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.[234]

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.]

642

Isaiah, li. The Red Sea an image of the Redemption. _Ut sciatis quod
filius hominis habet potestatem remittendi peccata, tibi dico:
Surge._[235] 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.

643

_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....

644

_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.

645

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.

646

That the law was figurative.

647

Two errors: 1. To take everything literally. 2. To take everything
spiritually.

648

To speak against too greatly figurative language.

649

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.]

650

_Extravagances of the Apocalyptics, Preadamites, Millenarians, etc._--He
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."[236] 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.

651

_Particular Types._--A double law, double tables of the law, a double
temple, a double captivity.

652

_Types._--The prophets prophesied by symbols of a girdle, a beard and
burnt hair, etc.

653

Difference between dinner and supper.[237]

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. Bern., _Ult. Sermo in Missam_.

Augustine, _De Civit. Dei_, 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 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
(Mark xiii, 32). (Matthew xxiv, 36.)

Jesus condemned by the Jews and the Gentiles.

The Jews and the Gentiles typified by the two sons. Aug., _De Civ._, xx,
29.

654

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.[238]

655

Adam _forma futuri_.[239] 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.

656

_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.

657

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.

658

_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. xxx, _ult._).

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 ...

659

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.

660

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.

661

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."[240]
Therefore they believed Him neither mortal nor eternal; they only sought
in Him for a carnal greatness.

662

_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.

663

_Typical._--God made use of the lust of the Jews to make them minister
to Jesus Christ, [who brought the remedy for their lust].

664

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!"[241]

665

Fascination. _Somnum suum.[242] Figura hujus mundi._[243]

The Eucharist. _Comedes panem_ tuum.[244] _Panem_ nostrum.

_Inimici Dei terram lingent._[245] Sinners lick the dust, that is to
say, love earthly pleasures.

The Old Testament contained 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_.[246]

_Singularis sum ego donec transeam._[247]--Jesus Christ before His death
was almost the only martyr.

666

_Typical._--The expressions, sword, shield. _Potentissime._

667

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 [_those of_] Jesus
Christ. He has adopted our sins, and has [_admitted_] us into union
[_with Him_], 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.

668

To change the type, because of our weakness.

669

_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[248] 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.[249]

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,[250] 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[251] 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.

670

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.[252]

671

_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.[253]

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.

672

_Fac secundum exemplar quod tibi ostensum est in monte._[254]--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 Jewish
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[255] 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.

673

_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.[256]

674

... 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._

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 say 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.

675

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!

676

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.

677

_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.

678

_Types._--Jesus Christ opened their mind to understand the Scriptures.

Two great revelations are these. (1) All things happened to them in
types: _vere Israëlitæ, vere liberi_, true bread from Heaven. (2) 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."[257] Two advents.

679

_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.

680

_Typical._--The key of the cipher. _Veri adoratores._[258]--_Ecce agnus
Dei qui tollit peccata mundi._[259]

681

Is. i, 21. Change of good into evil, and the vengeance of God. Is. x, I;
xxvi, 20; xxviii, I. Miracles: Is. xxxiii, 9; xl, 17; xli, 26; xliii,
13.

Jer. xi, 21; xv, 12; xvii, 9. _Pravum est cor omnium et incrustabile;
quis cognoscet illud?_ that is to say, Who can know all its evil? For it
is already known to be wicked. _Ego dominus_, etc.--vii, 14, _Faciam
domui huic_, etc. Trust in external sacrifices--vii, 22, _Quia non sum
locutus_, etc. Outward sacrifice is not the essential point--xi, 13,
_Secundum numerum_, etc. A multitude of doctrines.

Is. xliv, 20-24; liv, 8; lxiii, 12-17; lxvi, 17. Jer. ii, 35; iv, 22-24;
v, 4, 29-31; vi, 16; xxiii, 15-17.

682

_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."[260] Then the other freedom was only a type
of freedom.

"I am the true bread from Heaven."[261]

683

_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, xx,
says that man will not live by the commandments of God and will live by
them.

684

_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._[262] A sacrificing judge.

685

_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.

686

_Types._--When the word of God, which is really true, is false
literally, it is true spiritually. _Sede a dextris meis:_[263] 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,"[264] 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 confortavil seras_,[265] 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_[266] 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.

687

I do not say that the _mem_ is mystical.

688

Moses (Deut. xxx) promises that God will circumcise their heart to
render them capable of loving Him.

689

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.

690

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.

691

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.

SECTION XI

THE PROPHECIES

692

When I see the blindness and the wretchedness of man, when I regard the
whole silent universe, and man without light, left to himself, and, as
it were, lost in this corner of the universe, without knowing who has
put him there, what he has come to do, what will become of him at death,
and incapable of all knowledge, I become terrified, like a man who
should be carried in his sleep to a dreadful desert island, and should
awake without knowing where he is, and without means of escape. And
thereupon I wonder how people in a condition so wretched do not fall
into despair. I see other persons around me of a like nature. I ask them
if they are better informed than I am. They tell me that they are not.
And thereupon these wretched and lost beings, having looked around them,
and seen some pleasing objects, have given and attached themselves to
them. For my own part, I have not been able to attach myself to them,
and, considering how strongly it appears that there is something else
than what I see, I have examined whether this God has not left some sign
of Himself.

I see many contradictory religions, and consequently all false save one.
Each wants to be believed on its own authority, and threatens
unbelievers. I do not therefore believe them. Every one can say this;
every one can call himself a prophet. But I see that Christian religion
wherein prophecies are fulfilled; and that is what every one cannot do.

693

And what crowns all this is prediction, so that it should not be said
that it is chance which has done it.

Whosoever, having only a week to live, will not find out that it is
expedient to believe that all this is not a stroke of chance ...

Now, if the passions had no hold on us, a week and a hundred years would
amount to the same thing.

694

_Prophecies._--Great Pan is dead.[267]

695

_Susceperunt verbum cum omni aviditate, scrutantes Scripturas, si ita se
haberent._[268]

696

_Prodita lege._--_Impleta cerne._--_Implenda collige._

697

We understand the prophecies only when we see the events happen. Thus
the proofs of retreat, discretion, silence, etc. are proofs only to
those who know and believe them.

Joseph so internal in a law so external.

Outward penances dispose to inward, as humiliations to humility. Thus
the ...

698

The synagogue has preceded the church; the Jews, the Christians. The
prophets have foretold the Christians; Saint John, Jesus Christ.

699

It is glorious to see with the eyes of faith the history of Herod and of
Cæsar.

700

The zeal of the Jews for their law and their temple (Josephus, and Philo
the Jew, _Ad Caïum_). What other people had such a zeal? It was
necessary they should have it.

Jesus Christ foretold as to the time and the state of the world. The
ruler taken from the thigh,[269] and the fourth monarchy. How lucky we
are to see this light amidst this darkness!

How fine it is to see, with the eyes of faith, Darius and Cyrus,
Alexander, the Romans, Pompey and Herod working, without knowing it, for
the glory of the Gospel!

701

Zeal of the Jewish people for the law, especially after there were no
more prophets.

702

While the prophets were for maintaining the law, the people were
indifferent. But since there have been no more prophets, zeal has
succeeded them.

703

The devil troubled the zeal of the Jews before Jesus Christ, because he
would have been their salvation, but not since.

The Jewish people scorned by the Gentiles; the Christian people
persecuted.

704

_Proof._--Prophecies with their fulfilment; what has preceded and what
has followed Jesus Christ.

705

The prophecies are the strongest proof of Jesus Christ. It is for them
also that God has made most provision; for the event which has fulfilled
them is a miracle existing since the birth of the Church to the end. So
God has raised up prophets during sixteen hundred years, and, during
four hundred years afterwards, He has scattered all these prophecies
among all the Jews, who carried them into all parts of the world. Such
was the preparation for the birth of Jesus Christ, and, as His Gospel
was to be believed by all the world, it was not only necessary that
there should be prophecies to make it believed, but that these
prophecies should exist throughout the whole world, in order to make it
embraced by the whole world.

706

But it was not enough that the prophecies should exist. It was necessary
that they should be distributed throughout all places, and preserved
throughout all times. And in order that this agreement might not be
taken for an effect of chance, it was necessary that this should be
foretold.

It is far more glorious for the Messiah that the Jews should be the
spectators, and even the instruments of His glory, besides that God had
reserved them.

707

_Prophecies._--The time foretold by the state of the Jewish people, by
the state of the heathen, by the state of the temple, by the number of
years.

708

One must be bold to predict the same thing in so many ways. It was
necessary that the four idolatrous or pagan monarchies, the end of the
kingdom of Judah, and the seventy weeks, should happen at the same time,
and all this before the second temple was destroyed.

709

_Prophecies._--If one man alone had made a book of predictions about
Jesus Christ, as to the time and the manner, and Jesus Christ had come
in conformity to these prophecies, this fact would have infinite weight.

But there is much more here. Here is a succession of men during four
thousand years, who, consequently and without variation, come, one after
another, to foretell this same event. Here is a whole people who
announce it, and who have existed for four thousand years, in order to
give corporate testimony of the assurances which they have, and from
which they cannot be diverted by whatever threats and persecutions
people may make against them. This is far more important.

710

_Predictions of particular things._--They were strangers in Egypt,
without any private property, either in that country or elsewhere.
[There was not the least appearance, either of the royalty which had
previously existed so long, or of that supreme council of seventy judges
which they called the _Sanhedrin_, and which, having been instituted by
Moses, lasted to the time of Jesus Christ. All these things were as far
removed from their state at that time as they could be], when Jacob,
dying, and blessing his twelve children, declared to them, that they
would be proprietors of a great land, and foretold in particular to the
family of Judah, that the kings, who would one day rule them, should be
of his race; and that all his brethren should be their subjects; [and
that even the Messiah, who was to be the expectation of nations, should
spring from him; and that the kingship should not be taken away from
Judah, nor the ruler and law-giver of his descendants, till the expected
Messiah should arrive in his family].

This same Jacob, disposing of this future land as though he had been its
ruler, gave a portion to Joseph more than to the others. "I give you,"
said he, "one part more than to your brothers." And blessing his two
children, Ephraim and Manasseh, whom Joseph had presented to him, the
elder, Manasseh, on his right, and the young Ephraim on his left, he put
his arms crosswise, and placing his right hand on the head of Ephraim,
and his left on Manasseh, he blessed them in this manner. And, upon
Joseph's representing to him that he was preferring the younger, he
replied to him with admirable resolution: "I know it well, my son; but
Ephraim will increase more than Manasseh." This has been indeed so true
in the result, that, being alone almost as fruitful as the two entire
lines which composed a whole kingdom, they have been usually called by
the name of Ephraim alone.

This same Joseph, when dying, bade his children carry his bones with
them when they should go into that land, to which they only came two
hundred years afterwards.

Moses, who wrote all these things so long before they happened, himself
assigned to each family portions of that land before they entered it, as
though he had been its ruler. [In fact he declared that God was to raise
up from their nation and their race a prophet, of whom he was the type;
and he foretold them exactly all that was to happen to them in the land
which they were to enter after his death, the victories which God would
give them, their ingratitude towards God, the punishments which they
would receive for it, and the rest of their adventures.] He gave them
judges who should make the division. He prescribed the entire form of
political government which they should observe, the cities of refuge
which they should build, and ...

711

The prophecies about particular things are mingled with those about the
Messiah, so that the prophecies of the Messiah should not be without
proofs, nor the special prophecies without fruit.

712

_Perpetual captivity of the Jews._--Jer. xi, 11: "I will bring evil upon
Judah from which they shall not be able to escape."

_Types._--Is. v: "The Lord had a vineyard, from which He looked for
grapes; and it brought forth only wild grapes. I will therefore lay it
waste, and destroy it; the earth shall only bring forth thorns, and I
will forbid the clouds from _[raining]_ upon it. The vineyard of the
Lord is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah His pleasant plant. I
looked that they should do justice, and they bring forth only
iniquities."

Is. viii: "Sanctify the Lord with fear and trembling; let Him be your
only dread, and He shall be to you for a sanctuary, but for a stone of
stumbling and a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, for a gin
and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and many among them
shall stumble against that stone, and fall, and be broken, and be
snared, and perish. Hide my words, and cover my law for my disciples.

"I will then wait in patience upon the Lord that hideth and concealeth
Himself from the house of Jacob."

Is. xxix: "Be amazed and wonder, people of Israel; stagger and stumble,
and be drunken, but not with wine; stagger, but not with strong drink.
For the Lord hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep. He will
close your eyes; He will cover your princes and your prophets that have
visions." (Daniel xii: "The wicked shall not understand, but the wise
shall understand." Hosea, the last chapter, the last verse, after many
temporal blessings, says: "Who is wise, and he shall understand these
things, etc.?") "And the visions of all the prophets are become unto you
as a sealed book, which men deliver to one that is learned, and who can
read; and he saith, I cannot read it, for it is sealed. And when the
book is delivered to them that are not learned, they say I am not
learned.

"Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people with their lips do
honour me, but have removed their heart far from me,"--there is the
reason and the cause of it; for if they adored God in their hearts, they
would understand the prophecies,--"and their fear towards me is taught
by the precept of man. Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a
marvellous work among this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder;
for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and their understanding
shall be [hid]."

_Prophecies. Proofs of Divinity._--Is. xli: "Shew the things that are to
come hereafter, that we may know that ye are gods: we will incline our
heart unto your words. Teach us the things that have been at the
beginning, and declare us things for to come.

"By this we shall know that ye are gods. Yea, do good or do evil, if you
can. Let us then behold it and reason together. Behold, ye are of
nothing, and only an abomination, etc. Who," (among contemporary
writers), "hath declared from the beginning that we may know of the
things done from the beginning and origin? that we may say, You are
righteous. There is none that teacheth us, 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 things which have come to pass, and things that are to
come do I declare. Sing unto God a new song 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 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 alone have done wonders before
your eyes: ye are my witnesses, said the Lord, that I am God.

"For your sake I have brought down the forces of the Babylonians. I am
the Lord, your Holy One and creator.

"I have made a way in the sea, and a path in the mighty waters. I am He
that drowned and destroyed for ever the mighty enemies that 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; I have established them to 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 in remembrance your
ingratitude: see thou, if thou mayest be justified. Thy first father
hath sinned, and thy teachers have transgressed against me."

Is. xliv: "I am the first, and I am the last, saith the Lord. Let him
who will equal himself to me, declare the order of things since I
appointed the ancient people, and the things that are coming. Fear ye
not: have I not told you all these things? Ye are my witnesses."

_Prophecy of Cyrus._--Is. xlv, 4: "For Jacob's sake, mine elect, I have
called thee by thy name."

Is. xlv, 21: "Come and let us reason together. Who hath declared this
from ancient time? Who hath told it from that time? Have not I, the
Lord?"

Is. xlvi: "Remember the former things of old, and know 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: "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; I
did them suddenly; and they came to pass. Because I know that thou art
obstinate, that thy spirit is rebellious, and thy brow brass; I have
even declared it to thee before it came to pass: 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; I have kept them
hidden from thee; lest thou shouldst say, Behold, I knew them.

"Yea, thou knewest not; yea, thou heardest not; yea, from that time that
thine ear was not opened: for I knew that thou couldst deal very
treacherously, and wast called a transgressor from the womb."

_Reprobation of the Jews and conversion of the Gentiles._--Is. lxv: "I
am sought of them that asked not for me; I am found of them that sought
me not; I said, Behold me, behold me, behold me, unto a nation that did
not call upon my name.

"I have spread out my hands all the day unto an unbelieving people,
which walketh in a way that was not good, after their own thoughts; a
people that provoketh me to anger continually by the sins they commit in
my face; that sacrificeth to idols, etc.

"These shall be scattered like smoke in the day of my wrath, etc.

"Your iniquities, and the iniquities of your fathers, will I assemble
together, and will recompense you for all according to your works.

"Thus saith the Lord, As the new wine is found in the cluster, and one
saith, Destroy it not, for a blessing is in it [and the promise of
fruit]: for my servants' sake I will not destroy all Israel.

"Thus I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob and out of Judah, an
inheritor of my mountains, and mine elect and my servants shall inherit
it, and my fertile and abundant plains; but I will destroy all others,
because you have forgotten your God to serve strange gods. I called, and
ye did not answer; I spake, and ye did not hear; and ye did choose the
thing which I forbade.

"Therefore thus saith the Lord, Behold, my servants shall eat, but ye
shall be hungry; my servants shall rejoice, but ye shall be ashamed; my
servants shall sing for joy of heart, but ye shall cry and howl for
vexation of spirit.

"And ye shall leave your name for a curse unto my chosen: for the Lord
shall slay thee, and call His servants by another name, that he who
blesseth himself in the earth shall bless himself in God, etc., because
the former troubles are forgotten.

"For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former
things shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.

"But be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create; for,
behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy.

"And I will rejoice in Jerusalem and joy in my people; and the voice of
weeping shall no more be heard in her, nor the voice of crying.

"Before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I
will hear. The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall
eat straw like the bullock; and dust shall be the serpent's meat. They
shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain."

Is. lvi, 3: "Thus saith the Lord, Keep ye judgment, and do justice: for
my salvation is near to come, and my righteousness to be revealed.

"Blessed is the man that doeth this, that keepeth the Sabbath, and
keepeth his hand from doing any evil.

"Neither let the strangers that have joined themselves to me, say, God
will separate me from His people. For thus saith the Lord: Whoever will
keep my Sabbath, and choose the things that please me, and take hold of
my covenant; even unto them will I give in mine house a place and a name
better than that of sons and of daughters: I will give them an
everlasting name, that shall not be cut off."

Is. lix, 9: "Therefore for our iniquities is justice far from us: we
wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in
darkness. We grope for the wall like the blind; we stumble at noon day
as in the night: we are in desolate places as dead men.

"We roar all like bears, and mourn sore like doves; we look for
judgment, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far from us."

Is. lxvi, 18: "But I know their works and their thoughts; it shall come
that I will gather all nations and tongues, and they shall see my glory.

"And I will set a sign among them, and I will send those that escape of
them unto the nations, to Africa, to Lydia, to Italy, to Greece, and to
the people that have not heard my fame, neither have seen my glory. And
they shall bring your brethren."

Jer. vii. _Reprobation of the Temple_: "Go ye unto Shiloth, where I set
my name at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my
people. And now, because ye have done all these works, saith the Lord, I
will do unto this house, wherein my name is called upon, wherein ye
trust, and unto the place which I gave to your priests, as I have done
to Shiloth." (For I have rejected it, and made myself a temple
elsewhere.)

"And I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your
brethren, even the seed of Ephraim." (Rejected for ever.) "Therefore
pray not for this people."

Jer. vii, 22: "What avails it you to add sacrifice to sacrifice? For I
spake not unto your fathers, when I brought them out of the land of
Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices. But this thing
commanded I them, saying, Obey and be faithful to my commandments, and I
will be your God, and ye shall be my people." (It was only after they
had sacrificed to the golden calf that I gave myself sacrifices to turn
into good an evil custom.)

Jer. vii, 4: "Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of the
Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, are these."

713

The Jews witnesses for God. Is. xliii, 9; xliv, 8.

_Prophecies fulfilled._--I Kings xiii, 2.--I Kings xxiii, 16.--Joshua
vi, 26.--I Kings xvi, 34.--Deut. xxiii.

Malachi i, II. The sacrifice of the Jews rejected, and the sacrifice of
the heathen, (even out of Jerusalem,) and in all places.

Moses, before dying, foretold the calling of the Gentiles, Deut. xxxii,
21, and the reprobation of the Jews.

Moses foretold what would happen to each tribe.

_Prophecy._--"Your name shall be a curse unto mine elect, and I will
give them another name."

"Make their heart fat,"[270] and how? by flattering their lust and
making them hope to satisfy it.

714

_Prophecy._--Amos and Zechariah. They have sold the just one, and
therefore will not be recalled.--Jesus Christ betrayed.

They shall no more remember Egypt. See Is. xliii, 16, 17, 18, 19. Jer.
xxiii, 6, 7.

_Prophecy._--The Jews shall be scattered abroad. Is. xxvii, 6.--A new
law, Jerem. xxxi, 32.

Malachi. _Grotius._--The second temple glorious.--Jesus Christ will
come. Haggai ii, 7, 8, 9, 10.

The calling of the Gentiles. Joel ii, 28. Hosea ii, 24. Deut. xxxii, 21.
Malachi i, 11.

715

Hosea iii.--Is. xlii, xlviii, liv, lx, lxi, last verse. "I foretold it
long since that they might know that it is I." Jaddus to Alexander.

716

[_Prophecies._--The promise that David will always have descendants.
Jer. xiii, 13.]

717

The eternal reign of the race of David, 2 Chron., by all the prophecies,
and with an oath. And it was not temporally fulfilled. Jer. xxiii, 20.

718

We might perhaps think that, when the prophets foretold that the sceptre
should not depart from Judah until the eternal King came, they spoke to
flatter the people, and that their prophecy was proved false by Herod.
But to show that this was not their meaning, and that, on the contrary,
they knew well that this temporal kingdom should cease, they said that
they would be without a king and without a prince, and for a long time.
Hosea iii, 4.

719

_Non habemus regem nisi Cæsarem._[271] Therefore Jesus Christ was the
Messiah, since they had no longer any king but a stranger, and would
have no other.

720

We have no king but Cæsar.

721

Daniel ii: "All thy soothsayers and wise men cannot shew unto thee the
secret which thou hast demanded. But there is a God in heaven who can do
so, and that hath revealed to thee in thy dream what shall be in the
latter days," (This dream must have caused him much misgiving.)

"And it is not by my own wisdom that I have knowledge of this secret,
but by the revelation of this same God, that hath revealed it to me, to
make it manifest in thy presence.

"Thy dream was then of this kind. Thou sawest a great image, high and
terrible, which stood before thee. His head was of gold, his breast and
arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, his legs of iron, his
feet part of iron and part of clay. Thus thou sawest till that a stone
was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet, that
were of iron and of clay, and brake them to pieces.

"Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold broken
to pieces together, and the wind carried them away; but this stone that
smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.
This is the dream, and now I will give thee the interpretation thereof.

"Thou who art the greatest of kings, and to whom God hath given a power
so vast that thou art renowned among all peoples, art the head of gold
which thou hast seen. But after thee shall arise another kingdom
inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear
rule over all the earth.

"But the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron, and even as iron
breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things, so shall this empire break
in pieces and bruise all.

"And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of clay and part of
iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the
strength of iron and of the weakness of clay.

"But as iron cannot be firmly mixed with clay, so they who are
represented by the iron and by the clay, shall not cleave one to another
though united by marriage.

"Now in the days of these kings shall God set up a kingdom, which shall
never be destroyed, nor ever be delivered up to other people. It shall
break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for
ever, according as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the
mountain without hands, and that it fell from the mountain, and brake in
pieces the iron, the clay, the silver, and the gold. God hath made known
to thee what shall come to pass hereafter. This dream is certain, and
the interpretation thereof sure.

"Then Nebuchadnezzar fell upon his face towards the earth," etc.

Daniel viii, 8. "Daniel having seen the combat of the ram and of the
he-goat, who vanquished him and ruled over the earth, whereof the
principal horn being broken four others came up toward the four winds of
heaven, and out of one of them came forth a little horn, which waxed
exceedingly great toward the south, and toward the east, and toward the
land of Israel, and it waxed great even to the host of heaven; and it
cast down some of the stars, and stamped upon them, and at last
overthrew the prince, and by him the daily sacrifice was taken away, and
the place of his sanctuary was cast down.

"This is what Daniel saw. He sought the meaning of it, and a voice cried
in this manner, 'Gabriel, make this man to understand the vision,' And
Gabriel said:

"The ram which thou sawest is the king of the Medes and Persians, and
the he-goat is the king of Greece, and the great horn that is between
his eyes is the first king of this monarchy.

"Now that being broken, whereas four stood up for it, four kingdoms
shall stand up out of the nation, but not in his power.

"And in the latter time of their kingdom, when iniquities are come to
the full, there shall arise a king, insolent and strong, but not by his
own power, to whom all things shall succeed after his own will; and he
shall destroy the holy people, and through his policy also he shall
cause craft to prosper in his hand, and he shall destroy many. He shall
also stand up against the Prince of princes, but he shall perish
miserably, and nevertheless by a violent hand."

Daniel ix, 20. "Whilst I was praying with all my heart, and confessing
my sin and the sin of all my people, and prostrating myself before my
God, even Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, came
to me and touched me about the time of the evening oblation, and he
informed me and said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee the
knowledge of things. At the beginning of thy supplications I came to
shew that which thou didst desire, for thou are greatly beloved:
therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision. Seventy weeks
are determined upon thy people, and upon thy holy city, to finish the
transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to abolish iniquity, and
to bring in everlasting righteousness; to accomplish the vision and the
prophecies, and to anoint the Most Holy. (After which this people shall
be no more thy people, nor this city the holy city. The times of wrath
shall be passed, and the years of grace shall come for ever.)

"Know therefore, and understand, that, from the going forth of the
commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the
Prince, shall be seven weeks, and three score and two weeks." (The
Hebrews were accustomed to divide numbers, and to place the small first.
Thus, 7 and 62 make 69. Of this 70 there will then remain the 70th, that
is to say, the 7 last years of which he will speak next.)

"The street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.
And after three score and two weeks," (which have followed the first
seven. Christ will then be killed after the sixty-nine weeks, that is to
say, in the last week), "the Christ shall be cut off, and a people of
the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary, and
overwhelm all, and the end of that war shall accomplish the desolation."

"Now one week," (which is the seventieth, which remains), "shall confirm
the covenant with many, and in the midst of the week," (that is to say,
the last three and a half years), "he shall cause the sacrifice and the
oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall
make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall
be poured upon the desolate."

Daniel xi. "The angel said to Daniel: There shall stand up yet," (after
Cyrus, under whom this still is), "three kings in Persia," (Cambyses,
Smerdis, Darius); "and the fourth who shall then come," (Xerxes) "shall
be far richer than they all, and far stronger, and shall stir up all his
people against the Greeks.

"But a mighty king shall stand up," (Alexander), "that shall rule with
great dominion, and do according to his will. And when he shall stand
up, his kingdom shall be broken, and shall be divided in four parts
toward the four winds of heaven," (as he had said above, vii, 6; viii,
8), "but not his posterity; and his successors shall not equal his
power, for his kingdom shall be plucked up, even for others besides
these," (his four chief successors).

"And the king of the south," (Ptolemy, son of Lagos, Egypt), "shall be
strong; but one of his princes shall be strong above him, and his
dominion shall be a great dominion," (Seleucus, King of Syria. Appian
says that he was the most powerful of Alexander's successors).

"And in the end of years they shall join themselves together, and the
king's daughter of the south," (Berenice, daughter of Ptolemy
Philadelphus, son of the other Ptolemy), "shall come to the king of the
north," (to Antiochus Deus, King of Syria and of Asia, son of Seleucus
Lagidas), "to make peace between these princes.

"But neither she nor her seed shall have a long authority; for she and
they that brought her, and her children, and her friends, shall be
delivered to death." (Berenice and her son were killed by Seleucus
Callinicus.)

"But out of a branch of her roots shall one stand up," (Ptolemy
Euergetes was the issue of the same father as Berenice), "which shall
come with a mighty army into the land of the king of the north, where he
shall put all under subjection, and he shall also carry captive into
Egypt their gods, their princes, their gold, their silver, and all their
precious spoils," (if he had not been called into Egypt by domestic
reasons, says Justin, he would have entirely stripped Seleucus); "and he
shall continue several years when the king of the north can do nought
against him.

"And so he shall return into his kingdom. But his sons shall be stirred
up, and shall assemble a multitude of great forces," (Seleucus Ceraunus,
Antiochus the Great). "And their army shall come and overthrow all;
wherefore the king of the south shall be moved with choler, and shall
also form a great army, and fight him," (Ptolemy Philopator against
Antiochus the Great at Raphia), "and conquer; and his troops shall
become insolent, and his heart shall be lifted up," (this Ptolemy
desecrated the temple; Josephus): "he shall cast down many ten
thousands, but he shall not be strengthened by it. For the king of the
north," (Antiochus the Great), "shall return with a greater multitude
than before, and in those times also a great number of enemies shall
stand up against the king of the south," (during the reign of the young
Ptolemy Epiphanes); "also the apostates and robbers of thy people shall
exalt themselves to establish the vision; but they shall fall." (Those
who abandon their religion to please Euergetes, when he will send his
troops to Scopas; for Antiochus will again take Scopas, and conquer
them.) "And the king of the north shall destroy the fenced cities, and
the arms of the south shall not withstand, and all shall yield to his
will; he shall stand in the land of Israel, and it shall yield to him.
And thus he shall think to make himself master of all the empire of
Egypt," (despising the youth of Epiphanes, says Justin). "And for that
he shall make alliance with him, and give his daughter" (Cleopatra, in
order that she may betray her husband. On which Appian says that
doubting his ability to make himself master of Egypt by force, because
of the protection of the Romans, he wished to attempt it by cunning).
"He shall wish to corrupt her, but she shall not stand on his side,
neither be for him. Then he shall turn his face to other designs, and
shall think to make himself master of some isles," (that is to say,
seaports), "and shall take many," (as Appian says).

"But a prince shall oppose his conquests," (Scipio Africanus, who
stopped the progress of Antiochus the Great, because he offended the
Romans in the person of their allies), "and shall cause the reproach
offered by him to cease. He shall then return into his kingdom and there
perish, and be no more." (He was slain by his soldiers.)

"And he who shall stand up in his estate," (Seleucus Philopator or
Soter, the son of Antiochus the Great), "shall be a tyrant, a raiser of
taxes in the glory of the kingdom," (which means the people), "but
within a few days he shall be destroyed, neither in anger nor in battle.
And in his place shall stand up a vile person, unworthy of the honour of
the kingdom, but he shall come in cleverly by flatteries. All armies
shall bend before him; he shall conquer them, and even the prince with
whom he has made a covenant. For having renewed the league with him, he
shall work deceitfully, and enter with a small people into his province,
peaceably and without fear. He shall take the fattest places, and shall
do that which his fathers have not done, and ravage on all sides. He
shall forecast great devices during his time."

722

_Prophecies._--The seventy weeks of Daniel are ambiguous as regards
the term of commencement, because of the terms of the prophecy; and as
regards the term of conclusion, because of the differences among
chronologists. But all this difference extends only to two hundred
years.

723

_Predictions._--That in the fourth monarchy, before the destruction of
the second temple, before the dominion of the Jews was taken away, in
the seventieth week of Daniel, during the continuance of the second
temple, the heathen should be instructed, and brought to the knowledge
of the God worshipped by the Jews; that those who loved Him should be
delivered from their enemies, and filled with His fear and love.

And it happened that in the fourth monarchy, before the destruction of
the second temple, etc., the heathen in great number worshipped God, and
led an angelic life. Maidens dedicated their virginity and their life to
God. Men renounced their pleasures. What Plato could only make
acceptable to a few men, specially chosen and instructed, a secret
influence imparted, by the power of a few words, to a hundred million
ignorant men.

The rich left their wealth. Children left the dainty homes of their
parents to go into the rough desert. (See Philo the Jew.) All this was
foretold a great while ago. For two thousand years no heathen had
worshipped the God of the Jews; and at the time foretold, a great number
of the heathen worshipped this only God. The temples were destroyed. The
very kings made submission to the cross. All this was due to the Spirit
of God, which was spread abroad upon the earth.

No heathen, since Moses until Jesus Christ, believed according to the
very Rabbis. A great number of the heathen, after Jesus Christ, believed
in the books of Moses, kept them in substance and spirit, and only
rejected what was useless.

724

_Prophecies._--The conversion of the Egyptians (Isaiah xix, 19); an
altar in Egypt to the true God.

725

_Prophecies._--_In Egypt._--_Pugio Fidei_, p. 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; and that the wisdom of the scribes shall be
corrupt and rotten. Those who shall be afraid to sin, shall be rejected
by the people, and treated as senseless fools."

Is. xlix: "Listen, O isles, unto me, and hearken, ye people, from afar:
The Lord hath called me by my name from the womb of my mother; in the
shadow of His hand hath He hid me, and hath made my words like a sharp
sword, and said unto me, Thou art my servant in whom I will be
glorified. Then I said, Lord, have I laboured in vain? have I spent my
strength for nought? yet surely my judgment is with Thee, O Lord, and my
work with Thee. And now, saith the Lord, that formed me from the womb to
be His servant, to bring Jacob and Israel again to Him, 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 have raised thee up
for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the
ends of the earth. Thus saith the Lord to him whom man despiseth, 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 saith the Lord unto me, I have heard thee in the days of
salvation and of mercy, and I will preserve thee for a covenant of the
people, to cause to inherit the desolate nations, that thou mayest say
to the prisoners: Go forth; to them that are in darkness show
yourselves, and possess these abundant and fertile lands. They shall not
hunger nor thirst, neither shall the heat nor sun smite them; for he
that hath mercy upon them shall lead them, even by the springs of waters
shall he guide them, and make the mountains a way 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 heavens give glory to God;
let the earth be joyful; for it hath pleased the Lord to comfort His
people, and He will have mercy upon the poor who hope in Him.

"Yet Sion dared to say: The Lord hath forsaken me, and hath forgotten
me. Can a woman forget her child, that she should not have compassion on
the son of her womb? but if she forget, yet will not I forget thee, O
Sion. I will bear thee always between my hands, and thy walls are
continually before me. They that shall build thee are come, and thy
destroyers shall go forth of thee. Lift up thine eyes round about, and
behold; all these gather themselves together, and come to thee. As I
live, saith the Lord, thou shalt surely clothe thee with them all, as
with an ornament. Thy waste and thy desolate places, and the land of thy
destruction, shall even now be too narrow by reason of the inhabitants,
and the children thou shalt have after thy barrenness shall say again in
thy ears: The place is too strait for me: give place to me that I may
dwell. Then shalt thou say in thy heart: Who hath begotten me these,
seeing I have lost my children, and am desolate, a captive, and removing
to and fro? and who brought up these? Behold, I was left alone; these,
where had they been? And the Lord shall say to thee: Behold, I will lift
up mine hand to the Gentiles, and set up my standard to the people; and
they shall bring thy sons in their arms and in their bosoms. And kings
shall be their nursing fathers, and queens their nursing mothers; they
shall bow down to thee with their face toward the earth, and lick up the
dust of thy feet; and thou shalt know that I am the Lord; for they shall
not be ashamed that wait for me. Shall the prey be taken from the
mighty? But even if the captives be taken away from the strong, nothing
shall hinder me from saving thy children, and from destroying thy
enemies; 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 the bill of 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 for your
transgressions that I have put it away?

"For I came, and no man received me; I called and there was none to
hear. Is my arm shortened, that I cannot redeem?

"Therefore I will show the tokens of mine anger; I will clothe the
heavens with darkness, and make sackcloth their covering.

"The Lord hath given me the tongue of the learned that I should know how
to speak a word in season to him that is weary. He hath opened mine ear,
and I have listened to 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 hath helped me; therefore I
have not been confounded.

"He is near that justifieth me; who will contend with me? who will be
mine adversary, and accuse me of sin, God himself being my protector?

"All men shall pass away, and be consumed by time; let those that fear
God hearken to the voice of His servant; let him that languisheth in
darkness put his trust in the Lord. But as for you, ye do but kindle the
wrath of God upon you; ye walk in the light of your fire and in the
sparks that ye have kindled. This shall ye have of mine hand; ye shall
lie down 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 alone, when childless, and increased
him. Behold, I have comforted Zion, and heaped upon 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 says this: "And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord,
that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the
earth in the clear day; and I will turn your feasts into mourning, and
all your songs into lamentation.

"You all shall have sorrow and suffering, and I will make this nation
mourn as for an only son, and the end therefore as a bitter day. Behold,
the days come, saith the Lord, that I will send a famine in the land,
not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words
of the Lord. And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north
even to the east; they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the
Lord, and shall not find it.

"In that day shall the fair virgins and young men faint for thirst. They
that have followed the idols of Samaria, and sworn by the god of Dan,
and followed the manner of Beersheba, shall fall, and never rise up
again."

Amos iii, 2: "Ye only have I known of all the families of the earth for
my people."

Daniel xii, 7. Having described all the extent of the reign of the
Messiah, he says: "All these things shall be finished, when the
scattering of the people of Israel shall be accomplished."

Haggai ii, 4: "Ye who, comparing this second house with the glory of the
first, despise it, be strong, saith the Lord, be strong, O Zerubbabel,
and O Jesus, the high priest, be strong, all ye people of the land, and
work. For I am with you, saith the Lord of hosts; according to the word
that I covenanted with you when ye came out of Egypt, so my spirit
remaineth among you. Fear ye not. For thus saith the Lord of hosts: Yet
one little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the
sea, and the dry land," (a way of speaking to indicate a great and an
extraordinary change); "and I will shake all nations, and the desire of
all the Gentiles 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 wish to be honoured; as it is said
elsewhere: All the beasts of the field are mine, what advantages me that
they are offered me in sacrifice?). "The glory of this latter house
shall be greater than of the former, saith the Lord of hosts; and in
this place will I establish my house, saith the Lord.

"According to all that thou desiredst 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.[272] 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 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 will
speak in my name, I will require it of him."

Genesis xlix: "Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise, and
thou shalt conquer thine enemies; thy father's children shall bow down
before thee. Judah is a lion's whelp: from the prey, my son, thou art
gone up, and art couched as a lion, and as a lioness that shall be
roused up.

"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."

726

_During the life of the Messiah._--_Ænigmatis._--Ezek. xvii.

His forerunner. Malachi iii.

He will be born an infant. Is. ix.

He will be born in the village of Bethlehem. Micah v. He will appear
chiefly in Jerusalem, and will be a descendant of the family of Judah
and of David.

He is to blind the learned and the wise, Is. vi, viii, xxix, etc.; and
to preach the Gospel to the lowly, Is. xxix; to open the eyes of the
blind, give health to the sick, and bring light to those that languish
in darkness. Is. lxi.

He is to show the perfect way, and be the teacher of the Gentiles. Is.
lv; xlii, 1-7.

The prophecies are to be unintelligible to the wicked, Dan. xii; Hosea
xiv, 10; but they are to be intelligible to those who are well informed.

The prophecies, which represent Him as poor, represent Him as master of
the nations. Is. lii, 14, etc.; liii; Zech. ix, 9.

The prophecies, which foretell the time, foretell Him only as master of
the nations and suffering, and not as in the clouds nor as judge. And
those, which represent Him thus as judge and in glory, do not mention
the time. When the Messiah is spoken of as great and glorious, it is as
the judge of the world, and not its Redeemer.

He is to be the victim for the sins of the world. Is. xxxix, liii, etc.

He is to be the precious corner-stone. Is. xxviii, 16.

He is to be a stone of stumbling and offence. Is. viii. Jerusalem is to
dash against this stone.

The builders are to reject this stone. Ps. cxvii, 22.

God is to make this stone the chief corner-stone.

And this stone is to grow into a huge mountain, and fill the whole
earth. Dan. ii.

So He is to be rejected, despised, betrayed (Ps. cviii, 8), sold (Zech.
xi, 12), spit upon, buffeted, mocked, afflicted in innumerable ways,
given gall to drink (Ps. lxviii), pierced (Zech. xii), His feet and His
hands pierced, slain, and lots cast for His raiment.

He will raise again (Ps. xv) the third day (Hosea vi, 3).

He will ascend to heaven to sit on the right hand. Ps. cx.

The kings will arm themselves against Him. Ps. ii.

Being on the right hand of the Father, He will be victorious over His
enemies.

The kings of the earth and all nations will worship Him. Is. lx.

The Jews will continue as a nation. Jeremiah.

They will wander, without kings, etc. (Hosea iii), without prophets
(Amos), looking for salvation and finding it not (Isaiah).

Calling of the Gentiles by Jesus Christ. Is. lii, 15; lv, 5; lx, etc.
Ps. lxxxi.

Hosea i, 9: "Ye are not my people, and I will not be your God, when ye
are multiplied after the dispersion. In the places where it was said, Ye
are not my people, I will call them my people."

727

It was not lawful to sacrifice outside of Jerusalem, which was the place
that the Lord had chosen, nor even to eat the tithes elsewhere. Deut.
xii, 5, etc.; Deut. xiv, 23, etc.; xv, 20; xvi, 2, 7, 11, 15.

Hosea foretold that they should be without a king, without a prince,
without a sacrifice, and without an idol; and this prophecy is now
fulfilled, as they cannot make a lawful sacrifice out of Jerusalem.

728

_Predictions._--It was foretold that, in the time of the Messiah, He
should come to establish a new covenant, which should make them forget
the escape from Egypt (Jer. xxiii, 5; Is. xliii, 10); that He should
place His law not in externals, but in the heart; that He should put His
fear, which had only been from without, in the midst of the heart. Who
does not see the Christian law in all this?

729

... That then idolatry would be overthrown; that this Messiah would cast
down all idols, and bring men into the worship of the true God.

That the temples of the idols would be cast down, and that among all
nations, and in all places of the earth, He would be offered a pure
sacrifice, not of beasts.

That He would be king of the Jews and Gentiles. And we see this king of
the Jews and Gentiles oppressed by both, who conspire His death; and
ruler of both, destroying the worship of Moses in Jerusalem, which was
its centre, where He made His first Church; and also the worship of
idols in Rome, the centre of it, where He made His chief Church.

730

_Prophecies._--That Jesus Christ will sit on the right hand, till God
has subdued His enemies.

Therefore He will not subdue them Himself.

731

"... Then they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, saying,
Here is the Lord, _for God shall make Himself known to all._"[273]

"... Your sons shall prophesy."[274] "I will put my spirit and my fear
_in your heart_."

All that is the same thing. To prophesy is to speak of God, not from
outward proofs, but from an inward and immediate feeling.

732

That He would teach men the perfect way.

And there has never come, before Him nor after Him, any man who has
taught anything divine approaching to this.

733

... That Jesus Christ would be small in His beginning, and would then
increase. The little stone of Daniel.

If I had in no wise heard of the Messiah, nevertheless, after such
wonderful predictions of the course of the world which I see fulfilled,
I see that He is divine. And if I knew that these same books foretold a
Messiah, I should be sure that He would come; and seeing that they place
His time before the destruction of the second temple, I should say that
He had come.

734

_Prophecies._--That the Jews would reject Jesus Christ, and would be
rejected of God, for this reason, that the chosen vine brought forth
only wild grapes. That the chosen people would be fruitless, ungrateful,
and unbelieving, _populum non credentem et contradicentem_.[275] That
God would strike them with blindness, and in full noon they would grope
like the blind; and that a forerunner would go before Him.

735

_Transfixerunt._ Zech. xii, 10.

That a deliverer should come, who would crush the demon's head, and free
His people from their sins, _ex omnibus iniquitatibus_; that there
should be a New Covenant, which would be eternal; that there should be
another priesthood after the order of Melchisedek, and it should be
eternal; that the Christ should be glorious, mighty, strong, and yet so
poor that He would not be recognised, nor taken for what He is, but
rejected and slain; that His people who denied Him should no longer be
His people; that the idolaters should receive Him, and take refuge in
Him; that He should leave Zion to reign in the centre of idolatry; that
nevertheless the Jews should continue for ever; that He should be of
Judah, and when there should be no longer a king.

SECTION XII

PROOFS OF JESUS CHRIST

736

... Therefore I reject all other religions. In that way I find an answer
to all objections. It is right that a God so pure should only reveal
Himself to those whose hearts are purified. Hence this religion is
lovable to me, and I find it now sufficiently justified by so divine a
morality. But I find more in it.

I find it convincing that, since the memory of man has lasted, it was
constantly announced to men that they were universally corrupt, but that
a Redeemer should come; that it was not one man who said it, but
innumerable men, and a whole nation expressly made for the purpose, and
prophesying for four thousand years. This is a nation which is more
ancient than every other nation. Their books, scattered abroad, are four
thousand years old.

The more I examine them, the more truths I find in them: an entire
nation foretell Him before His advent, and an entire nation worship Him
after His advent; what has preceded and what has followed; in short,
people without idols and kings, this synagogue which was foretold, and
these wretches who frequent it, and who, being our enemies, are
admirable witnesses of the truth of these prophecies, wherein their
wretchedness and even their blindness are foretold.

I find this succession, this religion, wholly divine in its authority,
in its duration, in its perpetuity, in its morality, in its conduct, in
its doctrine, in its effects. The frightful darkness of the Jews was
foretold: _Eris palpans in meridie.[276] Dabitur liber scienti literas,
et dicet: Non possum legere._[277] While the sceptre was still in the
hands of the first foreign usurper, there is the report of the coming of
Jesus Christ.

So I hold out my arms to my _Redeemer_, who, having been foretold for
four thousand years, has come to suffer and to die for me on earth, at
the time and under all the circumstances foretold. By His grace, I await
death in peace, in the hope of being eternally united to Him. Yet I
live with joy, whether in the prosperity which it pleases Him to bestow
upon me, or in the adversity which He sends for my good, and which He
has taught me to bear by His example.

737

The prophecies having given different signs which should all happen at
the advent of the Messiah, it was necessary that all these signs should
occur at the same time. So it was necessary that the fourth monarchy
should have come, when the seventy weeks of Daniel were ended; and that
the sceptre should have then departed from Judah. And all this happened
without any difficulty. Then it was necessary that the Messiah should
come; and Jesus Christ then came, who was called the Messiah. And all
this again was without difficulty. This indeed shows the truth of the
prophecies.

738

The prophets foretold, and were not foretold. The saints again were
foretold, but did not foretell. Jesus Christ both foretold and was
foretold.

739

Jesus Christ, whom the two Testaments regard, the Old as its hope, the
New as its model, and both as their centre.

740

The two oldest books in the world are those of Moses and Job, the one a
Jew and the other a Gentile. Both of them look upon Jesus Christ as
their common centre and object: Moses in relating the promises of God to
Abraham, Jacob, etc., and his prophecies; and Job, _Quis mihi det
ut_,[278] etc. _Scio enim quod redemptor meus vivit_, etc.

741

The Gospel only speaks of the virginity of the Virgin up to the time of
the birth of Jesus Christ. All with reference to Jesus Christ.

742

_Proofs of Jesus Christ._

    Why was the book of Ruth preserved?

    Why the story of Tamar?

743

"Pray that ye enter not into temptation."[279] It is dangerous to be
tempted; and people are tempted because they do not pray.

_Et tu conversus confirma fratres tuos._ But before, _conversus Jesus
respexit Petrum_.

Saint Peter asks permission to strike Malchus, and strikes before
hearing the answer. Jesus Christ replies afterwards.

The word, _Galilee_, which the Jewish mob pronounced as if by chance, in
accusing Jesus Christ before Pilate, afforded Pilate a reason for
sending Jesus Christ to Herod. And thereby the mystery was accomplished,
that He should be judged by Jews and Gentiles. Chance was apparently the
cause of the accomplishment of the mystery.

744

Those who have a difficulty in believing seek a reason in the fact that
the Jews do not believe. "Were this so clear," say they, "why did the
Jews not believe?" And they almost wish that they had believed, so as
not to be kept back by the example of their refusal. But it is their
very refusal that is the foundation of our faith. We should be much less
disposed to the faith, if they were on our side. We should then have a
more ample pretext. The wonderful thing is to have made the Jews great
lovers of the things foretold, and great enemies of their fulfilment.

745

The Jews were accustomed to great and striking miracles, and so, having
had the great miracles of the Red Sea and of the land of Canaan as an
epitome of the great deeds of their Messiah, they therefore looked for
more striking miracles, of which those of Moses were only the patterns.

746

The carnal Jews and the heathen have their calamities, and Christians
also. There is no Redeemer for the heathen, for they do not so much as
hope for one. There is no Redeemer for the Jews; they hope for Him in
vain. There is a Redeemer only for Christians. (See _Perpetuity_.)

747

In the time of the Messiah the people divided themselves. The spiritual
embraced the Messiah, and the coarser-minded remained to serve as
witnesses of Him.

748

"If this was clearly foretold to the Jews, how did they not believe it,
or why were they not destroyed for resisting a fact so clear?"

I reply: in the first place, it was foretold both that they would not
believe a thing so clear, and that they would not be destroyed. And
nothing is more to the glory of the Messiah; for it was not enough that
there should be prophets; their prophets must be kept above suspicion.
Now, etc.

749

If the Jews had all been converted by Jesus Christ, we should have none
but questionable witnesses. And if they had been entirely destroyed, we
should have no witnesses at all.

750

What do the prophets say of Jesus Christ? That He will be clearly God?
No; but that He is a God truly hidden; that He will be slighted; that
none will think that it is He; that He will be a stone of stumbling,
upon which many will stumble, etc. Let people then reproach us no longer
for want of clearness, since we make profession of it.

But, it is said, there are obscurities.--And without that, no one would
have stumbled over Jesus Christ, and this is one of the formal
pronouncements of the prophets: _Excæca_[280] ...

751

Moses first teaches the Trinity, original sin, the Messiah.

David: a great witness; a king, good, merciful, a beautiful soul, a
sound mind, powerful. He prophesies, and his wonder comes to pass. This
is infinite.

He had only to say that he was the Messiah, if he had been vain; for the
prophecies are clearer about him than about Jesus Christ. And the same
with Saint John.

752

Herod was believed to be the Messiah. He had taken away the sceptre from
Judah, but he was not of Judah. This gave rise to a considerable sect.

Curse of the Greeks upon those who count three periods of time.

In what way should the Messiah come, seeing that through Him the sceptre
was to be eternally in Judah, and at His coming the sceptre was to be
taken away from Judah?

In order to effect that seeing they should not see, and hearing they
should not understand, nothing could be better done.

753

_Homo existens te Deum facit.

Scriptum est, Dii estis, et non potest solvi Scriptura.

Hæc infirmitas non est ad vitam et est ad mortem.

Lazarus dormit, et deinde dixit: Lazarus mortuus est._[281]

754

The apparent discrepancy of the Gospels.[282]

755

What can we have but reverence for a man who foretells plainly things
which come to pass, and who declares his intention both to blind and to
enlighten, and who intersperses obscurities among the clear things which
come to pass?

756

The time of the first advent was foretold; the time of the second is not
so; because the first was to be obscure, and the second is to be
brilliant, and so manifest that even His enemies will recognise it. But,
as He was first to come only in obscurity, and to be known only of those
who searched the Scriptures ...

757

God, in order to cause the Messiah to be known by the good and not to be
known by the wicked, made Him to be foretold in this manner. If the
manner of the Messiah had been clearly foretold, there would have been
no obscurity, even for the wicked. If the time had been obscurely
foretold, there would have been obscurity, even for the good. For their
[goodness of heart] would not have made them understand, for instance,
that the closed _mem_ signifies six hundred years. But the time has been
clearly foretold, and the manner in types.

By this means, the wicked, taking the promised blessings for material
blessings, have fallen into error, in spite of the clear prediction of
the time; and the good have not fallen in error. For the understanding
of the promised blessings depends on the heart, which calls "good" that
which it loves; but the understanding of the promised time does not
depend on the heart. And thus the clear prediction of the time, and the
obscure prediction of the blessings, deceive the wicked alone.

758

[Either the Jews or the Christians must be wicked.]

759

The Jews reject Him, but not all. The saints receive Him, and not the
carnal-minded. And so far is this from being against His glory, that it
is the last touch which crowns it. For their argument, the only one
found in all their writings, in the Talmud and in the Rabbinical
writings, amounts only to this, that Jesus Christ has not subdued the
nations with sword in hand, _gladiumt uum, potentissime_.[283] (Is this
all they have to say? Jesus Christ has been slain, say they. He has
failed. He has not subdued the heathen with His might. He has not
bestowed upon us their spoil. He does not give riches. Is this all they
have to say? It is in this respect that He is lovable to me. I would not
desire Him whom they fancy.) It is evident that it is only His life
which has prevented them from accepting Him; and through this rejection
they are irreproachable witnesses, and, what is more, they thereby
accomplish the prophecies.

[By means of the fact that this people have not accepted Him, this
miracle here has happened. The prophecies were the only lasting miracles
which could be wrought, but they were liable to be denied.]

760

The Jews, in slaying Him in order not to receive Him as the Messiah,
have given Him the final proof of being the Messiah.

And in continuing not to recognise Him, they made themselves
irreproachable witnesses. Both in slaying Him, and in continuing to deny
Him, they have fulfilled the prophecies (Isa. lx; Ps. lxxi).

761

What could the Jews, His enemies, do? If they receive Him, they give
proof of Him by their reception; for then the guardians of the
expectation of the Messiah receive Him. If they reject Him, they give
proof of Him by their rejection.

762

The Jews, in testing if He were God, have shown that He was man.

763

The Church has had as much difficulty in showing that Jesus Christ was
man, against those who denied it, as in showing that he was God; and the
probabilities were equally great.

764

_Source of contradictions._--A God humiliated, even to the death on the
cross; a Messiah triumphing over death by his own death. Two natures in
Jesus Christ, two advents, two states of man's nature.

765

_Types._--Saviour, father, sacrificer, offering, food, king, wise,
law-giver, afflicted, poor, having to create a people whom He must lead
and nourish, and bring into His land....

_Jesus Christ. Offices._--He alone had to create a great people, elect,
holy, and chosen; to lead, nourish, and bring it into the place of rest
and holiness; to make it holy to God; to make it the temple of God; to
reconcile it to, and save it from, the wrath of God; to free it from the
slavery of sin, which visibly reigns in man; to give laws to this
people, and engrave these laws on their heart; to offer Himself to God
for them, and sacrifice Himself for them; to be a victim without
blemish, and Himself the sacrificer, having to offer Himself, His body,
and His blood, and yet to offer bread and wine to God ...

_Ingrediens mundum._[284]

"Stone upon stone."[285]

What preceded and what followed. All the Jews exist still, and are
wanderers.

766

Of all that is on earth, He partakes only of the sorrows, not of the
joys. He loves His neighbours, but His love does not confine itself
within these bounds, and overflows to His own enemies, and then to those
of God.

767

Jesus Christ typified by Joseph, the beloved of his father, sent by his
father to see his brethren, etc., innocent, sold by his brethren for
twenty pieces of silver, and thereby becoming their lord, their saviour,
the saviour of strangers, and the saviour of the world; which had not
been but for their plot to destroy him, their sale and their rejection
of him.

In prison Joseph innocent between two criminals; Jesus Christ on the
cross between two thieves. Joseph foretells freedom to the one, and
death to the other, from the same omens. Jesus Christ saves the elect,
and condemns the outcast for the same sins. Joseph foretells only; Jesus
Christ acts. Joseph asks him who will be saved to remember him, when he
comes into his glory; and he whom Jesus Christ saves asks that He will
remember him, when He comes into His kingdom.

768

The conversion of the heathen was only reserved for the grace of the
Messiah. The Jews have been so long in opposition to them without
success; all that Solomon and the prophets said has been useless. Sages,
like Plato and Socrates, have not been able to persuade them.

769

After many persons had gone before, Jesus Christ at last came to
say:[286] "Here am I, and this is the time. That which the prophets have
said was to come in the fullness of time, I tell you My apostles will
do. The Jews shall be cast out. Jerusalem shall be soon destroyed. And
the heathen shall enter into the knowledge of God. My apostles shall do
this after you have slain the heir of the vineyard."

Then the apostles said to the Jews: "You shall be accursed," (_Celsus
laughed at it_); and to the heathen, "You shall enter into the knowledge
of God." And this then came to pass.

770

Jesus Christ came to blind those who saw clearly, and to give sight to
the blind; to heal the sick, and leave the healthy to die; to call to
repentance, and to justify sinners, and to leave the righteous in their
sins; to fill the needy, and leave the rich empty.

771

_Holiness._--_Effundam spiritum meum._[287] All nations were in unbelief
and lust. The whole world now became fervent with love. Princes
abandoned their pomp; maidens suffered martyrdom. Whence came this
influence? The Messiah was come. These were the effect and sign of His
coming.

772

Destruction of the Jews and heathen by Jesus Christ: _Omnes gentes
venient et adorabunt eum.[288] Parum est ut_,[289] etc. _Postula a
me.[290] Adorabunt eum omnes reges.[291] Testes iniqui.[292] Dabit
maxillam percutienti.[293] Dederunt fel in escam._[294]

773

Jesus Christ for all, Moses for a nation.

The Jews blessed in Abraham: "I will bless those that bless thee."[295]
But: "All nations blessed in his seed."[296] _Parum est ut_, etc.

_Lumen ad revelationem gentium._[297]

_Non fecit taliter omni nationi_,[298] said David, in speaking of the
Law. But, in speaking of Jesus Christ, we must say: _Fecit taliter omni
nationi. Parum est ut_, etc., Isaiah. So it belongs to Jesus Christ to
be universal. Even the Church offers sacrifice only for the faithful.
Jesus Christ offered that of the cross for all.

774

There is heresy in always explaining _omnes_ by "all," and heresy in not
explaining it sometimes by "all." _Bibite ex hoc omnes_;[299] the
Huguenots are heretics in explaining it by "all." _In quo omnes
peccaverunt_;[300] the Huguenots are heretics in excepting the children
of true believers. We must then follow the Fathers and tradition in
order to know when to do so, since there is heresy to be feared on both
sides.

775

_Ne timeas pusillus grex.[301] Timore et tremore.--Quid ergo? Ne timeas
[modo] timeas._ Fear not, provided you fear; but if you fear not, then
fear.

_Qui me recipit, non me recipit, sed eum qui me misit._[302]

_Nemo scit, neque Filius._

_Nubes lucida obumbravit._

Saint John[303] was to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children,
and Jesus Christ[304] to plant division. There is not contradiction.

776

The effects _in communi_ and _in particulari_. The semi-Pelagians err in
saying of _in communi_ what is true only _in particulari_; and the
Calvinists in saying _in particulari_ what is true _in communi_. (Such
is my opinion.)

777

_Omnis Judæa regio, et Jerosolomymi universi, et baptizabantur._[305]
Because of all the conditions of men who came there. From these stones
there _can_ come children unto Abraham.[306]

778

If men knew themselves, God would heal and pardon them. _Ne convertantur
et sanem eos, et dimittantur eis peccata._[307]

779

Jesus Christ never condemned without hearing. To Judas: _Amice, ad quid
venisti?_[308] To him that had not on the wedding garment, the same.

780

The types of the completeness of the Redemption, as that the sun gives
light to all, indicate only completeness; but [_the types_] of
exclusions, as of the Jews elected to the exclusion of the Gentiles,
indicate exclusion.

"Jesus Christ the Redeemer of all."--Yes, for He has offered, like a man
who has ransomed all those who were willing to come to Him. If any die
on the way, it is their misfortune; but, so far as He was concerned, He
offered them redemption.--That holds good in this example, where he who
ransoms and he who prevents death are two persons, but not of Jesus
Christ, who does both these things.--No, for Jesus Christ, in the
quality of Redeemer, is not perhaps Master of all; and thus, in so far
as it is in Him, He is the Redeemer of all.

When it is said that Jesus Christ did not die for all, you take undue
advantage of a fault in men who at once apply this exception to
themselves; and this is to favour despair, instead of turning them from
it to favour hope. For men thus accustom themselves in inward virtues by
outward customs.

781

The victory over death. "What is a man advantaged if he gain the whole
world and lose his own soul?[309] Whosoever will save his soul, shall
lose it."[310]

"I am not come to destroy the law, but to fulfil."[311]

"Lambs took not away the sins of the world, but I am the lamb which
taketh away the sins."[312]

"Moses[313] hath not led you out of captivity, and made you truly free."

782

... Then Jesus Christ comes to tell men that they have no other enemies
but themselves; that it is their passions which keep them apart from
God; that He comes to destroy these, and give them His grace, so as to
make of them all one Holy Church; that He comes to bring back into this
Church the heathen and Jews; that He comes to destroy the idols of the
former and the superstition of the latter. To this all men are opposed,
not only from the natural opposition of lust; but, above all, the kings
of the earth, as had been foretold, join together to destroy this
religion at its birth. (_Proph.: Quare fremuerunt gentes ... reges terræ
... adversus Christum._)[314]

All that is great on earth is united together; the learned, the wise,
the kings. The first write; the second condemn; the last kill. And
notwithstanding all these oppositions, these men, simple and weak,
resist all these powers, subdue even these kings, these learned men and
these sages, and remove idolatry from all the earth. And all this is
done by the power which had foretold it.

783

Jesus Christ would not have the testimony of devils, nor of those who
were not called, but of God and John the Baptist.

784

I consider Jesus Christ in all persons and in ourselves: Jesus Christ as
a Father in His Father, Jesus Christ as a Brother in His Brethren, Jesus
Christ as poor in the poor, Jesus Christ as rich in the rich, Jesus
Christ as Doctor and Priest in priests, Jesus Christ as Sovereign in
princes, etc. For by His glory He is all that is great, being God; and
by His mortal life He is all that is poor and abject. Therefore He has
taken this unhappy condition, so that He could be in all persons, and
the model of all conditions.

785

Jesus Christ is an obscurity (according to what the world calls
obscurity), such that historians, writing only of important matters of
states, have hardly noticed Him.

786

_On the fact that neither Josephus, nor Tacitus, nor other historians
have spoken of Jesus Christ._--So far is this from telling against
Christianity, that on the contrary it tells for it. For it is certain
that Jesus Christ has existed; that His religion has made a great talk;
and that these persons were not ignorant of it. Thus it is plain that
they purposely concealed it, or that, if they did speak of it, their
account has been suppressed or changed.

787

"I have reserved me seven thousand."[315] I love the worshippers unknown
to the world and to the very prophets.

788

As Jesus Christ remained unknown among men, so His truth remains among
common opinions without external difference. Thus the Eucharist among
ordinary bread.

789

Jesus would not be slain without the forms of justice; for it is far
more ignominious to die by justice than by an unjust sedition.

790

The false justice of Pilate only serves to make Jesus Christ suffer; for
he causes Him to be scourged by his false justice, and afterwards puts
Him to death. It would have been better to have put Him to death at
once. Thus it is with the falsely just. They do good and evil works to
please the world, and to show that they are not altogether of Jesus
Christ; for they are ashamed of Him. And at last, under great temptation
and on great occasions, they kill Him.

791

What man ever had more renown? The whole Jewish people foretell Him
before His coming. The Gentile people worship Him after His coming. The
two peoples, Gentile and Jewish, regard Him as their centre.

And yet what man enjoys this renown less? Of thirty-three years, He
lives thirty without appearing. For three years He passes as an
impostor; the priests and the chief people reject Him; His friends and
His nearest relatives despise Him. Finally, He dies, betrayed by one of
His own disciples, denied by another, and abandoned by all.

What part, then, has He in this renown? Never had man so much renown;
never had man more ignominy. All that renown has served only for us, to
render us capable of recognising Him; and He had none of it for Himself.

792

The infinite distance between body and mind is a symbol of the
infinitely more infinite distance between mind and charity; for charity
is supernatural.

All the glory of greatness has no lustre for people who are in search of
understanding.

The greatness of clever men is invisible to kings, to the rich, to
chiefs, and to all the worldly great.

The greatness of wisdom, which is nothing if not of God, is invisible to
the carnal-minded and to the clever. These are three orders differing in
kind.

Great geniuses have their power, their glory, their greatness, their
victory, their lustre, and have no need of worldly greatness, with which
they are not in keeping. They are seen, not by the eye, but by the mind;
this is sufficient.

The saints have their power, their glory, their victory, their lustre,
and need no worldly or intellectual greatness, with which they have no
affinity; for these neither add anything to them, nor take away anything
from them. They are seen of God and the angels, and not of the body, nor
of the curious mind. God is enough for them.

Archimedes,[316] apart from his rank, would have the same veneration. He
fought no battles for the eyes to feast upon; but he has given his
discoveries to all men. Oh! how brilliant he was to the mind!

Jesus Christ, without riches, and without any external exhibition of
knowledge, is in His own order of holiness. He did not invent; He did
not reign. But He was humble, patient, holy, holy to God, terrible to
devils, without any sin. Oh! in what great pomp, and in what wonderful
splendour, He is come to the eyes of the heart, which perceive wisdom!

It would have been useless for Archimedes to have acted the prince in
his books on geometry, although he was a prince.

It would have been useless for our Lord Jesus Christ to come like a
king, in order to shine forth in His kingdom of holiness. But He came
there appropriately in the glory of His own order.

It is most absurd to take offence at the lowliness of Jesus Christ, as
if His lowliness were in the same order as the greatness which He came
to manifest. If we consider this greatness in His life, in His passion,
in His obscurity, in His death, in the choice of His disciples, in their
desertion, in His secret resurrection, and the rest, we shall see it to
be so immense, that we shall have no reason for being offended at a
lowliness which is not of that order.

But there are some who can only admire worldly greatness, as though
there were no intellectual greatness; and others who only admire
intellectual greatness, as though there were not infinitely higher
things in wisdom.

All bodies, the firmament, the stars, the earth and its kingdoms, are
not equal to the lowest mind; for mind knows all these and itself; and
these bodies nothing.

All bodies together, and all minds together, and all their products, are
not equal to the least feeling of charity. This is of an order
infinitely more exalted.

From all bodies together, we cannot obtain one little thought; this is
impossible, and of another order. From all bodies and minds, we cannot
produce a feeling of true charity; this is impossible, and of another
and supernatural order.

793

Why did Jesus Christ not come in a visible manner, instead of obtaining
testimony of Himself from preceding prophecies? Why did He cause Himself
to be foretold in types?

794

If Jesus Christ had only come to sanctify, all Scripture and all things
would tend to that end; and it would be quite easy to convince
unbelievers. If Jesus Christ had only come to blind, all His conduct
would be confused; and we would have no means of convincing unbelievers.
But as He came _in sanctificationem et in scandalum_,[317] as Isaiah
says, we cannot convince unbelievers, and they cannot convince us. But
by this very fact we convince them; since we say that in His whole
conduct there is no convincing proof on one side or the other.

795

Jesus Christ does not say that He is not of Nazareth, in order to leave
the wicked in their blindness; nor that He is not Joseph's son.

796

_Proofs of Jesus Christ._--Jesus Christ said great things so simply,
that it seems as though He had not thought them great; and yet so
clearly that we easily see what He thought of them. This clearness,
joined to this simplicity, is wonderful.

797

The style of the gospel is admirable in so many ways, and among the rest
in hurling no invectives against the persecutors and enemies of Jesus
Christ. For there is no such invective in any of the historians against
Judas, Pilate, or any of the Jews.

If this moderation of the writers of the Gospels had been assumed, as
well as many other traits of so beautiful a character, and they had only
assumed it to attract notice, even if they had not dared to draw
attention to it themselves, they would not have failed to secure
friends, who would have made such remarks to their advantage. But as
they acted thus without pretence, and from wholly disinterested motives,
they did not point it out to any one; and I believe that many such facts
have not been noticed till now, which is evidence of the natural
disinterestedness with which the thing has been done.

798

An artisan who speaks of wealth, a lawyer who speaks of war, of royalty,
etc.; but the rich man rightly speaks of wealth, a king speaks
indifferently of a great gift he has just made, and God rightly speaks
of God.

799

Who has taught the evangelists the qualities of a perfectly heroic soul,
that they paint it so perfectly in Jesus Christ? Why do they make Him
weak in His agony? Do they not know how to paint a resolute death? Yes,
for the same Saint Luke paints the death of Saint Stephen as braver than
that of Jesus Christ.

They make Him therefore capable of fear, before the necessity of dying
has come, and then altogether brave.

But when they make Him so troubled, it is when He afflicts Himself; and
when men afflict Him, He is altogether strong.

800

_Proof of Jesus Christ._--The supposition that the apostles were
impostors is very absurd. Let us think it out. Let us imagine those
twelve men, assembled after the death of Jesus Christ, plotting to say
that He was risen. By this they attack all the powers. The heart of man
is strangely inclined to fickleness, to change, to promises, to gain.
However little any of them might have been led astray by all these
attractions, nay more, by the fear of prisons, tortures, and death, they
were lost. Let us follow up this thought.

801

The apostles were either deceived or deceivers. Either supposition has
difficulties; for it is not possible to mistake a man raised from the
dead ...

While Jesus Christ was with them, He could sustain them. But, after
that, if He did not appear to them, who inspired them to act?

SECTION XIII

THE MIRACLES

802

_The beginning._--Miracles enable us to judge of doctrine, and doctrine
enables us to judge of miracles.

There are false miracles and true. There must be a distinction, in order
to know them; otherwise they would be useless. Now they are not useless;
on the contrary, they are fundamental. Now the rule which is given to us
must be such, that it does not destroy the proof which the true miracles
give of the truth, which is the chief end of the miracles.

Moses has given two rules: that the prediction does not come to pass
(Deut. xviii), and that they do not lead to idolatry (Deut. xiii); and
Jesus Christ[318] one.

If doctrine regulates miracles, miracles are useless for doctrine.

If miracles regulate....

_Objection to the rule._--The distinction of the times. One rule during
the time of Moses, another at present.

803

_Miracle._--It is an effect, which exceeds the natural power of the
means which are employed for it; and what is not a miracle is an effect,
which does not exceed the natural power of the means which are employed
for it. Thus, those who heal by invocation of the devil do not work a
miracle; for that does not exceed the natural power of the devil.
But ...

804

The two fundamentals; one inward, the other outward; grace and miracles;
both supernatural.

805

Miracles and truth are necessary, because it is necessary to convince
the entire man, in body and soul.

806

In all times, either men have spoken of the true God, or the true God
has spoken to men.

807

Jesus Christ has verified that He was the Messiah, never in verifying
His doctrine by Scripture and the prophecies, but always by His
miracles.

He proves by a miracle that He remits sins.

Rejoice not in your miracles, said Jesus Christ, but because your names
are written in heaven.[319]

If they believe not Moses, neither will they believe one risen from the
dead.

Nicodemus recognises by His miracles that His teaching is of God.
_Scimus quia venisti a Deo magister; nemo enim potest hæc signa facere
quæ tu facis nisi Deus fuerit cum eo._[320] He does not judge of the
miracles by the teaching, but of the teaching by the miracles.

The Jews had a doctrine of God as we have one of Jesus Christ, and
confirmed by miracles. They were forbidden to believe every worker of
miracles; and they were further commanded to have recourse to the chief
priests, and to rely on them.

And thus, in regard to their prophets, they had all those reasons which
we have for refusing to believe the workers of miracles.

And yet they were very sinful in rejecting the prophets, and Jesus
Christ, because of their miracles; and they would not have been
culpable, if they had not seen the miracles. _Nisi fecissem ... peccatum
non haberent._[321] Therefore all belief rests upon miracles.

Prophecy is not called miracle; as Saint John speaks of the first
miracle in Cana, and then of what Jesus Christ says to the woman of
Samaria, when He reveals to her all her hidden life. Then He heals the
centurion's son; and Saint John calls this "the second miracle."[322]

808

The combinations of miracles.

809

The second miracle can suppose the first, but the first cannot suppose
the second.

810

Had it not been for the miracles, there would have been no sin in not
believing in Jesus Christ.

811

I should not be a Christian, but for the miracles, said Saint Augustine.

812

_Miracles._--How I hate those who make men doubt of miracles!
Montaigne[323] speaks of them as he should in two places. In one, we see
how careful he is; and yet, in the other, he believes, and makes sport
of unbelievers.

However it may be, the Church is without proofs if they are right.

813

Montaigne against miracles.

Montaigne for miracles.

814

It is not possible to have a reasonable belief against miracles.

815

Unbelievers the most credulous. They believe the miracles of Vespasian,
in order not to believe those of Moses.

816

_Title: How it happens that men believe so many liars, who say that they
have seen miracles, and do not believe any of those who say that they
have secrets to make men immortal, or restore youth to them._--Having
considered how it happens that so great credence is given to so many
impostors, who say they have remedies, often to the length of men
putting their lives into their hands, it has appeared to me that the
true cause is that there are true remedies. For it would not be possible
that there should be so many false remedies, and that so much faith
should be placed in them, if there were none true. If there had never
been any remedy for any ill, and all ills had been incurable, it is
impossible that men should have imagined that they could give remedies,
and still more impossible that so many others should have believed those
who boasted of having remedies; in the same way as did a man boast of
preventing death, no one would believe him, because there is no example
of this. But as there were a number of remedies found to be true by the
very knowledge of the greatest men, the belief of men is thereby
induced; and, this being known to be possible, it has been therefore
concluded that it was. For people commonly reason thus: "A thing is
possible, therefore it is"; because the thing cannot be denied
generally, since there are particular effects which are true, the
people, who cannot distinguish which among these particular effects are
true, believe them all. In the same way, the reason why so many false
effects are credited to the moon, is that there are some true, as the
tide.

It is the same with prophecies, miracles, divination by dreams,
sorceries, etc. For if there had been nothing true in all this, men
would have believed nothing of them; and thus, instead of concluding
that there are no true miracles because there are so many false, we
must, on the contrary, say that there certainly are true miracles, since
there are false, and that there are false miracles only because some are
true. We must reason in the same way about religion; for it would not be
possible that men should have imagined so many false religions, if there
had not been a true one. The objection to this is that savages have a
religion; but the answer is that they have heard the true spoken of, as
appears by the deluge, circumcision, the cross of Saint Andrew, etc.

817

Having considered how it comes that there are so many false miracles,
false revelations, sorceries, etc., it has seemed to me that the true
cause is that there are some true; for it would not be possible that
there should be so many false miracles, if there were none true, nor so
many false revelations, if there were none true, nor so many false
religions, if there were not one true. For if there had never been all
this, it is almost impossible that men should have imagined it, and
still more impossible that so many others should have believed it. But
as there have been very great things true, and as they have been
believed by great men, this impression has been the cause that nearly
everybody is rendered capable of believing also the false. And thus,
instead of concluding that there are no true miracles, since there are
so many false, it must be said, on the contrary, that there are true
miracles, since there are so many false; and that there are false ones
only because there are true; and that in the same way there are false
religions because there is one true.--Objection to this: savages have a
religion. But this is because they have heard the true spoken of, as
appears by the cross of Saint Andrew, the deluge, circumcision,
etc.--This arises from the fact that the human mind, finding itself
inclined to that side by the truth, becomes thereby susceptible of all
the falsehoods of this ...

818

Jeremiah xxiii, 32. The _miracles_ of the false prophets. In the Hebrew
and Vatable[324] they are the _tricks_.

_Miracle_ does not always signify miracle. I Sam. xiv, 15; _miracle_
signifies _fear_, and is so in the Hebrew. The same evidently in Job
xxxiii, 7; and also Isaiah xxi, 4; Jeremiah xliv, 12. _Portentum_
signifies _simulacrum_, Jeremiah l, 38; and it is so in the Hebrew and
Vatable. Isaiah viii, 18. Jesus Christ says that He and His will be in
_miracles_.

819

If the devil favoured the doctrine which destroys him, he would be
divided against himself, as Jesus Christ said. If God favoured the
doctrine which destroys the Church, He would be divided against Himself.
_Omne regnum divisum._[325] For Jesus Christ wrought against the devil,
and destroyed his power over the heart, of which exorcism is the
symbolisation, in order to establish the kingdom of God. And thus He
adds, _Si in digito Dei ... regnum Dei ad vos_.[326]

820

There is a great difference between tempting and leading into error. God
tempts, but He does not lead into error. To tempt is to afford
opportunities, which impose no necessity; if men do not love God, they
will do a certain thing. To lead into error is to place a man under the
necessity of inferring and following out what is untrue.

821

Abraham and Gideon are above revelation. The Jews blinded themselves in
judging of miracles by the Scripture. God has never abandoned His true
worshippers.

I prefer to follow Jesus Christ than any other, because He has miracle,
prophecy, doctrine, perpetuity, etc.

The Donatists. No miracle which obliges them to say it is the devil.

The more we particularise God, Jesus Christ, the Church ...

822

If there were no false miracles, there would be certainty. If there were
no rule to judge of them, miracles would be useless, and there would be
no reason for believing.

Now there is, humanly speaking, no human certainty, but we have reason.

823

Either God has confounded the false miracles, or He has foretold them;
and in both ways He has raised Himself above what is supernatural with
respect to us, and has raised us to it.

824

Miracles serve not to convert, but to condemn. (Q. 113, A. 10, _Ad._
2.)[327]

825

_Reasons why we do not believe._

John xii, 37. _Cum autem tanta signa fecisset, non credebant in eum, ut
sermo Isayæ impleretur. Excæcavit_, etc.

_Hæc dixit Isaias, quando vidit gloriam ejus et locutus est de eo._

_Judæi signa petunt et Græci sapientiam quærunt, nos autem Jesum
crucifixum. Sed plenum signis, sed plenum sapientia; vos autem Christum
non crucifixum et religionem sine miraculis et sine sapientia._[328]

What makes us not believe in the true miracles, is want of love. John:
_Sed vos non creditis, quia non estis ex ovibus._[329] What makes us
believe the false is want of love. II Thess. ii.

The foundation of religion. It is the miracles. What then? Does God
speak against miracles, against the foundations of the faith which we
have in Him?

If there is a God, faith in God must exist on earth. Now the miracles of
Jesus Christ are not foretold by Antichrist, but the miracles of
Antichrist are foretold by Jesus Christ. And so if Jesus Christ were not
the Messiah, He would have indeed led into error. When Jesus Christ
foretold the miracles of Antichrist, did He think of destroying faith in
His own miracles?

Moses foretold Jesus Christ, and bade to follow Him. Jesus Christ
foretold Antichrist, and forbade to follow him.

It was impossible that in the time of Moses men should keep their faith
for Antichrist, who was unknown to them. But it is quite easy, in the
time of Antichrist, to believe in Jesus Christ, already known.

There is no reason for believing in Antichrist, which there is not for
believing in Jesus Christ. But there are reasons for believing in Jesus
Christ, which there are not for believing in the other.

826

Judges xiii, 23: "If the Lord were pleased to kill us, He would not have
shewed us all these things."

Hezekiah, Sennacherib.

Jeremiah. Hananiah, the false prophet, dies in seven months.

2 Macc. iii. The temple, ready for pillage, miraculously succoured.--2
Macc. xv.

1 Kings xvii. The widow to Elijah, who had restored her son, "By this I
know that thy words are true."

1 Kings xviii. Elijah with the prophets of Baal.

In the dispute concerning the true God and the truth of religion, there
has never happened any miracle on the side of error, and not of truth.

827

_Opposition._--Abel, Cain; Moses, the Magicians; Elijah, the false
prophets: Jeremiah, Hananiah; Micaiah, the false prophets; Jesus Christ,
the Pharisees; St. Paul, Bar-jesus; the Apostles, the Exorcists;
Christians, unbelievers; Catholics, heretics; Elijah, Enoch, Antichrist.

828

Jesus Christ says that the Scriptures testify of Him. But He does not
point out in what respect.

Even the prophecies could not prove Jesus Christ during His life; and
so, men would not have been culpable for not believing in Him before His
death, had the miracles not sufficed without doctrine. Now those who did
not believe in Him, when He was still alive, were sinners, as He said
Himself, and without excuse. Therefore they must have had proof beyond
doubt, which they resisted. Now, they had not the prophecies, but only
the miracles. Therefore the latter suffice, when the doctrine is not
inconsistent with them; and they ought to be believed.

John vii, 40. _Dispute among the Jews as among the Christians of
to-day._ Some believed in Jesus Christ; others believed Him not, because
of the prophecies which said that He should be born in Bethlehem. They
should have considered more carefully whether He was not. For His
miracles being convincing, they should have been quite sure of these
supposed contradictions of His teaching to Scripture; and this obscurity
did not excuse, but blinded them. Thus those who refuse to believe in
the miracles in the present day on account of a supposed contradiction,
which is unreal, are not excused.

The Pharisees said to the people, who believed in Him, because of His
miracles: "This people who knoweth not the law are cursed. But have any
of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed on him? For we know that out
of Galilee ariseth no prophet." Nicodemus answered: "Doth our law judge
any man before it hear him, [and specially, such a man who works such
miracles]?"

829

The prophecies were ambiguous; they are no longer so.

830

The five propositions were ambiguous; they are no longer so.

831

Miracles are no longer necessary, because we have had them already. But