marvellous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall
perish, and the understanding...."
_Prophecies._ _Proof of divinity._ Isaiah xli.
"Shew the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that ye
are gods: and we will incline our heart unto your words. Teach us the
things that have been from the beginning and prophecy those that are
to come.
"By this we shall know that ye are gods. Yea, do good, or do evil, if
you can. Come now and let us reason together.
"Behold, ye are of nothing, and an abomination, etc. Who hath
declared from the beginning, that we may know? and beforetime, that
we may say, He is righteous? yea, there is none that sheweth, yea,
there is none that declareth the future."
Is. xlii. "I am the Lord: and my glory will I not give to another. I
have foretold the former things which have come to pass, and declare
those which are to come. Sing a new song to God in all the earth."
"Bring forth the blind people that have eyes and see not, and the
deaf that have ears and hear not. Let all the nations be gathered
together. Who among them and their Gods can declare this, and shew
us former things, and things to come? Let them bring forth their
witnesses, that they may be justified: or let them hear, and say, It
is truth.
"Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant whom I have
chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he.
"I have declared, and have saved, and I have shewed wonders in your
eyes: therefore ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, that I am God.
"For your sake I have sent to Babylon, and have brought down all
their nobles. I am the Lord, your sanctifier and creator.
"I have made a way in the sea, and a path in the mighty waters; I am
he that destroyed for ever the powerful enemies who have resisted you.
"Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of
old.
"Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye
not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in
the desert.
"This people have I formed for myself; they shall shew forth my
praise, etc.
"I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own
sake, and will not remember thy sins. Put me in remembrance: let us
plead together: declare thou, that thou mayest be justified. Thy
first father hath sinned, and thy teachers have transgressed against
me." Is. xliv. "I am the first and the last, saith the Lord. Whoso
will equal himself to me, let him declare the order of things since I
formed the first peoples, and the things which are to come. Fear ye
not, have I not declared all these things, ye are my witnesses."
_Prophecy of Cyrus_--"Because of Jacob whom I have chosen I have
called thee by thy name," "Come and let us reason together. Who has
declared this from ancient time, and foretold things to come? have
not I, the Lord."
Is. xlvi. "Remember the former things of old, and know that there is
none like me. Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient
times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall
stand, and I will do all my pleasure."
Is. xlii. 9. "Behold, the former things are come to pass, and new
things do I declare: before they spring forth I tell you of them."
Is. xlviii. 3. "I have declared the former things from the beginning;
and I shewed them; and they came to pass. Because I knew that thou
art obstinate, that thy spirit is rebellious, and thy brow brass; I
have even before it came to pass shewed it thee: lest thou shouldst
say, that it was the work of thy Gods and the effect of their
commands.
"Thou hast seen all this; and will not ye declare it? I have shewed
thee new things from this time, even hidden things, and thou didst
not know them. They are created now, and not from the beginning; even
before the day when thou heardst them not; lest thou shouldst say,
Behold, I knew them.
"Yea, thou heardest not; yea, thou knewest not; yea, from that time
that thine ear was not opened: for I knew that thou wouldst deal very
treacherously, and wast called a transgressor from the womb."
--_Prophecies._ _In Egypt._--_Pugio Fidei_, 659. _Talmud._
It is a tradition among us that when the Messiah shall come, the
house of God, destined for the dispensation of his word, shall be
full of filth and impurity, that the wisdom of the scribes shall be
corrupt and rotten; that those who fear to sin shall be reproved by
the people, and treated as fools and madmen.
Is. xlix.
"Listen, O isles, unto me, and hearken ye people from far: The Lord
hath called me by my name even from the womb of my mother; he hath
hid me in the shadow of his hand, he hath made my words like a sharp
sword, and said: Thou art my servant, in whom I will be glorified.
And I said, Lord, have I laboured in vain? have I spent my strength
for nought? yet is my judgment with thee, O Lord, and my work before
thee. When the Lord, who has formed me from the womb of my mother to
be wholly for himself, in order to bring Jacob and Israel again to
him, said unto me: Thou shalt be glorious in my sight, and I will
be thy strength. It is a light thing that thou shouldst convert the
tribes of Jacob; I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles,
that thou mayest be my salvation unto the ends of the earth. These
are the things which the Lord hath said to him that humbleth his soul
to him whom the nation abhorreth, to a servant of rulers. Princes
and kings shall worship thee because the Lord is faithful that hath
chosen thee.
"Again the Lord said unto me: I have heard thee in the days of
salvation and of mercy, and I have established thee for a covenant of
the people, and to cause thee to inherit the desolate nations, that
thou mayest say to those who are in chains: Go forth, and to those
that are in darkness: Come into the light, and possess these abundant
and fertile lands. They shall no more labour, nor hunger, nor thirst,
neither shall the sun smite them; for he that hath mercy on them
shall lead them, even by the springs of waters shall he guide them,
and make the mountains plain before them. Behold, the peoples shall
come from all parts, from the East and from the West, from the North
and from the South. Let the heaven give glory to God, let the earth
rejoice, for it hath pleased the Lord to comfort his people, and he
will have mercy on the poor who hope in him.
"Yet Sion hath dared to say: The Lord hath forsaken and hath
forgotten me. Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should
not have compassion on the son of her womb, but if she forget, yet
will I not forget thee, O Sion. I will bear thee always between my
hands, and thy walls shall be ever before me. Thy builders are come,
thy destroyers shall go forth of thee. Lift up thy eyes round about,
and see all these are gathered together, to come to thee: as I live,
saith the Lord, thou shall be clothed with all these as with an
ornament, thy deserts, and thy desolate places, and the land of thy
destruction shall now be too narrow by reason of the inhabitants,
and the children of thy barrenness shall still say in thy ears: the
place is too strait for me, make me room to dwell in. And thou shall
say in thy heart: Who hath begotten these? I was barren and brought
not forth, led away, and captive: and who hath brought up these? I
was destitute and alone: and these, where were they? And the Lord
shall say: Behold, I will lift up my hand to the Gentiles, and will
set up my standard to the people. And they shall bring thy children
in their arms, and in their bosoms. And kings shall be thy nursing
fathers, and queens thy nursing mothers: they shall worship thee with
their face toward the earth, and they shall lick up the dust of thy
feet. And thou shall know that I am the Lord, for they shall not be
confounded that wait for him. Shall the prey be taken from the strong
and mighty? But even if the captivity be taken away from the strong:
nothing can hinder me to judge those that have judged thee, and thy
children I will save. And all flesh shall know, that I am the Lord
thy Saviour, and thy Redeemer the mighty One of Jacob.
"Thus saith the Lord: What is this divorcement, wherewith I have put
away the synagogue, and why have I delivered it into the hands of
your enemies; is it not for your iniquities and your transgressions
that I have put it away?
"For I came, and no man would receive me, I called and none would
hear. Is my arm shortened that I cannot save?
"Therefore will I show the tokens of my anger, I will clothe the
heavens with darkness, and will make sackcloth their covering.
"The Lord hath given me the tongue of the learned that I should know
how to uphold by word him that is weary. He hath wakened my ear, and
I have heard him as a master.
"The Lord hath revealed his will and I was not rebellious.
"I gave my body to the smiters, and my cheeks to outrage, I hid
not my face from shame and spitting, but the Lord has helped me,
therefore I was not confounded.
"He is near that justifieth me; who will contend with me, and accuse
me of sin, since God himself is my protector?
"All men shall pass and be consumed by time, let those that fear the
Lord hearken to the words of his servant, let him that languisheth in
darkness put his trust in the Lord. But as for you, you do but set
alight upon you the wrath of God, you walk upon the coals and among
the flames you have kindled. This ye have of my hand, ye shall perish
in sorrow.
"Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek
the Lord: look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of
the pit whence ye are digged. Look unto Abraham your father, and
unto Sarah that bare you: for I called him when he was alone, and
childless, and increased him. For the Lord has comforted Zion: and
has heaped on her blessings and consolations.
"Hearken unto me, my people; and give ear unto me, for a law shall
proceed from me, and I will make my judgment to rest for a light of
the Gentiles."
Amos viii. The prophet having enumerated the sins of Israel, said
that God had sworn to take vengeance on them.
He saith also: "And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the
Lord, that the sun shall go down at mid-day, and I will make the
earth dark in the day of light: And I will turn your feasts into
mourning, and all your songs into lamentation.
"You shall have sorrow and suffering, and I will make the sorrow as
the mourning of an only son, and the latter end thereof as a bitter
day. Behold the days come, saith the Lord, and I will send forth a
famine into the land: not a famine of bread, nor a thirst of water,
but of hearing the words of the Lord. And they shall move from sea to
sea, and from the North to the East: they shall go about seeking the
word of the Lord, and shall not find it.
"In that day their fair virgins, and their young men shall faint
for thirst. They that have followed the idols of Samaria, and sworn
by the god of Dan; who have followed the worship of Beersheba; they
shall fall, and shall rise no more."
Amos iii. 2. "Of all nations of the earth, I have chosen you only to
be my people."
Daniel xii. 7. Daniel having described all the extent of Messiah's
reign, says, "All these things shall be done when the dispersion of
my people shall be accomplished."
Haggai ii. 3. "You who compare this second house with the glory of
the first and despise it. Yet now take courage, O Zerubbabel, saith
the Lord, and take courage O Jesus the high priest, and take courage,
all ye people of the land, and cease not to work. The word that I
covenanted with you when you came out of the land of Egypt stands
yet: and my spirit shall be in the midst of you: Lose not hope. For
thus saith the Lord of hosts: Yet one little while, and I will move
the heaven and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land,"--a mode of
speech to denote a great and extraordinary change. "And I will move
all nations: and the desired of all nations shall come: and I will
fill this house with glory: saith the Lord.
"The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the Lord,"--that is
to say, it is not by that that I will be honoured, as it is said in
another place. All the beasts of the field are mine, what good is
it to me that they are offered me in sacrifice?--"Greater shall be
the glory of this latter house than of the first, saith the Lord of
hosts: and in this place I will establish my house, saith the Lord."
"According to all that you desired of the Lord God in Horeb in the
day of the assembly, saying, Let us not hear again the voice of the
Lord, neither let us see this fire any more, that we die not. And
the Lord said unto me, Their prayer is just. I will raise them up a
prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and I will put my
words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall
command him. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not
hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require
it of him."
Genesis xlix. "Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise, and
thou shall vanquish thine enemies; thy father's children shall bow
down before thee. Judah, lion's whelp, thou art gone up to the prey,
O my son, and art couched as a lion, and as a lioness awakened.
"The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between
his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the
people be."
_OF TYPES IN GENERAL AND OF THEIR LAWFULNESS._
_Proof of the two Testaments at once._--To prove both the Testaments
at one stroke we need only see if the prophecies in one are
accomplished in the other.
To examine the prophecies we must understand them.
For if we believe they have only one sense it is certain that Messiah
has not come; but if they have two senses, it is certain that he has
come in Jesus Christ.
The whole question then is to know if they have two senses....
That the Scripture has two senses, which Jesus Christ and his
Apostles have given, the following are the proofs:
1. Proof by Scripture itself.
2. Proofs by the Rabbis. Moses Maimonides says that it has two faces,
and that the prophets have prophesied Jesus Christ only.
3. Proofs by the Cabala.
4. Proofs by the mystical interpretation which the rabbis themselves
have given to the Scripture.
5. Proofs by the principles laid down by the rabbis that there are
two senses, that there are two advents of the Messiah; one in glory,
and one in humiliation, according to their deserts; that the prophets
have prophesied of Messiah only. The Law is not eternal, but must
change when Messiah comes; that then they shall no more remember the
Red Sea; that the Jews and the Gentiles shall be mingled.
It is as those among whom there is a certain secret language.
Those who do not understand it can see in it only a foolish sense.
_Typical._--The figures of a sword, a shield.
_Potentissime._
To change the type, because of our weakness.
_Types._--The prophets prophesied by figures of a girdle, a beard and
burnt hair, etc.
Two errors: 1, to take all literally; 2, to take all spiritually.
The veil which is upon these books for the Jews is there also for bad
Christians, and for all who do not hate themselves.
But those who truly hate themselves are in a disposition to
understand the Scriptures and to know Jesus Christ.
_Types_.--To show that the Old Testament is only figurative, and
that by temporal possessions the prophets understood others, this
is the proof: 1, that this were unworthy of God; 2, that their
discourses express very clearly the promise of temporal possessions,
and that they say nevertheless that their discourses are obscure,
and that their sense will not be understood. Whence it appears that
this secret sense is not that which they openly expressed, and that
consequently they meant to speak of other sacrifices, of another
deliverer, etc. They say that they will be understood only in the
fulness of time. Jer. xxxiii.
The third proof is that their discourses are contradictory and
destroy each other, so that if we think they did not mean by the
words law and sacrifice aught else than those of Moses, there is a
gross and obvious contradiction. Therefore they meant something else,
occasionally contradicting themselves in the same chapter.
Now to understand the sense of an author....
_A type brings with it absence and presence, pleasure and pain._
A cipher with a double sense, one clear, and in which it is said that
the sense is hidden....
A portrait brings with it absence and presence, pleasure and pain.
The reality excludes absence and pain.
_Types._--To know if the law and the sacrifices are real or
figurative, we must see if the prophets in speaking of these things
limited their view and their thoughts to them, so that they saw only
the old covenant; or if they saw in them somewhat else of which they
were the semblance, for in a portrait we see the thing figured. For
this we need only examine what they say.
When they speak of it as eternal, do they mean that same covenant
which they elsewhere say will be changed; so of the sacrifices, etc.?
A cipher has two senses. If we intercept an important letter in which
we see an obvious meaning, wherein it is nevertheless declared that
the sense is veiled and obscure, that it is concealed, so that the
letter might be read without discovering it, and understood without
understanding, we can but think that here is a cipher with a double
sense, and all the more if we find manifest contradictions in the
literal sense. How greatly we ought to value those who interpret
the cipher, and explain to us the hidden sense, especially if the
principles they extract are wholly natural and clear. This is what
Jesus Christ did, and the Apostles. They broke the seal, he rent
the veil, and revealed the spirit. They have thereby taught us that
man's enemies are his passions; that the Redeemer is to be spiritual
and his reign spiritual; that there are to be two advents, one in
lowliness to abase the proud, the other in glory to exalt the humble;
that Jesus Christ is God and man.
The prophets said clearly that Israel would be always the beloved of
God, that the law would be eternal, they have said also that their
meaning would not be understood, and that it was veiled.
_Types._--When the word of God, which cannot lie, is false literally,
it is true spiritually. _Sede a dextris meis_, is false literally,
therefore it is true spiritually.
In these expressions God is spoken of after the manner of men, and
this means only that the intention which men have in giving a seat
at their right hand, God will also have. It is then a mark of the
intention of God, not of his mode of carrying it out.
Thus when it is said "God has received the odour of your incense
and will in return give you a fat land," this means that the same
intention which a man will have, who, pleased with your perfumes,
will give you a fat land, God will have towards you, because you have
had towards him the same intention as a man has for him to whom he
offers a sweet savour. So _iratus est_, a jealous God, etc., for the
things of God being inexpressible, they cannot be said otherwise. And
the Church uses them still: _Quia confortavit seras_, etc.
Difference between dinner and supper.
In God the word differs not from the intention, for he is true, nor
the word from the effect, for he is powerful, nor the means from the
effect, for he is wise. Bern. _ult. sermo in Missam_.
Aug., _de Civit._ v. 10. This rule is general. God can do all, except
those things which if he could do he would not be almighty, as dying,
being deceived, lying, etc.
Many evangelists for the confirmation of the truth. Their differences
are useful.
The Eucharist after the Lord's Supper. Truth after the type.
The ruin of Jerusalem, a type of the ruin of the world, forty years
after the death of Jesus.
"I know not" as a man or as an ambassador. Matt. xxiv. 36.
Jesus condemned by the Jews and the Gentiles.
The Jews and the Gentiles figured by the two sons.
Aug. _de Civit._ xx. 29.
The figures of the Gospel for the state of the sick soul are sick
bodies, but because one body cannot be sufficiently sick to express
it well, several are needed. Thus there are the deaf, the dumb, the
blind, the paralytic, the dead Lazarus, the possessed; all this
together is in the sick soul.
Isaiah, li. The Red Sea an image of the Redemption.
"_Ut sciatis quod filius hominis habet potestatem remittendi peccata,
tibi dico: Surge._"
God, willing to show that he was able to form a people holy with an
invisible holiness, and to fill them with an eternal glory, made
visible things. As nature is an image of grace, he has done in the
excellences of nature what he would accomplish in those of grace, in
order that men might judge that he could make the invisible since he
made the visible so well.
Thus he saved this people from the deluge, he has raised them up from
Abraham, redeemed them from their enemies, and caused them to enter
into rest.
The object of God was not to save them from the deluge, and raise up
a whole people to Abraham, only in order to bring them into a fat
land.
And so grace itself is but the figure of glory, for it is not the
ultimate end. It was symbolised by the law, and itself symbolises
grace, but it is the figure of it, and the origin or cause.
The ordinary life of man is like that of the saints. They all seek
their satisfaction, and differ only in the object wherein they place
it; they call those their enemies who hinder them, etc. God then has
shown the power which he has to give invisible possessions, by the
power which he has shown over things visible.
And yet this covenant, made to blind some and enlighten others,
marked in those very men whom it blinded the truth which should be
recognised by others. For the visible possessions which they received
from God were so great and so divine that it certainly appeared he
was able to give them those which are invisible, as well as a Messiah.
For nature is an image of grace, and visible miracles are the image
of the invisible. _Ut sciatis, tibi dico: Surge._
Isaiah, li., says that Redemption will be as the passage of the Red
Sea.
God then has shown by the deliverance from Egypt, and from the sea,
by the defeat of the kings, by the manna, by the whole genealogy of
Abraham, that he was able to save, to send down bread from heaven,
etc., so that the people at enmity with him is the type and the
representation of the very Messiah whom they know not, etc.
He has then shown us at last that all these things were only types,
and what is true freedom, a true Israelite, true circumcision, true
bread from heaven, etc.
In these promises each man finds what he chiefly desires, temporal
possessions or spiritual, God or the creatures; but with this
difference, that those who therein seek the creatures find them, but
attended by many contradictions, with a prohibition against loving
them, with the injunction to worship God only, and to love him only,
which is the same thing, and finally that the Messiah came not for
them; whilst on the contrary those who therein seek God find him,
without any contradiction, with the injunction to love him only,
and that the Messiah came in the time foretold, to give them the
possessions which they ask.
Thus the Jews had miracles and prophecies, of which they saw the
accomplishment, and the teaching of their law was that they should
love and worship God alone; it was also perpetual. Thus it had
all the marks of the true religion, as indeed it was, but we must
distinguish between the teaching of the Jews, and the teaching of
the Jewish law. Now the teaching of the Jews was not true, although
it had miracles and prophecy and perpetuity, because it had not this
further point, the worship and love of God only.
_The reason of types._
They had to deal with a carnal people, and to render them the
depositary of a spiritual covenant.
To give faith in the Messiah it was necessary there should have been
antecedent prophecies, in the charge of persons above suspicion,
diligent, faithful, singularly zealous, and known to all the world.