histories of the Old Testament; but that the historical or literal sense was the mere carnal interpretation. But is not this, I pray you, the positive profaning of sacred things? Thus Origen, out of paradise, makes heaven, and out of the trees, angels. If this be so, where is the article of the creed concerning creation? It is highly necessary therefore, especially in young students of the holy Scriptures, that when they come to read the old divines they condemn, with good judgment or rather with fixed determination, all those things in their writings which they find at all improbable or unsound, lest they be led astray by the authority that lies in the name of the fathers and doctors of the Church; for in this way was I deceived, as were all the schools of the professors of divinity. For myself, ever since I thus began to abide by the historical sense of the Scriptures, I have cautiously shunned all allegorizing; nor have I ever adopted allegories unless the text itself evidently furnished them or the interpretations derivable from the New Testament justified them. I found it very difficult however to give up entirely my long indulgence in allegorizing, although I saw that these allegories were vain speculations and the mere froth, as it were, of the holy Scriptures. For it is the plain historical sense of Scripture that truly and solidly teaches. After the plain sense of the Word has been rightly understood and mastered, then allegories may be used as certain ornaments by which the plain historical sense may be illustrated and strikingly depicted. But naked allegories which respond not at all to the historical realities nor tend to paint them forth more impressively, are at once to be rejected as idle dreams; for instance, from what part of the Scriptures can it be proved that paradise signifies heaven, and the trees of paradise the angels? Are not these pure follies, and mere creatures of the brain without fruit or profit?