BOOK ONE. Manifold ... ... ... let us understand those very things in the deeds themselves. Yet for them it is enough to have fitted even some appearance of an empty likeness, since the comparison must be wholly fulfilled from what follows, and must be sought as solid from present things. Now every work contained in the sacred volumes both announces in words, and expresses in deeds, and confirms by examples the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which, sent from the Father, born a man of a Virgin through the Spirit, he came. For he, through all the time of this appointed age, by true and complete prefigurations in the patriarchs, either begets, or washes, or sanctifies, or chooses, or distinguishes, or redeems the Church:
by the sleep of Adam, by the flood of Noah, by the blessing of Melchizedek, by the justification of Abraham, by the birth of Isaac, by the servitude of Jacob. Finally, through all time, the whole of prophecy, the fashioning of the mystery, was granted so that the flesh to be assumed by him might be brought to knowledge. And because in this little book it has seemed good to show that the whole of his coming and preaching and passion and resurrection and of our gathering is set forth in every single man and time and thing, as it were an image in a mirror, I shall not recount some things in passing. But I shall treat all things in their several times, beginning from Adam, from whom knowledge of the human race is granted, so that what was consummated in the Lord may be known to have been prefigured in very many things from the beginning of the world.
CONCERNING ADAM. Adam by his very name prefigures the nativity of the Lord; for according to the Hebrew tongue 'Adam,' which in Greek is 'gêpyrra,' means in Latin 'fiery earth,' and Scripture is accustomed to call the flesh of the human body 'earth.' This flesh, born of a Virgin in the Lord through the Spirit, changed into a new form foreign to itself, was made conformable to spiritual glory according to the Apostle: the second man from heaven, and Adam the heavenly one, because the earthly Adam is an image of the one to come. Therefore, on the authority of so great an author, we receive even the name of Adam not without some contemplation of the one to come. There follows the fact that, Adam being put to sleep, Eve is begotten from his side and bone. And when he is awakened, such a prophecy also follows:
'This now is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman, because she was taken from her man, and the two shall be in one flesh.' Here there is no labour for me; for the Apostle, when he called to mind this very prophecy, says: 'This is a great mystery, but I speak in Christ and in the Church.' Yet we read that only the bone of Adam was taken away; and how is it said 'flesh of my flesh'? This matter can indeed be referred to the trustworthiness of the present deeds: that, since the bone which was taken from his side was clothed with flesh into a woman's body through him who is able to do all things, God — because the bone was drawn from flesh and, again clothed with flesh, came forth into a body — so that, as bone is from bone, so too flesh should be from flesh.
But the Lord in the Gospels, when he was tempted by the Jews about the giving of a bill of divorce, shows that this was said thus by himself rather than by Adam, saying: 'Have you not read that he who made them from the beginning made them male and female?' As he said: 'For this cause a man shall leave father and mother, and the two shall be in one flesh.' For this follows after that which was said, 'flesh of my flesh.' Therefore the prophecy followed upon the thing which was being accomplished in Adam. For when the Lord, who made male and female, said that from his bone came bone and from his flesh came flesh, he himself spoke through Adam that which was wholly done in Adam himself; nor did he detract trustworthiness from the deeds, and he showed that from himself was prefigured that which was being enacted in another.
For since the Word was made flesh, and the Church is a member of Christ — she who was born from his side through water and made alive through blood — and since again the flesh, in which the Word abiding before the ages, which is the Son of God, was born, abides in us through the sacrament, he taught plainly that in Adam and Eve was contained the figure of himself and of the Church, which after the sleep of his death he signifies to have been sanctified by the communion of his flesh. He speaks also the same thing through the Apostle: that Adam did not sin, but the woman, sinning, was in transgression; yet she shall be saved through the procreation of children, if only they abide in faith. The Church, therefore, is from publicans and sinners and gentiles:
only by her second and heavenly Adam not sinning will she herself, the sinner, be saved through the generation of children who abide in faith. But it is not fitting to understand it thus, that the woman was not redeemed from her sin by the Lord, and that she would be baptized in vain if she were rather to be freed by the merit of childbearing. Nor even by the very generation of children would she be safe, since she is not saved unless those who are begotten remain faithful. And I know not how it is just that one should be made guilty by another's sin, or innocent by another's merit. But surely, comparing spiritual things with spiritual, we shall thus perceive above all that the Apostle refers the deeds of the great mystery in Adam and Eve, proclaiming that they belong already to Christ and the Church.
And these things indeed it befits us to reckon to have been said by him spiritually, in such a way that the discourse is to be referred no less to the present teaching and to the instruction of those whom he was admonishing. For proclaiming the manifold mercy of God in the first Epistle to the Corinthians, in the sanctifying of unbelievers through the marriages of the faithful, here too he taught that a sanctification of this sort is to be bestowed through the procreation of children who nevertheless believe, so that, just as the fellowship of one believing spouse profited the unbeliever through marriage, so the procreation of the faithful might come to the aid of unbelievers. This too is to be contemplated in the sleep of Adam and the embodiment of Eve: the sacrament of the mystery hidden in Christ and in the Church:
for in it is contained the faith and the rationale of bodily resurrection. For in the creation of the woman no clay is any longer taken up, nor is earth shaped into a form, nor is inanimate matter stirred by God's inbreathing into a living soul; but flesh grows upon the bone, and to the flesh the perfection of a body is given, and upon the perfection of the body there follows spiritual vigour. This order of resurrection God spoke through Ezekiel, teaching in those things which were to be done the power of his might. For there all things come together: the flesh is present, the spirit flies to it, and to God nothing perishes from his works, to whom, for the effecting of his own body, those things which were not were present. And this sacrament is, according to the Apostle, hidden from the ages in God:
that the gentiles are fellow-heirs and of the same body and joint-partakers of his promise in Christ, who is able, according to the same Apostle, to make the body of our lowliness conformable to the body of his glory. Therefore the Church, after the sleep of his passion, with the heavenly Adam rising again, recognizes her own bone, her own flesh — no longer created from clay nor quickened by inbreathing, but growing upon the bone and made perfect into a body from a body, with the spirit flying to it. For those who are in Christ shall rise according to Christ, in whom already the resurrection of all flesh has been consummated, since he himself was born in our flesh with the power of God, in which he was begotten of the Father before the ages.
And because Jew and Greek, barbarian and Scythian, slave and free, male and female, are all one in Christ, since the flesh is recognized as being from flesh, and the Church is the body of Christ, and the mystery which is in Adam and Eve is proclaimed unto Christ and unto the Church, there has already been perfected under Adam and Eve, at the beginning of the age, whatever is prepared for the Church through Christ unto the consummation of the times. CONCERNING CAIN AND ABEL. Upon the first prefiguration of Christ and the Church there follow the deeds of Cain and Abel, prefiguring in themselves the diversity of two peoples, and marking by their very names and offices the character and pursuits of each. For Cain was a tiller of the earth, and Abel a keeper of sheep.
Now each of them presented to God, out of his own fruits, a gift of the mystery: but the gifts of Abel are regarded, while Cain's are not looked upon. Yet the day of the sacrifice was undistinguished, and so was the place, and to God who beholds all things how is either the one in his sight or the other outside his sight? But by this signification it is taught that God's regard is an indication of things well-pleasing, and that, although all things are subject to him, nevertheless his gaze goes toward those things which are worthy. Yet nothing had before been said of Cain's character, so that his sacrifice should displease. But in the things which followed, the providence of God is understood, who did not receive the sacrifices of one who was to rage against his brother. For foreknowledge of the future with God is a proof of the deed:
for he who was about to slay, as though he had already slain, is unworthy of God's regard. Now in the tilling of the earth is contained the signification of carnal works, and every fruit of the flesh is in vices, which, being an abomination to God, drive his regard away from themselves. Regard, therefore, is not had toward the sacrifice which is from the labours of the earth. And only the first-fruits of the sheep in their fat are pleasing — namely the inward fruits — and the sacrifices of our very own conscience give delight, and those things which, pleasing among the first-fruits of the sheep, invite toward themselves the regard of the divine will.
For since Christ is the first-fruits, the firstborn of creation, the firstborn from the dead, and also the prince of priests, so that in all things he himself holds the primacy — himself also the Sheep, and, according to his bodily nativity, one from among the sheep — the sacrifice of Abel is already approvable under the sacrament of the Church, which thereafter would offer a victim from the first-fruits of the sheep of the holy body. And so Cain, envying, displeasing by his sacrifice and against God's decree, when admonished to be at peace, the approvable one is slain by the unapprovable. He is questioned as a guilty man unto the penitence of confession, but toward the increase of his crime he denies it;
despairing of the resurrection but thinking himself dead by death, yet groaning and trembling he is reserved unto the judgment of sevenfold vengeance, and he is cursed by all the earth which received the blood of his brother. Now the interpretation of the name Cain is 'laughter,' but of Abel 'weeping.' Are not these things which are set forth above consummated in the peoples? The offering of the younger is well-pleasing; the Jew envies the Christian; warned in vain by the prophets, he burned for his slaughter. He does not attain pardon even through the confession of penitence, but boldly denies the crime committed against God.
Despairing of the glory of the resurrection, and made subject — with Jerusalem taken — to the power of those who rule, groaning and trembling he is reserved unto the judgment of vengeance, distinguished from the saints by the very interpretations of the names, the Lord saying: 'Woe to those who laugh, for they shall weep!' and: 'Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted!' And that the Lord might teach that all things befit the prefiguration of each people, he said: 'Therefore behold, I send to you prophets and wise men and scribes, and some of them you will kill in your synagogues and persecute from city to city, that upon you may come all the just blood which has been shed upon the earth, from the blood of just Abel unto the blood of Zechariah son of Barachiah, whom you slew between the temple and the altar.'
And so the blood of Abel is required from him who, according to the prefiguration of Cain, persecuted the just and was cursed by the earth which, opening its mouth, received the blood of his brother. For in the body of Christ, in which are both the apostles and the Church, the whole flesh and posterity of them took upon itself the blood of all, they themselves crying out: 'His blood be upon us and upon our children.' And so the trustworthiness of the effects followed upon the prefiguration of the deeds done in Cain, nor can those be separated from the example of the prefiguration upon whom the vengeance of the same guilt has followed. Moreover, even in that which was said: 'If you offer rightly, but do not rightly divide, have you not sinned?' — beyond the effect of the present matter, the figure of the future is also contained;
for nothing pleases God except what is common and shared and made friendly. Therefore the people, awaiting the promises of God through the Law, even if with observance of the precepts it offers rightly to God, nevertheless, unless it shares this very Law of God — which is a shadow of things to come — with the congregation of the gentiles, has sinned. Rightly, therefore, not dividing, it will be held in the charge of crime. For Cain, envying his brother, had not shared with himself the grace of the sacrifice regarded by God, and, because he did not divide rightly, was constituted a sinner. By which example the sacrifices of the faithful from among the gentiles, approved by God, unless those who are under the Law divide them, even if they use the Law rightly, are in the charge of crime. CONCERNING LAMECH. But not even in Lamech are things done outside the figure of the future.
He is reported to have been the husband of two wives, to whose names was added even the name of a third woman, though one free from marriage to him; and this same Lamech is likewise written to have said this: 'And Lamech said to his wives, Adah and Zillah: Hear my voice, ye wives of Lamech, give heed to my words; for I have slain a man to my wounding, and a young man to my hurt; for sevenfold vengeance shall be taken for Cain, but for Lamech seventy times seven.' And who is this man, more just than that just Abel, whose death is now to be avenged with so much greater a penalty? The name of the slain is passed over in silence; the wound is referred not to the slain but to the slayer, and the hurt is taught to be rather the striker's, not the stricken's. The killing of a young man is announced to the wives;
although the names of three women are contained, the discourse is addressed only to two. The impious man prophesies, and beyond the penalty of Cain he heaps up vengeance for the slaughter committed by himself. These things are not to be heard in passing, but in them the figuration of things to come is to be searched out. Lamech has the figure of the prince of priests, who, with the Jews and gentiles consenting to him, fastens the Lord to the cross; for from the hall of the prince of priests this same Lord was led to Herod, the people of the believers being kept apart from fellowship in the crime, and therefore he glories in the slaughter of the young man before two as it were his associates and wives. And because there is no sense of punishment concerning him, he took upon himself both the wounds and the hurt of the injury and slaughter. He spoke also by prophetic instinct;
for even then the prince of priests prophesied without knowing it, as is written in the Gospels: 'But one of them, Caiaphas by name, being high priest of that year, said to them: You know nothing at all, nor do you consider that it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not.' And this he said not of himself, but being high priest of that year, he prophesied. Therefore all things come together for themselves in persons, in things, in effect, and the trustworthiness of the deeds embraces the figure of things to come. The number too of the penalty in Cain and Lamech is written down not without some signification.
For since, according to the prophets, a sevenfold penalty is appointed upon the unjust, Peter, upon whom as upon a living foundation the Lord was building the Church, asks whether he should forgive one sinning against him according to the Law seven times; to whom the Lord answered that he should pardon seventy times seven, teaching by this signification that the very penalty of his passion is to be remitted to those who would believe, since, in as great a measure as its vengeance had been multiplied, in that same measure again pardon would abound. Then Seth is born, and in the place of the slain Abel another seed is raised up in him, Eve speaking thus: 'God has raised up for me another seed in place of Abel, whom Cain slew.'
Now the interpretation of the name Seth is 'foundation of faith,' and since Abel was just, and since Seth was begotten in the place of the just one, it is understood that the generation of the saints, always reserved by God and renewed through successions, is a Church that will sustain faith for the faithful upon Peter as upon the foundations of faith. CONCERNING NOAH. The things done concerning Noah cannot be denied to be full both of the powers of God and of examples of things to come. For however dull the wit may be, or however averse from understanding of the truth the will, yet things were there said and done which draw out a sense of the truth even from the unwilling. And so that the prophetic power may be understood in the individual effects of things, what is to be compared to what thing must be set forth briefly.
For Noah, whom the Lord assumed from a Virgin, prefigures the Man; and, that this very thing may become known from the words of Scripture itself, it must be learned what sort of prophecy of him there was on the part of Lamech his father: 'And Lamech begot a son and called his name Noah, saying: This one shall make us rest from our works and from the sorrows of our hands and from the earth which the Lord God has cursed.' But these things, as I judge, cannot fully befit that Noah of whom the discourse is. For what rest did he bring to the human race, or from what works did he cause it to cease? Nay rather, under him the whole company of men is destroyed, the flood is poured out; the earth is given back to the sight of that man, and life is lived afterwards even amid graver labours.
And where has rest been given back through Noah? Now in him who is to make rest, the power of making it is designated. But further, it neither befits the nature of man, nor is it read as written, nor is it understood by the fact itself, that Noah did any of these things; but very many things which were proper to Noah, Scripture has set forth most plainly: when he is approved by God, when he is found just, when he is bidden to make an ark, when he enters into it, when he sends out the raven, when he both receives and sends back the dove, when he goes forth from the ark, when he plants a vineyard, when he is made drunk and stripped naked by its fruit, when he is mocked by Ham, when he is covered by Shem and Japheth, when he appoints a curse upon one and the order and manner of blessing upon two. These things, as they were done by him, are to be understood.
But a great sacrament of the future is contained in these things, and concerning each we shall treat in its own place, when it is fitting to confer things and persons with one another. Therefore to this Noah will our Lord be compared, who is the Word made flesh, who also says in the Gospels: 'Come to me, all you who labour and are burdened, and I will refresh you. Take my yoke upon you and learn, for I am meek and humble of heart, and you shall find rest for your souls. For my yoke is sweet and my burden is light.'
Therefore he makes to rest and imparts rest to souls, and, on account of the impending judgment, into the ark of his teaching and his Church he stores away his sons — both the begotten and the named — and bestows the Holy Spirit, and dies, and is mocked, and rises again, and appoints for the human race a penalty and a sanctification of deeds rightly or wrongly done. And in this indeed, when Noah is bidden to enter the ark or to go forth from it, the rationale of the sanctification of the Church is to be contemplated. For it is written: 'You shall go into the ark, you and your sons and your wife and your sons' wives'; and again: 'The Lord God said to Noah, saying: Go forth from the ark, you and your wife and your sons and your sons' wives.'
He joins the sexes of those entering the ark to one another — the men to the man, the women to the woman — signifying, namely, that those about to enter the Church ought to be continent; that each would afterwards receive the abundance of his own marriage ... ... ... ... when the dove was thrice sent out. And indeed the following sending-out is not uncertain as to what it prefigures, since it returns with the fruitful leaves of the olive, no longer to be received by hand, but flying back again.
And this was fulfilled when, having received the Holy Spirit, the seventy disciples, sent out to preach the Gospel, returned with the glory of the unclean spirits subjected to them, the dove bringing back the fruit of God's mercy — which is signified in the olive — by the Holy Spirit; and because, when these afterwards departed from the Lord, he would have no rest at all, nevertheless the dove flew back to Noah with fruit, signifying by this the fruit of the Holy Spirit in the second return and the demons subjected, and no rest as yet for the disciples departing from the Lord. But the third sending-out and flight prefigures its dwelling-place — which is in the believer — with the Holy Spirit sent forth to remain forever in the souls of the faithful.
Now indeed, from the fruit of the planted vineyard, drunkenness is a figure of the passion. For 'the Lord brought a vine out of Egypt and planted it,' and again: 'the vineyard of the Lord of Sabaoth is the house of Israel.' For from the works of his transplanted and planted people is the cause of the passion. And if perchance someone should think that this drunkenness of Noah does not pertain to the figure of the Lord's death, he will be refuted by what follows, although the cup drunk in the Gospels shows the death of the passion. Now, though there were three sons, the nakedness of the father is mocked by one and again covered by two; but when the two covered it with one accord, with the third cursed, in the two there is nevertheless a diverse blessing of one and the same deed.
Under these three sons, however, the whole of mankind is signified: that is, those living under the Law, those justified under grace, and the Gentiles. Of these, the Gentiles mock the death of the Lord and the naked body of God, while in the two who cover the nakedness the Law and grace are contained. And since Japheth is settled in the tents of Shem, he displays the figure of the Gentiles, who have been led to the faith; but Shem bears the person of the people of Israel. Sarah too signifies the Church, Hagar the synagogue; and the seed called in Isaac is shown to be Christ.
In him too the prefiguration of the Passion is set forth: when he is summoned by his father for the sacrifice, when he takes up the wood of the offering, when a ram is present for the completion of the sacrifice. In the name of Abram one letter is added; in that which is given to Sarah, a hundred is contained; and the Saviour, leaving the ninety-nine on the mountains, went to seek the one that had strayed. Therefore one number is added in the name of Abram. For the one Lord Jesus Christ, born of a virgin, is one; and by that one all the sins of believers have been cleansed. And what was to be fulfilled through himself in Abraham he prefigures.
He, by the addition of one, is called the father of the Gentiles; He himself, by the assumption of one, is constituted father and redeemer of the Gentiles, the hundredth sheep being restored to Sarah, that is, to the Church, the firstfruits, the heavenly Jerusalem. Just as that householder in the Gospel visited the barren fig tree by a threefold coming, so holy mother Church, by the yearly return, has marked out for herself the coming of the Saviour through the hidden span of three weeks. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost. He came before the Law, because by natural understanding it was made known to each what he must do and what he must follow.
He came under the Law, because by the examples of the patriarchs and the proclamations of the prophets he confirmed the legal decrees for the seed of Abraham. He came a third time, after the Law, through grace, for the calling of the Gentiles, that from the rising of the sun to its setting the children might learn to praise the name of the Lord—whom, even to the end of the world, He does not cease to exhort to the worship of His majesty. Concerning Isaac: Rebecca has a twofold figure, of marriage and of childbirth, and in marriage she bears the type of the Church: she waters the camels, that is, the Gentiles made subject to Christ; through her earrings she teaches the hearing of faith; through the bracelets of her hands she shows the adornment of good works; questioned about the marriage, she answers according to the manner of those to be joined to Christ, so that she may come to the sight.
She goes forth from her father's house, showing that unless one has renounced vices and lusts, he cannot be Christ's servant; she signifies two nations, two peoples. Concerning Jacob: as Scripture interprets the meaning of this name—and Esau said to Jacob: 'Give me to taste of this red stew, for I am faint'; on this account his name was called Edom. Then he sold his birthright for food, saying: 'Behold, I am dying, and of what use to me are these rights of primogeniture?' Now among the ancients this dignity belonged to the firstfruits, that the firstborn should obtain the inheritance of the paternal house, the brothers who came after being subject to him.
Therefore, since for those living in the body the dignity of the firstborn pertains to life—which, under the prefiguration of the unbelieving people, Esau was selling for the sake of carnal desires—he does not despair of the present honour of the firstborn when he says, 'Behold, I am dying, and of what use to me are these rights of primogeniture?'—for before death that primacy which belongs to men was received; but rather, because, bearing in himself the form of the people, the firstborn himself through the Law—for this people had first been chosen for the inheritance of God—fell away from the hope of resurrection and of the glory of God, and, taken up with the desires of the body, declared that he had despaired of his own honour, which, as firstborn, it had befitted him to hope for after death.
When Esau had thus despaired of his firstfruits, the rest is carried out both according to the truth of the deed and according to the power of the prefiguration. Isaac, then, being dim of sight, according to custom bids Esau prepare for him food from the hunt and that he be blessed by him before the time of his death. When Rebecca had learned of this, she urges Jacob to prepare quickly food for his father from two kids and to be clothed in Esau's robe; and that his hands, because they are smooth, and his neck, be disguised with the skins of the kids bound upon him. When these things were done, he seized the blessing which had been prepared for Esau. Thereupon he is blessed with such words: 'Behold, the smell of my son is as the smell of a full field which the Lord has blessed.'
'And may the Lord give you of the dew of heaven from above and of the fatness of the earth abundance of grain and wine. And let nations serve you, and princes shall adore you; and be lord over your brother, and the sons of your father shall adore you; and whoever curses you shall be cursed, and whoever blesses you shall be blessed.' The matter is indeed carried out according to the present effect in Esau and Jacob, but the spiritual prefiguration holds its own order. The elder had sold his birthright through the desires of the body, despairing of future honour for the sake of present luxury; and the younger, against the loss of present things, bought them. Do not the things to be enacted spiritually follow upon the things done bodily?
Those who are unbelieving reckon every good to be placed in pleasure, and the former people lost the honour of resurrection through the desires of the flesh; but believers renounce present joys, placing all their hope in the things to come, and, on account of it, continent in soul and body, they seize the things destined for the elder. Jacob is clothed in Esau's robe, which is wont to be mentioned as the garment of immortality even in the Gospel, where the younger brother, and likewise the squanderer of the received patrimony, received the first robe. And because he was to be transferred out of sins into the brightness of innocence, therefore Jacob is covered with the skins of kids, meaning in the very matter to imitate the appearance of his brother.
But because from a sinner he was to hold the dignity of the seized blessing, in the skins of dead beasts he takes on the form of a sinner. Now the very reasoning of the blessing and the force of the words show that nothing there is to be understood according to the present deeds. For Jacob is blessed that he may abound in wine and grain from the dew of heaven and the fatness of the earth; yet on the contrary he was imperilled by famine and bought grain from Egypt. Nations are made subject to him in servitude; nay rather, he himself with all his household gave himself into the power of Pharaoh. He is said to be one to be adored by princes; but rather, under the dominion of Laban, he endured servitude for a long time. He is constituted lord over his brother; yet why did he adore his brother as a lord?
Therefore, since Scripture is in no danger of falsehood, although these things were said of Jacob, yet they pertain to the people whom he prefigured, and they are signified and are enacted. For all these things are reserved for the faithful according to the prophetic and evangelical promises, since indeed they are to judge the world and the angels and are destined for fellowship in the heavenly kingdom. Finally, that very beginning of the blessing embraces not present things but future and perfected ones. For it says: 'Behold, the smell of my son is as the smell of a full field which God has blessed.' The smell is the foreknowledge of the Spirit, the full field is the perfection of fruits. And the field, as the Gospels teach, is named for the world.
But the blessed world is to be understood as signified—not surely that which will be dissolved and will not be, but that which is eternal and full of perfect fruits. Therefore, since the smell of Jacob is the same as that of the full field, and the smell, according to the nature of things, is the foreknowledge of the Spirit—since what each thing is, is perceived by smelling—Isaac signifies that he smells this, that is, foreknows by the Spirit, the blessing of the younger people, and that the eternal world is to come, with both those, that is, both the world and him who shall enjoy it, being eternal.
And that we might perceive the abundant mercy of God in prefiguring, under present things, the effects of things to come, all things were so diligently set forth and written that one and the same order of history might concur both with the deed done and with the hope of the future. For Isaac, about to bless Jacob in place of Esau, is anxious lest he be deceived in any way; for Esau said that he was Jacob. Being therefore blind, Isaac said: 'Come near to me and I will feel you, my son, whether you are my son Esau or not.' And although it was he, and he was clothed in Esau's robe and had disguised his appearance by the assumption of the skins, yet he was not handled by the blind man without suspicion. For he says, as he touched him: 'The voice indeed is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau.'
Therefore through these things Isaac is shown to be anxious in his affection toward Esau. But when afterward Esau returned from the field and the hunt and presented himself to his father as the firstborn, that he might bless him, and the seizure of the blessing was discovered, Isaac is not moved; nay rather, he persists in the confirmation of that very blessing, saying: 'If I have made him your lord and all his brothers I have made his servants, and have strengthened him with grain and wine, what then shall I do for you, my son?' Nay rather, to the one entreating with weeping and tears that he bless him, he thus speaks: 'Behold, of the fatness of the earth shall be your dwelling, and of the dew of heaven from above; and by your sword shall you live, and you shall serve your brother. And it shall come to pass, when you shall shake off his yoke from your neck.'
Whence, then, is this conversion of the will? And why is the man's affection at variance with itself, unless because the word of Scripture is tempered both to the accomplishing of the deed and to the expectation of hope? He derived the anxiety of the questioner from paternal affection; the alteration of the blessing he refused out of spiritual knowledge. There he acted the matter of nature; here he held the order of prefiguration. There the father is anxious in the sanctification of the firstborn; here in the blessing of the younger people he perseveres in the spirit of a prophet. Both the history speaks the deed done, and its own order does not abandon the prefigured hope. But not even in this did the prophetic reason cease; namely, that the sinner and the former people might be able to hope for the blessing of the younger people, if he would believe.
For to all the entrance to salvation lies open, and the way of life is difficult not by its own hardships—which indeed are none—but by the law of our own free choice. For the delay in obtaining the mercy of God belongs to the human will, which is made known from this very saying, since it is of Esau. For he had begged to be blessed, but the father, moved by a spiritual impulse, both left him to the world and gave him over to the sword and consigned him to the servitude of his brother. But lest these things be thought decreed forever and without return of repentance, the blessing which he sought he deferred to that time when he should have shaken off from his neck the yoke of his brother who was to have dominion.
Therefore it is left to his own right to shake off the yoke, because for each one there is a free right of his own will toward faith, when he is now worthy of the blessing, once he has transferred himself into the liberty of faith out of the servitude of irreligion. Concerning Moses: The setting forth of the things done in Moses held also the order of the prefiguration begun already from Adam. And this is worthy of the mercy of God, that the deeds of all his patriarchs should imitate, in some measure of perfection, those things which were to be consummated in our Lord. For those things which were fulfilled in that one and through that one are prefigured, out of something, through kinds and times and generations.
For the imitation of so many ages could not attain to that which, in that one alone, is of the truth; yet nothing was so done in individuals or through individuals that those things which were afterward consummated either through him or in him did not speak, nearly by the very imitation of the present deeds. For Moses, born at that time when Pharaoh had commanded all the males born to be killed, is preserved as leader for the people, floating on the water by means of wood. Did not the hatred and fear of a king, equal and the same, blaze up at that time when our Lord was born according to the man, against that same man for us, whom He assumed through the sacrament of wood and water in Himself, and whom He reckoned to Himself for heavenly glory and constituted king of the Gentiles?
Then Pharaoh's daughter took up Moses to be washed in the river. When his sister was present, she offered a nurse from among the Hebrews. Then she brought forth the mother, who took him up to be nourished, and Pharaoh reported to his daughter, who took up the one she had received as a son. Join the persons, compare the effects, behold the deeds: you will find in the imitation of the present the truth of what follows. For under Moses' sister the Law followed Christ as far as the sacrament of wood and water. But in Pharaoh's daughter is the figure of the Gentiles, who, although according to the truth of the history she saw an infant, yet by the very effect retained the power of prophecy.
For the Law, like Pharaoh's daughter, presented the synagogue as both nurse and mother of the infant, and thus the spiritual order was preserved in the deeds. For it was fitting that Christ be nourished according to the flesh by this Law which teaches it, and that He be adopted by that other. Moses, having become great, seeks out his brothers held in slavery. Then he strikes down an Egyptian domineering and inflicting injury upon one of them, and afterward is reproached by that very man whom he had avenged upon the Egyptian. Was not Christ, when He was of consummate and perfect age, visiting His people who are His brothers according to the flesh? For He came to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Did He not strike down and conquer the devil who domineered over them?
For no one will plunder the vessels of the strong man unless he first binds the strong man. Was He not reproached by those very ones to whom He was giving back both vengeance upon the devil and liberty from slavery? Thus that which in the giver of the Law is an imitation attains its consummation in the grace of God. A bush blazes before the sight of Moses and yet is not burned: namely the Church is set ablaze by the flames of sinners, persecutions, and temptations, as the Apostle says: 'suffering distress, enduring want, but we are not forsaken; we are cast down, but we do not perish, always carrying about in the body the sufferings of Jesus, that the life of Jesus Christ may also be manifested in our body.' Thus the fires of all iniquities rage against us and yet do not burn us up.
Then the sign of faith is set: the rod changed into a serpent, and the serpent, when done away, again into a rod. But this change is for the confirmation of faith, not for the conversion of nature. And because in the rod there is the power of a kingdom, and in the serpent there is the naming of the devil, we are admonished to believe in Him who, being from God the God of the ages, was reckoned Beelzebul, and then, from being called and reckoned Beelzebul, was, through the change of the resurrection, recognized as the God of the ages, which is what He was. The sign following the faith of this matter fulfilled it by a kind of imitation, satisfying both the hope and the time.
For when the hand, put into the bosom, received the whiteness of snow, it signifies that we who rest in the paternal bosom—that is, of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob—are to be enlightened, the nature of our body being absorbed into the appearance of glory and honour. But when the hand, again put in, is recalled to what it had been, it is taught that what had been prefigured in the sign does not yet exist in time. And when, by the third sign, water taken from the river and poured on the ground is blood, the reasoning of the sacrament is mingled with these, since indeed those who are washed by water are to pass over into the knowledge of the blood.
It is a great thing that in these things which were done under the patriarchs the effect of matters is so contained that in nothing does it differ from those things which were afterward fulfilled in the Lord, neither in place nor in time nor in reasoning. For in that one the imitation set beforehand follows upon the appearance of the absolute truth, and is compared as an image of that form of which it is the rival. For the deeds are indeed the very truth to themselves—for they were carried out according to bodily accomplishments—but that very truth of human actions was an imitation of the divine operation; and this was done for the true instruction of our hope and faith, since nothing was found in the things of God which was not perceived, as though premeditated beforehand, in the very ages and manners and effects of men.
For although in all the preceding discourse it has been shown that the deeds of Moses, up to the going forth of the people from Egypt, agree with the deeds either in the Lord or through the Lord, yet even now the spiritual imitation is annexed to the bodily truth. For in the desert the people thirsted, the water is bitter, there is a murmuring against the leader, wood is shown, and by its dipping the water is made sweet, and in it justification and judgments and temptation are decreed. And thence they come to twelve fountains of waters and seventy palm trees, and they settle beside the waters. Though the zeal of those who resist may turn away their minds, and the error of unbelievers may block the sense of their understanding with the barrier of disobedience, yet they will not be able to be ignorant of the power of so great a work.
For what weight did the wood have in itself, or what efficacy did inanimate matter contain in itself, to abolish bitterness, to produce sweetness, to introduce and remove nature, while that which had recoiled as unpleasant is now perceived as sweet? And because in that which was being done for the present there is the efficacy of the power of God transferring nature into one thing out of another, yet He is not to be thought to have needed the service of the wood, so as to grant the change to the waters only by its intercession. But because God was able to do all things, He contrives in the present the secret of His operation reserved for the times. For to the people lingering in the desert the water was useless; and indeed we find peoples often named in place of waters, when it is said:
'The waters saw You, O God, and were afraid,' and again: 'All you waters, clap your hands.' Therefore, whether the waters themselves are bitter by their own nature, or the whole people abiding in the desert and not yet about to obtain the land of promise is made bitter through the murmuring which is born of obstinacy, it is made sweet by the sacrament of the wood. And it not only falls away from what it was, but is changed for the better and beyond necessary use; for it not only ceased to be bitter, but was rendered sweet. The wood therefore both operates upon the present water and is useful, by the sacrament of its power, upon the peoples named under the term of water. In this wood, according to the same Moses, the life of all hangs, when he says:
'You shall see your life hanging before the eyes of your eyes night and day, and you shall fear and shall not believe your life.' This is cast into bread in Jeremiah thus: 'Against me they devised a device, saying: Come, let us cast wood into his bread.' From this material is the rod that conquers the magicians, terrifies Pharaoh, crushes Egypt, divides the sea, pours back the deep, draws forth the fountain, takes away bitterness, bestows sweetness; for by the sacrament of this the hearts of unbelievers are softened and are transferred from the bitterness of sins and impiety into the sweetness of faith. And lest not all things should agree with those which were then being done by the effects of the hidden sacrament, Scripture subjoined, saying:
'There God placed justifications and judgments, and there He tempted him.' When it is said 'there,' it is not a signification of place but of deed. For we do not find that in that place any dispositions of justifications and judgments and temptations existed. On the contrary, in the sacrament of the wood, on which the Lord hung, on which He affixed with Himself all things that were adverse to the salvation of the human race, there is both justification—because the just man is from faith—and there are judgments—because he who does not believe is already judged—and there is temptation—because through the scandal of the cross is salvation; for the cross is foolishness to those who perish, but the power of God unto salvation to those who believe.
And so, since the reproach of the cross is the temptation of faith, since unbelief is the cause of judgment, since faith is the reward of justification, deservedly in the sacrament of the wood transferring the water from bitterness into sweetness both justification and judgments and temptation are contained. 'And they came to Elim, and there were there twelve fountains of waters and seventy palm trees; and they settled there beside the waters.' Therefore the spiritual disposition is consummated in the deeds being done; for from Marah, the place of bitterness, they come to Elim, where there were twelve fountains of waters and seventy palm trees.
After the knowledge of the sacrament of the wood—namely of the apostolic and evangelical preaching—a resting place is sought, with the seventy preachers overshadowing for a time and the twelve apostles flowing forever; and because the seventy preachers of the Gospel, though chosen, were afterward found to be unbelievers—although they had brought back the fruit of faith, with the unclean spirits made subject to them—while the apostles endured in the preaching of faith, although mention is made of seventy trees together with twelve fountains, yet according to the faith of Scripture rest is taken only at the seat of the waters. Now indeed, in the flesh of the quails and the food of the manna, how great and how absolute is the reasoning of the spiritual matter! The people who had been led out of Egypt murmur against their leaders;
they desire the flesh which they were accustomed to use in Egypt. A flock of quails flying in the evening covers the camp; the people are fed by their flesh. In the morning manna is found. Without distinction of age or sex, to each one the same measure of quantity is decreed: he who gathers more does not have too much, he who stores up less does not lack. In those things which were beyond necessity, a worm swarmed up. And that portion of the manna which had been left over gathered in the field, wasted away as the sun grew hot. On the sixth day double is stored up and is not corrupted; on the seventh day the manna is withheld, though some waited in vain. Finally an omer destined for each is stored in a golden vessel and is reserved as a testimony for the generation to come.
And this too is to be considered, that the manna is given as a temptation: through its observance each one is to be proved, whether he is fit for the precepts of God. For thus it is written: 'The Lord said to Moses: Behold, I will rain upon you bread from heaven, and the people shall go out and gather one day's portion for the day, that I may tempt them, whether they will walk in my law or not.' But concerning the flesh it was thus said: 'At evening you shall eat flesh, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread.' Eating at evening is signified in the flesh, but the filling in the morning is signified in the manna. Therefore that which pertains to the flesh is this: that the people, abiding in the desert, are held by the desire of habit; for they desire the flesh of Egypt.
He takes it at evening—being, that is, unbelieving toward God and impatient of His promises even to the consummation of the age, which is signified in the evening—by the desires of the world, which has often been signified under Egypt. Finally, the people had this flesh only once, so that, given not for necessary use but for the significance of prefiguration, they might be taught. But in the manna is temptation; for through it the people are tempted, whether they are going to be obedient to God, that is, whether they will be worthy to take the true bread from heaven; and the reasoning of this temptation is to be sought from what follows. It is found in the morning; for this is the time of the heavenly food in the resurrection of the Lord. The same is appointed for every age and sex;
according to human nature it is contrary—for when is the same amount of food necessary for a little child and for a grown man?—but according to spiritual prefiguration it is most fitting, the heavenly food being imparted equally to all, undivided in its power to the parts—for we speak of the sacrament to those who know—none of the greater abounding and none of the least lacking, all being equally filled, that is, from that which was taken divided among the parts.
But in those things which were gathered beyond measure and superabounded in the morning, in which there is both worm and rottenness, it is not doubtful that for those who have gathered together, beyond the heavenly gift and the spiritual teaching, things not necessary, these things are both foul in perception—that is, corrupted from the truth—and swarming with the vices of demons, namely made restless with worms, to be dissolved at last from the liquid as the sun grows hot, that is, as Christ, who is the Sun of righteousness, returns for judgment. But on the sixth day, in the double gathering of the manna for the rest of the seventh, the preparation of spiritual works accumulated is enjoined, for those who prepare good things to use them then, when rest is at hand. Finally, what remains of the sixth day is not corrupted.
whereas that which is beyond the measure of the other days stinks. Thus also for those things which are beyond what is prescribed, corruption is presumed. Therefore in this time of our age we must labour, so that we may use it in rest. But the time is that of this sixth thousandth year, which is signified under the number of the sixth day, the prophet saying: 'For a thousand years in the sight of the Lord are as one day.'
The people therefore are fed on the seventh day, that is, in the rest of the Lord, with foods prepared the day before, and use those things which one had prepared, not being about to find on the seventh anything on which he might be fed, with many going out into the field and finding nothing; that is, with the times of the ages being concluded, we shall find nothing else for the use of our rest than what had been prepared and stored up by us beforehand. Then the omer of manna is commanded to be reserved in a golden vessel for the generations to come, in the sight of the Lord. But where at last is this vessel, and where is the manna which was stored up after the frequent captivities of the people? After the twin destructions of the city and the temple, that which was laid up does not exist. And what then? Do we suppose that God was ignorant that the manna could not be reserved for the generation to come?
He is certainly not to be believed to have been ignorant, since He foresees the very future counsels of men; but by the figure of the golden vessel and of the manna stored in the sight of God and reserved for the generations to come, He showed that He would be precious and eternal, who was to reserve, in His body as in a golden vessel, the received manna, with God beholding the uncontaminated custody of this spiritual food received by us. Book Two. Concerning Hosea. And in the book of the prophets, to Hosea, another word of the Lord is also read: 'Go, take yourself a wife of fornication, for by fornicating the land shall fornicate away from the Lord.' And after many things which are set between, full of malediction against her, and after the birth of Israel and of Not-beloved and of Not-my-people, these things are made known:
'And I will make for them in that day a covenant with the beasts of the field and the birds of heaven and the serpents of the earth; and bow and sword and war I will crush from the earth, and I will settle you in hope, and I will betroth you to myself forever. I will betroth you to myself in justice and in faith, and you shall know the Lord. And it shall be in that day, says the Lord: I will hear the heaven, and the heaven shall hear the earth, and the earth shall hear the grain and the wine and the oil, and these shall hear Israel. And I will sow her for myself upon the earth, and I will love Not-beloved, and I will say to Not-my-people: You are my people.'
And, as I judge, there is no room for hesitation but that we should understand here a prefiguration of the Church already foreshadowed, since the Apostle reckoned that what had been said above to Hosea concerning the sons of this harlot must be referred to the people of the faithful, saying to the Corinthians: 'He has called us not only from among the Jews, but also from among the nations, as he says also in Hosea: I will call him who was Not-my-people, My-people, and her who was Not-beloved, Beloved; and it shall come to pass that in whatever place they were called Not-my-people, there they shall be called sons of the living God.'
Therefore that which in the prophet was carried out bodily—that is, the marriage and the begetting (for from the harlot three children were born, of whom the first was named Israel by the command of God, the second, a daughter, was called Beloved, and the third was named Not-my-people)—this same thing is both confirmed and accomplished by God toward a spiritual understanding.
For this harlot, joined to the prophet, the Lord made his bride in righteousness and in faith, ordaining a covenant with the beasts of the field—that is, with men savage by the law of the world—and with the birds of the heaven, namely with those living under the emptiness and vanity of this world, and with the serpents of the earth, that is, with those constituted with venomous mind and deceit in the body: about to shatter the bow among the serpents, the spear among the birds, war among the beasts; by the kinds of weapons and the names of living creatures he was to tame in peace the diverse instincts of the human mind—the wars of beasts, the darts of the flying, the venoms of serpents.
Likewise 'the heaven hearing the heaven and the earth the earth' signifies in him who hears and him who is heard a diversity in number, yet showing that this very thing—namely, that which hears and is heard—is one and the same, since the heaven hears the heaven and the earth the earth; but the signification is of divinity in the heaven and of bodiliness in the earth. And because the Lord was born a man from God, and we from man are to be conformed to God, therefore the heaven shall hear the heaven and the earth the earth. But in the grain and the wine and the oil, which he shall hear—since indeed in these insensible things there is no sense of hearing—he nevertheless shows that he it is who under the sacrament of the anointing and of the body is to hear in these.
By these things, while Israel heard, he sowed for himself in hope the harlot betrothed to him, passing over the one who had been named Israel and imparting to the rest the honor of transformation, so that he who was not his people might be his people, and she who was not beloved might be Beloved. For Israel was chosen from among the nations in Abraham his father, as is said in the Psalms: 'the house of Jacob from a barbarous people.' But abiding in sins and given over to vain religions and unfaithful to the promises of God, he did not deserve to receive the effect of the promises, and, though first chosen into the people of God, he lost the honor of election.
For nothing more is said of Israel, first brought forth from the harlot, and the whole discourse of God is about those begotten afterward, since the former were rejected and set apart from affection and ownership—children born unto not being loved, begotten unto not being used. But first the harlot was chosen into a bride for God through faith and righteousness; then those who were not beloved, who were not his own, who were of the harlot's offspring—these are named sons of the living God.
And this word of God indeed, by which the prophet is commanded to take a harlot to wife, had therefore to be recalled, so that—since we are taught that all things are prefigured through the deeds of the Old Testament, and that these things are to be accomplished in the Lord and through the Lord—by this very fact, that a harlot is joined to the prophet, we might understand it shown that Gentile ignorance is joined to the teachings of the prophets, and that from these, born of the not-beloved, they are called beloved; of the not-people, a people; of the harlot mother, sons of God. CONCERNING JOSHUA THE SON OF NUN.
And although it was useful to have treated this for the recognizing of the significance of spiritual deeds, yet for this reason above all has this passage been recalled by us: that—since we were to have discourse concerning Rahab, through whom we might show the Church prefigured in her—we might safely set forth this comparison of the Church and the harlot, according to the understanding of our sense, seeing that the harlot joined to the prophet was found to be betrothed unto the eternal hope of the righteousness and faith and knowledge of God, for the prefiguration of the Church. And indeed in this, that under Joshua all things were done in her, there is the greatest power of prophecy. For in Joshua thus surnamed the perfect reckoning of the future sacrament was shown.
For after much discourse of God to Moses, when it had been said to him that he should make all things on earth according to the pattern which he had seen on the mountain, he surnamed Joshua—who before was called Auses—as leader for the people going on to the land of promise, to be their future leader. Moses, bidden to order all things after the pattern of the heavenly vision, added to the future leader that name which had already been prepared in the heavens for the eternal Leader. For as this one is prince of the synagogue, so that one of the Church; as this one is leader for gaining the promised land, so that one leader of the land to be inherited, of which the Lord says: 'Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth'; as this one comes after Moses, so that one after the Law.
As to this one circumcision was commanded, repeated with a stone knife, so by the Lord—who is both the sharp word penetrating even to the division of the soul and the cornerstone—the circumcision of the heart was spiritually renewed. As this one divided the waters, so that one divides the peoples; for he says: 'I came not to send peace, but division.' As this one both uncovered twelve stones for an eternal testimony from the deep onto the land, and placed them from the land into the deep, so that one both brought forth the apostolic doctrine from the synagogue and left it in the synagogue even now, for its use if it would, since for an eternal testimony in the twelve stones the apostolic doctrine had both been brought forth from the Law and yet was found within the Law.
But how evident and how complete is that very division of the waters, when one part stood whole and full, and the other, its channel dried up, flowed entirely into the sea, while nevertheless the midst of the space was established with the Lord together with the priests! By which signification it is understood that a part of the people would be set free from the course of sins and of their own death at the coming of the ark of God—that is, at the bodily coming—while the rest flowed away into the sea, that is, into the damnation of this world and its fellowship. Under this Joshua, therefore, the things done by Rahab and in Rahab are to be considered. For two spies turned aside to spy out the land, and in the city of Jericho to the house of this harlot. She receives and hides them; when the king demanded their surrender from her, she lies that they had gone back.
Then, they being hidden in her house, she says that she knows the Lord has delivered the whole of her city to them, and that their God is God above in heaven and on the earth below. She entreats that they preserve herself and all her household at the time of the city's capture. The spies promise that whatever should be found within her house would remain unharmed, but that whoever went out of the house would himself be answerable for himself; and they appoint as a sign a scarlet cord hanging from the window, and they report the whole matter to Joshua. Then the city is approached.
The priests, with the ark of the Lord, go around this city for six days; but on the seventh day, when they had gone around seven times, at the sounding of the trumpet the walls of the city fell, and, all who were in the city being slain, Rahab alone with her whole household is preserved by Joshua. This order of things is connected with great sacraments to be spiritually accomplished. The harlot received into her house two spies of the land sent by Joshua: the sinful Church received the Law and prophecy sent to spy out the faith of men, through whom she confesses God both above in heaven and below on earth. After her spiritual begetting she learned the attested bodily nativity—for she learned in these: 'after this he was seen on the earth and conversed among men.'
From these same men she also received a sign of salvation in the scarlet—a color royal in dignity and blood-red in respect of the body, both of which befit the Passion, since the Lord was clothed in such a garment and blood flowed from his side. This scarlet Manasseh also received as a sign; with this blood the houses in Egypt were marked and kept safe, the book of the covenant was sprinkled, and the people was sanctified. But whoever of the household should be found outside the house was made answerable for himself, teaching that those who should be outside the Church would be the cause of death to themselves. But Jericho, set as an image of this world, is circled for six days, and on the seventh it falls at the sound of the trumpet, and the house of Rahab is preserved whole through Joshua.
For in the six days is shown the time of six thousand years, during which the world was wandered about and, as it were, coursed round in a certain circuit of generations, that same world being about to be dissolved at the voice of the trumpet in the seventh, the thousandth time; the Church alone, through the reception of the spies, through the confession of God in the flesh, through the sign of the scarlet decreed by Joshua, is to be preserved with all her household.
We have frequently warned that diligence must be brought to the reading of the divine Scriptures—a diligence which by careful examination and no empty judgment might discern when a record of things done is to be understood either simply or typically—lest, using both immoderately and unskillfully, we should render both useless to the hearers, if either the knowledge of plain things were corrupted by the empty assertion of prefigurations, or the force of the prefigurations were ignored under the opinion of plain things; although the discourse of divine Scripture is such that nothing there is found to be empty, nothing beyond the cause of some necessity, nothing not set forth under the discernment of an understanding to be pursued by us.
For while the creation of the world is recounted, God is known in creating; while Enoch is heard to have been translated, man is understood to be capable of being made eternal; while Lot is to be preserved when five cities are burned up, we learn that God has care of the innocent; while his wife, looking back against God's command, is changed into a pillar of salt, we are instructed by the fear of the example unto obedience to God's ordinances; while the sins of the Amorites are awaited to be filled up, we come to know both the mercy and the justice of God, since by the expectation of their ceasing from sins the time is prolonged for us, and in the consummation of their wickedness the deferred vengeance is decreed. And now indeed the order of the generations, the election of Abraham, the procreation of the patriarchs—
the servitude of the people, the disasters of the Egyptians, the division of the sea, the raining down of the manna, the establishing of the Law, the distinction of sacrifices, the age of the judges, the knowledge of the kingdoms, the transmigration of the people into captivity, the vision of the saints, the admonition of the prophets—how far it is necessary unto knowledge!
For in all the things recalled above, God the Father and God the Son, and from God the Father God the Son, God and man Jesus Christ, is recognized: while in the creation of the world God commands and God accomplishes; while man is formed to the likeness of a common image; while the Lord rains sulphur and fire from the Lord—for neither would one command himself to do it, nor would one alone extend his fellowship to another, nor give to himself and alone receive from himself; while man is seen by Abraham and God is adored; while in Jacob God is seen wrestling as a man; while, holding the man, he asks to be blessed by the Lord; while by Nebuchadnezzar, only three children being cast into the furnace, a fourth is seen like the Son of God; while a virgin bears Emmanuel, him who is God with us.
These things, therefore, signified by all and known and fulfilled in that One, it was fitting should be preserved in memory in writings and in sealed volumes, so that posterity, instructed by the deeds of an earlier time in its successions, might contemplate present things also in things past, and might now also venerate past things in things present. For since the knowledge of the truth is one and the same when perfect, if the truth is understood from reason—for all things were written unto our knowledge and unto the firmest faith of our judgment—neither did these things, which by the will of God were set down in books, stand in need of the knowledge of posterity;
but posterity had need of the knowledge of the Scriptures, that it might learn the truth, that it might receive from reason the teaching of the truth, that it might follow the science of life as though advanced from its very cradle: namely, that it should not doubt God from God, since the Lord rained from the Lord; that it should not be ignorant of the one unbegotten God, since God commanded; that it should not fail to know the only-begotten God, since God accomplished; that it should not doubt that the two are one, since one exemplar of the common image was established in man; that it should not deny that God, into man . . . [text lost] . . . begotten of fathers.
And it is ready to hear Paul glorying that he is an Israelite of the Hebrews, of the tribe of Benjamin. Therefore, since it is Elijah's office to turn the hearts of the fathers to the sons, the mystery of perfect preaching is reserved to him, that he may turn the fathers to that faith which the spirit of the same prophecy has already confirmed in the sons.