For sometimes the Holy Spirit caused something to be done visibly, which was a type of what was to come to pass; and sometimes He uttered words concerning things about to happen, uttering them as though they were then coming to pass or had already come to pass. Unless those who read know this art, they will not be able to follow the words of the prophets as they ought. By way of example, I will mention some prophetic words, so that you may follow what is said.
When He says through Isaiah, 'He was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer,' He speaks as though the passion had already taken place. And again when He says, 'I stretched out my hands to a disobedient and gainsaying people,' and when He says, 'Lord, who has believed our report?'—the words are spoken signifying a proclamation of things as though already come to pass. For I have shown that in parable He often calls Christ a stone, and figuratively Jacob and Israel.
And again, when He says, 'I will behold the heavens, the works of Your fingers,' unless I hear the working of His word, I shall not hear it intelligently, as your teachers claim, supposing that the Father of all things and the unbegotten God has hands and feet and fingers and a soul like a composite living being—who for this reason also teach that it was the Father Himself who appeared to Abraham and to Jacob.
Blessed, then, are we who have been circumcised the second circumcision with knives of stone. For your first circumcision was and is made by iron, for you remain hard-hearted; but our circumcision, which is second in number, having been revealed after yours, circumcises us, by stones cut sharp—that is, by the words spoken through the apostles of the cornerstone cut without hands—from idolatry and from all wickedness whatsoever; whose hearts have been so circumcised from evil that they even rejoice to die for the name of the good Rock, which causes living water to gush forth in the hearts of those who through Him have loved the Father of all, and gives drink to those who wish to drink the water of life.
But these things you do not understand when He speaks; for the things which it was prophesied that Christ would do, you have not understood, nor do you believe us when we bring you to the things that are written. For Jeremiah cries thus: 'Woe to you, because you have forsaken the living fountain, and have dug for yourselves broken cisterns, which cannot hold water. Is Mount Zion desolate? Because Jerusalem—I have given a bill of divorce before you.'