five fingers on each hand; five books of Moses, five Commandments on each of the tables of the Decalogue. Five priests were consecrated in the desert; Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar. Their garments were woven of five colours.145 There were also five kings of the Amorites, whom Joshua shut up in the cave. And many thousands of such coincidences upon this number, may be found by any one who will be at the trouble of looking for them, either in the Word of God, or in the works of nature. But we do not, on this account, teach that there are five æons in the pleroma above the demiurge (creator); nor do we consecrate the pentad (5) as something divine; nor do we endeavour to corroborate such ravings by this our vain labour; wresting the well-ordered creations of God into types which have no existence, and introducing thereby, impious and wicked dogmas, which any one of ordinary understanding may overturn." How Clement of Alexandria, or any one else in his senses, could withstand the overwhelming force of this reasoning, and persevere in such trifling, I cannot comprehend. After these quotations the following will appear but vapid: He thus defends the use of instrumental music: :“Praise him on the ten-stringed Psaltery.'146 By the ten-stringed Psaltery we are to understand the incarnate Word for the cypher for 10 is iota (1) which is also the first letter in Inoes Jesus."147 "Our pædagogue is firm and upright; this is denoted by the first letter in his 144 According to later authorities, the scabella, or footstool. the same allusion in our quotation from Justin Martyr, p. 270. There is 145 Exod. xxviii. 1-5. 146 Psa. xxxiii. 2. 147 Pæd., lib. 2. c. 4. |