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238 CITY OF GOD
the law merely from the outside, without its spirit and
without the divine insight, which was necessary to under
stand it
rightly and to penetrate its mysteries. But as his
ignorance seemed to him real knowledge and as he was
gifted with a retentive memory and keen understanding,
he was a great zealot for the traditions of the rabbis
(Gal. 1, 14). He judged
it an outrage and absurdity,
that (as he thought), a new law, invented by a Man
crucified as a criminal, should be published in opposition
to them and to that law, which was given by God himself
and received by Moses on the mount (Exod. 24). Hence
he conceived a great hatred and contempt for Christ, his
law and his disciples. Steeped in this error he called into
activity all his moral virtues, (if that can be called virtue
which was devoid of true chanty), and prided himself
much in combating the errors of others. For that is a
common fault with the children of Adam, that they please
themselves in some good work without making the much
more important effort to reform some of their vices. In
this self-deception lived and acted Saul, deeply con
vinced that he was zealously promoting the honor of God
in upholding the ancient law of Moses and its divine ordainments.
It appeared to him that in acting thus he
was defending God s honor ;
for he had not really under
stood this law, which in its ceremonies and figures was
but temporal and not eternal and which was necessarily
to be abrogated by a more wise and powerful Legislator,
as Moses himself foretold (Deut. 18, 15).
250. This indiscreet zeal and vehemence was fanned
by the malice of Lucifer and his ministers, who irritated
and roused him to even greater hatred against the law
of our Savior Jesus Christ. Many times have I in the
course of this history mentioned the malicious attempts
and infernal schemes of this dragon against the holy
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