together according to the successive value of the letters, and including Lambda itself, forms the sum of ninety-nine; but that this Lambda, being the eleventh in order, descended to seek after one equal to itself, so as to complete the number of twelve letters, and when it found such an one, the number was completed, is manifest from the very configuration of the letter; for Lambda being engaged, as it were, in the quest of one similar to itself, and finding such an one, and clasping it to itself, thus filled up the place of the twelfth, the letter Mu (Μ) being composed of two Lambdas (ΛΛ). Wherefore also they, by means of their "knowledge," avoid the place of ninety-nine, that is, the defection—a type of the left hand,[1]—but endeavour to secure one more, which, when added to the ninety and nine, has the effect of changing their reckoning; to the right hand.
3. I well know, my dear friend, that when thou hast read through all this, thou wilt indulge in a hearty laugh over this their inflated wise folly! But those men are really worthy of being mourned over, who promulgate such a kind of religion, and who so frigidly and perversely pull to pieces the greatness of the truly unspeakable power, and the dispensations of God in themselves so striking, by means of Alpha and Beta, and through the aid of numbers. But as many as separate from the church, and give heed to such old wives' fables as these, are truly self-condemned; and these men Paul commands us, "after a first and second admonition, to avoid."[2] And John, the disciple of the Lord, has intensified their condemnation, when he desires us not even to address to them the salutation of "good-speed;" for, says he, "He that bids them be of good-speed is a partaker with their evil deeds;"[3] and that with reason, "for there is no good-speed to the ungodly,"[4] saith the Lord. Impious indeed, beyond all impiety, are these men, who
- ↑ Massuet explains this and the following reference, by remarking that the ancients used the fingers of the hand in counting; by the left hand they indicated all the numbers below a hundred, but by the right hand all above that sum.—Comp. Juvenal, Sat. x. 249.
- ↑ Tit. iii. 10.
- ↑ 2 John v. 11.
- ↑ Isa. xlviii. 22.
