642. proof of the two testaments at once. — to prove the two at one stroke, we need only see if the prophecies in one are fulfilled in the other. to examine the prophecies, we must understand them. for if we believe they have only one meaning, it is certain that the messiah has not come; but if they have two meanings, it is certain that he has come in jesus christ.
the whole problem then is to know if they have two meanings.
that the scripture has two meanings, which jesus christ and the apostles have given, is shown by the following proofs:
1. proof by scripture itself.
2. proof by the rabbis. moses maimonides says that it has two aspects and that the prophets have prophesied jesus christ only.
3. proof by the kabbala.
4. proof by the mystical interpretation which the rabbis themselves give to scripture.
5. proof by the principles of the rabbis, that there are two meanings; that there are two advents of the messiah, a glorious and an humiliating one, according to their desert; that the prophets have prophesied of the messiah only — the law is not eternal, but must change at the coming of the messiah — that then they shall no more remember the red sea; that the jews and the gentiles shall be mingled.
6. proof by the key which jesus christ and the apostles give us.
643. isaiah 51. the red sea an image of the redemption. ut sciatis quod filius hominis habet potestatem remittendi peccata . . . tibi dico: surge.1 god, wishing to show that he could form a people holy with an invisible holiness, and fill them with an eternal glory, made visible things. as nature is an image of grace, he has done in the bounties of nature what he would do in those of grace, in order that we might judge that he could make the invisible, since he made the visible excellently.
therefore he saved this people from the deluge; he has raised them up from abraham, redeemed them from their enemies, and set them at rest.
the object of god was not to save them from the deluge, and raise up a whole people from abraham, only in order to bring them into a rich land.
and even grace is only the type of glory, for it is not the ultimate end. it has been symbolised by the law, and itself symbolises glory. but it is the type of it, and the origin or cause.
the ordinary life of men is like that of the saints. they all seek their satisfaction and differ only in the object in which they place it; they call those their enemies who hinder them, etc. god has then shown the power which he has of giving invisible blessings, by that which he has shown himself to have over things visible.
644. types. — god, wishing to form for himself an holy people, whom he should separate from all other nations, whom he should deliver from their enemies and should put into a place of rest, has promised to do so and has foretold by his prophets the time and the manner of his coming. and yet, to confirm the hope of his elect, he has made them see in it an image through all time, without leaving them devoid of assurances of his power and of his will to save them. for, at the creation of man, adam was the witness, and guardian of the promise of a saviour, who should be born of woman, when men were still so near the creation that they could not have forgotten their creation and their fall. when those who had seen adam were no longer in the world, god sent noah whom he saved, and drowned the whole earth by a miracle which sufficiently indicated the power which he had to save the world, and the will which he had to do so, and to raise up from the seed of woman him whom he had promised. this miracle was enough to confirm the hope of men.
the memory of the deluge being so fresh among men, while noah was still alive, god made promises to abraham, and, while shem was still living, sent moses, etc. . . .
645. types. — god, willing to deprive his own of perishable blessings, created the jewish people in order to show that this was not owing to lack of power.
646. the synagogue did not perish, because it was a type. but, because it was only a type, it fell into servitude. the type existed till the truth came, in order that the church should be always visible, either in the sign which promised it, or in substance.
647. that the law was figurative.
648. two errors: 1. to take everything literally. 2. to take everything spiritually.
649. to speak against too greatly figurative language.
650. there are some types clear and demonstrative, but others which seem somewhat far-fetched, and which convince only those who are already persuaded. these are like the apocalyptics. but the difference is that they have none which are certain, so that nothing is so unjust as to claim that theirs are as well founded as some of ours; for they have none so demonstrative as some of ours. the comparison is unfair. we must not put on the same level and confound things, because they seem to agree in one point, while they are so different in another. the clearness in divine things requires us to revere the obscurities in them.
it is like men, who employ a certain obscure language among themselves. those who should not understand it would understand only a foolish meaning.
651. extravagances of the apocalyptics, preadamites, who would base extravagant opinions on scripture will, for example, base them on this. it is said that “this generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled.” upon that i will say that after that generation will come another generation, and so on ever in succession.
solomon and the king are spoken of in the second book of chronicles as if they were two different persons. i will say that they were two.
652. particular types. — a double law, double tables of the law, a double temple, a double captivity.
653. types. — the prophets prophesied by symbols of a girdle, a beard, and burnt hair, etc.
654. difference between dinner and supper.
in god the word does not differ 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. st. bernard, ultimo sermo in missam.
st. augustine, city of god, v. 10. this rule is general. god can do everything, except those things which, if he could do, he would not be almighty, as dying, being deceived, lying, etc.
several evangelists for the confirmation of the truth; their difference useful.
the eucharist after 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 (mark 13. 32; matthew 24. 36.)
jesus condemned by the jews and the gentiles.
the jews and the gentiles typified by the two sons. st. augustine city of god, xx. 29.
655. the six ages, the six fathers of the six ages, the six wonders at the beginning of the six ages, the six mornings at the beginning of the six ages.
656. adam forma futuri.2 the six days to form the one, the six ages to form the other. the six days, which moses represents for the formation of adam, are only the picture of the six ages to form jesus christ and the church. if adam had not sinned, and jesus christ had not come, there had been only one covenant, only one age of men, and the creation would have been represented as accomplished at one single time.
657. types. — the jewish and egyptian peoples were plainly foretold by the two individuals whom moses met; the egyptian beating the jew, moses avenging him and killing the egyptian, and the jew being ungrateful.
658. the symbols of the gospel for the state of the sick soul are sick bodies; but, because one body cannot be sick enough to express it well, several have been needed. thus there are the deaf, the dumb, the blind, the paralytic, the dead lazarus, the possessed. all this crowd is in the sick soul.
659. types. — to show that the old testament is only figurative and that the prophets understood by temporal blessings other blessings, this is the proof:
first, that this would be unworthy of god.
secondly, that their discourses express very clearly the promise of temporal blessings, and that they say nevertheless that their discourses are obscure, and that their meaning will not be understood. whence it appears that this secret meaning was 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 fullness of time (jer. 30. 24).
the third proof is that their discourses are contradictory, and neutralise each other; so that, if we think that they did not mean by the words law and sacrifice anything else than that of moses, there is a plain and gross contradiction. therefore they meant something else, sometimes contradicting themselves in the same chapter. now, to understand the meaning of an author . . .
660. lust has become natural to us and has made our second nature. thus there are two natures in us — the one good, the other bad. where is god? where you are not, and the kingdom of god is within you.the rabbis.
661. penitence, alone of all these mysteries, has been manifestly declared to the jews, and by saint john, the forerunner; and then the other mysteries; to indicate that in each man, as in the entire world, this order must be observed.
662. the carnal jews understood neither the greatness nor the humiliation of the messiah foretold in their prophecies. they misunderstood him in his foretold greatness, as when he said that the messiah should be lord of david, though his son, and that he was before abraham, who had seen him. they did not believe him so great as to be eternal, and they likewise misunderstood him in his humiliation and in his death. “the messiah,” said they, “abideth for ever, and this man says that he shall die.” therefore they believed him neither mortal nor eternal; they only sought in him for a carnal greatness.
663. typical. — nothing is so like charity as covetousness, and nothing is so opposed to it. thus the jews, full of possessions which flattered their covetousness, were very like christians, and very contrary. and by this means they had the two qualities which it was necessary they should have, to be very like the messiah to typify him, and very contrary not to be suspected witnesses.
664. typical. — god made use of the lust of the jews to make them minister to jesus christ, who brought the remedy for their lust.
665. charity is not a figurative precept. it is dreadful to say that jesus christ, who came to take away types in order to establish the truth, came only to establish the type of charity, in order to take away the existing reality which was there before.
“if the light be darkness, how great is that darkness!”
666. fascination. somnum suum.3 figura hujus mundi.4
the eucharist. comedes panem tuum.5 panem nostrum.6
inimici dei terram lingent.7 sinners lick the dust, that is to say, love earthly pleasures.
the old testament contains the types of future joy, and the new contains the means of arriving at it. the types were of joy; the means of penitence; and nevertheless the paschal lamb was eaten with bitter herbs, cum amaritudinibus.8
singularis sum ego donec transeam.9 jesus christ before his death was almost the only martyr.
667. typical. — the expressions sword, shield. potentissime.10
668. we are estranged only by departing from charity. our prayers and our virtues are abominable before god, if they are not the prayers and the virtues of jesus christ. and our sins will never be the object of mercy, but of the justice of god, if they are not jesus christ. he has adopted our sins, and has us into union, for virtues are his own, and sins are foreign to him; while virtues are foreign to us, and our sins are our own.
let us change the rule which we have hitherto chosen for judging what is good. we had our own will as our rule. let us now take the will of god; all that he wills is good and right to us, all that he does not will is bad.
all that god does not permit is forbidden. sins are forbidden by the general declaration that god has made, that he did not allow them. other things which he has left without general prohibition, and which for that reason are said to be permitted, are nevertheless not always permitted. for when god removed some one of them from us, and when, by the event, which is a manifestation of the will of god, it appears that god does not will that we should have a thing, that is then forbidden to us as sin; since the will of god is that we should not have one more than another. there is this sole difference between these two things, that it is certain that god will never allow sin, while it is not certain that he will never allow the other. but so long as god does not permit it, we ought to regard it as sin; so long as the absence of god’s will, which alone is all goodness and all justice, renders it unjust and wrong.
669. to change the type, because of our weakness.
670. types. — the jews had grown old in these earthly thoughts, that god loved their father abraham, his flesh and what sprung from it; that on account of this he had multiplied them and distinguished them from all other nations, without allowing them to intermingle; that, when they were languishing in egypt, he brought them out with all these great signs in their favour; that he fed them with manna in the desert, and led them into a very rich land; that he gave them kings and a well-built temple, in order to offer up beasts before him, by the shedding of whose blood they should be purified; and that, at last, he was to send them the messiah to make them masters of all the world, and foretold the time of his coming.
the world having grown old in these carnal errors, jesus christ came at the time foretold, but not with the expected glory; and thus men did not think it was he. after his death, saint paul came to teach men that all these things had happened in allegory; that the kingdom of god did not consist in the flesh, but in the spirit; that the enemies of men were not the babylonians, but the passions; that god delighted not in temples made with hands, but in a pure and contrite heart; that the circumcision of the body was unprofitable, but that of the heart was needed; that moses had not given them the bread from heaven, etc.
but god, not having desired to reveal these things to this people who were unworthy of them and having, nevertheless, desired to foretell them, in order that they might be believed, foretold the time clearly, and expressed the things sometimes clearly, but very often in figures, in order that those who loved symbols might consider them and those who loved what was symbolised might see it therein.
all that tends not to charity is figurative.
the sole aim of the scripture is charity.
all which tends not to the sole end is the type of it. for since there is only one end, all which does not lead to it in express terms is figurative.
god thus varies that sole precept of charity to satisfy our curiosity which seeks for variety, by that variety which still leads us to the one thing needful. for one thing alone is needful, and we love variety; and god satisfies both by these varieties, which lead to the one thing needful.
the jews have so much loved the shadows and have so strictly expected them that they have misunderstood the reality, when it came in the time and manner foretold.
the rabbis take the breasts of the spouse for types, and all that does not express the only end they have, namely, temporal good.
and christians take even the eucharist as a type of the glory at which they aim.
671. the jews, who have been called to subdue nations and kings, have been the slaves of sin; and the christians, whose calling has been to be servants and subjects, are free children.
672. a formal point. — when saint peter and the apostles deliberated about abolishing circumcision, where it was a question of acting against the law of god, they did not heed the prophets, but simply the reception of the holy spirit in the persons uncircumcised.
they thought it more certain that god approved of those whom he filled with his spirit than it was that the law must be obeyed. they knew that the end of the law was only the holy spirit; and that thus, as men certainly had this without circumcision, it was not necessary.
673. fac secundum exemplar quod tibi ostensum est in monte.11 — the jewish religion then has been formed on its likeness to the truth of the messiah; and the truth of the messiah has been recognised by the religion, which was the type of it.
among the jews the truth was only typified; in heaven it is revealed.
in the church it is hidden and recognised by its resemblance to the type.
the type has been made according to the truth, and the truth has been recognised according to the type.
saint paul says himself that people will forbid to marry, and he himself speaks of it to the corinthians in a way which is a snare. for if a prophet had said the one, and saint paul had then said the other, he would have been accused.
674. typical. —“do all things according to the pattern which has been shown thee on the mount.” on which saint paul says that the jews have shadowed forth heavenly things.
675. . . . and yet this covenant, made to blind some and enlighten others, indicated in those very persons, whom it blinded, the truth which should be recognised by others. for the visible blessings which they received from god were so great and so divine that he indeed appeared able to give them those that are invisible and a messiah.
for nature is an image of grace, and visible miracles are images of the invisible. ut sciatis . . . tibi dico: surge.12
isaiah says that redemption will be as the passage of the red sea.
god has, then, shown by the deliverance from egypt, and from the sea, by the defeat of 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 hostile to him are the type and the representation of the very messiah whom they know not, etc.
he has, then, taught 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 one finds what he has most at heart, temporal benefits or spiritual, god or the creatures; but with this difference, that those who therein seek the creatures find them, but with many contradictions, with a prohibition against loving them, with the command to worship god only, and to love him only, which is the same thing, and, finally, that the messiah came not for them; whereas those who therein seek god find him, without any contradiction, with the command to love him only, and that the messiah came in the time foretold, to give them the blessings which they ask.
thus the jews had miracles and prophecies, which they saw fulfilled, and the teaching of their law was to worship and love god only; it was also perpetual. thus it had all the marks of the true religion; and so it was. but the jewish teaching must be distinguished from the teaching of the jewish law. now the jewish teaching was not true, although it had miracles and prophecy and perpetuity, because it had not this other point of worshipping and loving god only.
676. the veil, which is upon these books for the jews, is there also for evil christians and for all who do not hate themselves.
but how well disposed men are to understand them and to know jesus christ, when they truly hate themselves!
677. a type conveys absence and presence, pleasure and pain.
a cipher has a double meaning, one clear and one in which it is said that the meaning is hidden.
678. types. — a portrait conveys absence and presence, pleasure and pain. the reality excludes absence and pain.
to know if the law and the sacrifices are a reality or a type, we must see if the prophets, in speaking of these things, confined their view and their thought to them, so that they saw only the old covenant; or if they saw therein something else of which they were the representation, for in a portrait we see the thing figured. for this we need only examine what they say of them.
when they say that it will be eternal, do they mean to speak of that covenant which they say will be changed; and so of the sacrifices, etc.?
a cipher has two meanings. when we find out an important letter in which we discover a clear meaning, and in which it is nevertheless said that the meaning is veiled and obscure, that it is hidden, so that we might read the letter without seeing it, and interpret it without understanding it, what must we think but that here is a cipher with a double meaning, and the more so if we find obvious contradictions in the literal meaning? the prophets have clearly said that israel would be always loved by god and that the law would be eternal; and they have said that their meaning would not be understood and that it was veiled.
how greatly, then, ought we to value those who interpret the cipher and teach us to understand the hidden meaning, especially if the principles which they educe are perfectly clear and natural! this is what jesus christ did, and the apostles. they broke the seal; he rent the veil, and revealed the spirit. they have taught us through this that the enemies of man are his passions; that the redeemer would be spiritual, and his reign spiritual; that there would be two advents, one in lowliness to humble the proud, the other in glory to exalt the humble; that jesus christ would be both god and man.
679. types. — jesus christ opened their mind to understand the scriptures.
two great revelations are these. all things happened to them in types: vere israelitae, vere liberi, true bread from heaven. a god humbled to the cross. it was necessary that christ should suffer in order to enter into glory, “that he should destroy death through death.” two advents.
680. types. — when once this secret is disclosed, it is impossible not to see it. let us read the old testament in this light, and let us see if the sacrifices were real; if the fatherhood of abraham was the true cause of the friendship of god; and if the promised land was the true place of rest. no. they are therefore types. let us in the same way examine all those ordained ceremonies, all those commandments which are not of charity, and we shall see that they are types.
all these sacrifices and ceremonies were then either types or nonsense. now these are things too clear and too lofty to be thought nonsense.
to know if the prophets confined their view in the old testament, or saw therein other things.
681. typical. — the key of the cipher. veri adoratores.13 ecce agnus dei qui tollit peccata mundi.14
682. is. 1. 21. change of good into evil, and the vengeance of god. is. 10. 1; 26. 20; 28. 1. miracles: is. 33. 9; 40. 17; 41. 26; 43. 13.
jer. 11. 21; 15. 12; 17. 9. pravum est cor omnium et incrustabile; quis cognoscet illud?15 that is to say, who can know all its evil? for it is already known to be wicked. ego dominus,16 etc. — vii. 14, faciam domui huic,17 etc. trust in external sacrifices — 7. 22, quia non sum locutus,18 etc. outward sacrifice is not the essential point — 11. 13, secundum numerum,19 etc. a multitude of doctrines.
is. 44. 20-24; 54. 8; 63. 12-17; 66. 17. jer. 2. 35; 4. 22-24; 5. 4, 29-31; 6. 16; 22. 15-17.
683. types. — the letter kills. all happened in types. here is the cipher which saint paul gives us. christ must suffer. an humiliated god. circumcision of the heart, true fasting, true sacrifice, a true temple. the prophets have shown that all these must be spiritual.
not the meat which perishes, but that which does not perish.
“ye shall be free indeed.” then the other freedom was only a type of freedom.
“i am the true bread from heaven.”
684. contradiction. — we can only describe a good character by reconciling all contrary qualities, and it is not enough to keep up a series of harmonious qualities, without reconciling contradictory ones. to understand the meaning of an author, we must make all the contrary passages agree.
thus, to understand scripture, we must have a meaning in which all the contrary passages are reconciled. it is not enough to have one which suits many concurring passages; but it is necessary to have one which reconciles even contradictory passages.
every author has a meaning in which all the contradictory passages agree, or he has no meaning at all. we cannot affirm the latter of scripture and the prophets; they undoubtedly are full of good sense. we must, then, seek for a meaning which reconciles all discrepancies.
the true meaning, then, is not that of the jews; but in jesus christ all the contradictions are reconciled.
the jews could not reconcile the cessation of the royalty and principality, foretold by hosea, with the prophecy of jacob.
if we take the law, the sacrifices, and the kingdom as realities, we cannot reconcile all the passages. they must then necessarily be only types. we cannot even reconcile the passages of the same author, nor of the same book, nor sometimes of the same chapter, which indicates copiously what was the meaning of the author. as when ezekiel, chap. 20., says that man will not live by the commandments of god and will live by them.
685. types. — if the law and the sacrifices are the truth, it must please god, and must not displease him. if they are types, they must be both pleasing and displeasing.
now in all the scripture they are both pleasing and displeasing. it is said that the law shall be changed; that the sacrifice shall be changed; that they shall be without law, without a prince, and without a sacrifice; that a new covenant shall be made; that the law shall be renewed; that the precepts which they have received are not good; that their sacrifices are abominable; that god has demanded none of them.
it is said, on the contrary, that the law shall abide for ever; that this covenant shall be for ever; that sacrifice shall be eternal; that the sceptre shall never depart from among them, because it shall not depart from them till the eternal king comes.
do all these passages indicate what is real? no. do they then indicate what is typical? no, but what is either real or typical. but the first passages, excluding as they do reality, indicate that all this is only typical.
all these passages together cannot be applied to reality; all can be said to be typical; therefore they are not spoken of reality, but of the type.
agnus occisus est ab origine mundi.20 a sacrificing judge.
686. contradictions. — the sceptre till the messiah — without king or prince.
the eternal law — changed.
the eternal covenant — a new covenant.
good laws — bad precepts. ezekiel.
687. types. — when the word of god, which is really true, is false literally, it is true spiritually. sede a dextris meis:21 this is false literally, therefore it is true spiritually.
in these expressions, god is spoken of after the manner of men; and this means nothing else but that the intention which men have in giving a seat at their right hand, god will have also. it is then an indication of the intention of god, not of his manner of carrying it out.
thus when it is said, “god has received the odour of your incense, and will in recompense give you a rich land,” that is equivalent to saying that the same intention which a man would have, who, pleased with your perfumes, should in recompense give you a rich land, god will have towards you, because you have had the same intention as a man has towards him to whom he presents perfumes. so iratus est, a “jealous god,” etc. for, the things of god being inexpressible, they cannot be spoken of otherwise, and the church makes use of them even to-day: quia confortavit seras,22 etc.
it is not allowable to attribute to scripture the meaning which is not revealed to us that it has. thus, to say that the closed mem of isaiah signifies six hundred, has not been revealed. it might be said that the final tsade and he deficientes may signify mysteries. but it is not allowable to say so, and still less to say this is the way of the philosopher’s stone. but we say that the literal meaning is not the true meaning, because the prophets have themselves said so.
688. i do not say that the mem is mystical.
689. moses (deut. 30) promises that god will circumcise their heart to render them capable of loving him.
690. one saying of david, or of moses, as for instance that “god will circumcise the heart,” enables us to judge of their spirit. if all their other expressions were ambiguous and left us in doubt whether they were philosophers or christians, one saying of this kind would in fact determine all the rest, as one sentence of epictetus decides the meaning of all the rest to be the opposite. so far ambiguity exists, but not afterwards.
691. if one of two persons, who are telling silly stories, uses language with a double meaning, understood in his own circle, while the other uses it with only one meaning, any one not in the secret, who hears them both talk in this manner, will pass upon them the same judgment. but, if, afterwards, in the rest of their conversation one says angelic things, and the other always dull commonplaces, he will judge that the one spoke in mysteries, and not the other; the one having sufficiently shown that he is incapable of such foolishness and capable of being mysterious; and the other that he is incapable of mystery and capable of foolishness.
the old testament is a cipher.
692. there are some that see clearly that man has no other enemy than lust, which turns him from god, and not god; and that he has no other good than god, and not a rich land. let those who believe that the good of man is in the flesh, and evil in what turns him away from sensual pleasures, satiate themselves with them, and die in them. but let those who seek god with all their heart, who are only troubled at not seeing him, who desire only to possess him and have as enemies only those who turn them away from him, who are grieved at seeing themselves surrounded and overwhelmed with such enemies, take comfort. i proclaim to them happy news. there exists a redeemer for them. i shall show him to them. i shall show that there is a god for them. i shall not show him to others. i shall make them see that a messiah has been promised, who should deliver them from their enemies, and that one has come to free them from their iniquities, but not from their enemies.
when david foretold that the messiah would deliver his people from their enemies, one can believe that in the flesh these would be the egyptians; and then i cannot show that the prophecy was fulfilled. but one can well believe also that the enemies would be their sins; for indeed the egyptians were not their enemies, but their sins were so. this word enemies is, therefore, ambiguous. but if he says elsewhere, as he does, that he will deliver his people from their sins, as indeed do isaiah and others, the ambiguity is removed, and the double meaning of enemies is reduced to the simple meaning of iniquities. for if he had sins in his mind, he could well denote them as enemies; but if he thought of enemies, he could not designate them as iniquities.
now moses, david, and isaiah used the same terms. who will say, then, that they have not the same meaning and that david’s meaning, which is plainly iniquities when he spoke of enemies, was not the same as that of moses when speaking of enemies?
daniel (ix) prays for the deliverance of the people from the captivity of their enemies. but he was thinking of sins, and, to show this, he says that gabriel came to tell him that his prayer was heard, and that there were only seventy weeks to wait, after which the people would be freed from iniquity, sin would have an end, and the redeemer, the holy of holies, would bring eternal justice, not legal, but eternal.