Direct your understanding and intelligence in the Holy Spirit, that ye may not only hear with your ears, but also behold with your eyes the divine mystery of Christ. Yet ye behold it through your faith: for to hear belongs to necessity, but to believe belongs to earnest care. It is the office of the ears indifferently to perceive alike the vain and the useful, but of faith to believe only what it has approved. For it profits no man to hear gladly, unless belief confirms the hearing. The eyes of faith are the spirit, through which spiritual things are seen. If, then, ye are spiritual, understand the things of heaven. For like recognizes like: even dumb animals understand one another by the sound of their voice — lions the roar, bulls the bellow, and the soldier the blast of the trumpet.
How much more truly, then, do the spiritual understand spiritual things — heavenly ones, and heirs, the precepts of their Father and the things provided in their Father's testament? Ye, then, since ye are the heirs of Christ, understand his testament. But if any one, by reason of age, is less capable of learning to understand, he has the Holy Spirit as interpreter: let him follow him; with him as leader and teacher he will most easily be able to know the rights and the power of the New Testament, namely, that the inheritance has been imparted to the Gentiles. In this manner the Lord and Father in the beginning made man with his own hand, and set him in Paradise, a fixed condition being given of the precepts of the law and testament of life.
But he, having despised the Father's precepts, was cast out of Paradise into his earth-born nativity, in which also he died: yet the Lord raised up a righteous race from the seed of Adam, which seed he preserved into a people upon the flood, and its heirs. From that race he found a righteous man, whom he commanded to build a structure in the manner of a vessel of a certain capacity, of fixed measurements and framings, that, being made, it might be preserved together with his brothers, Noah, through that race: for God had commanded that, because of the injustice of men, the circle of the earth should perish by inundating waters. So afterward Noah was made safe with his own. And God established for him the attestation of his precept, saying:
'Every thing shall be food for you, as it were the herbage of vegetables, save flesh with the blood of life.' And he set the sign of this attestation upon the ark. After these things, again the Lord God gave attestation to Abraham in Isaac in this manner, saying: 'To thee will I give this land, and to thy seed, and I will make thee the father of many nations.' And thereafter the seed increased into a multitude of people, and was divided into twelve patriarchs. But to them also the Lord set an attestation on Mount Horeb through Moses, from which place, the nations being cast out, he established there a people, which received and possessed the inheritance promised to it: to whom also God showed very many signs and miracles, as to a most beloved son.
But that same people, having received so many and so great benefits, opposed the Father and forsook the living God. For Israel forsook the Lord, showing him his back and not his face: for he turned his face to idols, and by slaying the prophets sent to him, who preached concerning Christ, from thenceforth Israel grew accustomed to persecute Christ — not only when he came in the body, but even when he was announced by the prophets. For they persecuted all the seers on his account; of whom some they pursued with stones, others they slew by unworthy torture — not so much these themselves as, through them, the Lord Jesus Christ. For what is the proof of this?
Namely, that they received the accused and the faithless and the treacherous and the lying and those opposed to Christ, but assailed the true and those full of faith. They cursed Moses, because he preached Christ; they loved Dathan, because he did not preach Christ; they rejected Aaron, because he prefigured the likeness of Christ; they set up Abiram, because he contradicted Christ; they hated David, because he sang of Christ; they exalted Saul, because he did not speak of Christ; they spurned Samuel, because he spoke of Christ; they kept Ham, for he spoke nothing of Christ; they stoned Jeremiah as he prophesied Christ; they loved Hananiah, who opposed Christ; they sawed asunder Isaiah as he proclaimed Christ;
They magnified Manasseh, who persecuted Christ; they slew John, who pointed out Christ; they murdered Zechariah, who loved Christ; they loved Judas, who betrayed Christ. Ye see how those who love Christ are hated, while those who hate him burn with love among the unworthy people. O the obstinacy of a persecution unworthy even unto extermination by death! For they assailed not only the witnesses of the Lord, but the Lord himself; treacherous tenants, they did outrage to the Father in the Son. What, then, were they worthy to suffer for this deed? Namely, to be driven from the kingdom, to be disinherited: and so it was done, and so it came to pass; worthy things befell the worthy.
For the Father, having suffered outrage in the Son, and the Son, having endured it in the prophets at the time when he was dying, in his own time was compelled by indignation to write a new testament, with witnesses called: heaven and earth, and an angel from the temple standing by, with Moses and Elijah. For these witnesses he called, when he suffered in Israel; and he foretold that it would so happen through the prophets in these words: 'Hear, O heaven, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord hath spoken: I have begotten sons and exalted them, but they have rejected me.' These utterances the Lord poured forth in Israel, crying aloud and saying: 'Ye would not; others shall receive me, who have not yet even heard mention of me. Ye have scorned my wedding; others shall go, who were not called.'
'Ye refused to cultivate my field and my vineyard, from which the fruits of righteousness come forth: others shall cultivate it and reap the fruits in God.' What is that mind so terrible and that thought so accursed? Were ye then able to kill the King and the Bridegroom? For this cause heaven and earth are witnesses, and the elements that are in them: moreover, all creation is a witness to the death of Christ. O new cruelty! All nature was shaken at the passion of the Lord, while the people remained unmoved, without trembling: the angel, in penitence, fled with the veil rent asunder, while the crowd, without dread, remained with its garment whole: the elements were changed and confounded, while Israel, unconcerned, held firm. O new hardness, O singular audacity, O bloody perfidy!
Pilate, a judge of a foreign nation, of temporal power in the age, purified his hands and washed away the crime of necessity, saying: 'I am guiltless and innocent of this man's blood.' But the people imitated neither the foreigner nor the stranger, but moreover cried out: 'Take him away, nail him to the cross: his blood be upon us and upon our children.' O violent, insatiable cruelty, inhuman, and hearts obtuse and eyes shut fast: they slew their benefactor and shed no tears. The apostles mourned, and the people gloried; the earth trembled, and the crowd rejoiced; the Lord was being judged, and Israel exulted. [Christ was suffering, and the impious cried out; the Lord was being tormented, and the people rejoiced; the Lord was being buried, and the people feasted:
with their ignominious and iniquitous solemnity they sealed their sins and their cruelty.] Tell me and speak, impious Israel: didst thou offer such a victim to the Father, by immolating his Son? Didst thou pour out such libations with the blood of a pledge most acceptable to God? Thou didst lead the dances of Jerusalem, while Christ was being slain: with joyful cries thou didst raise songs, when thou saidst: 'Nail him, hang him up.' For this cause, in famine and in sickness, O people Israel, the Lord complains of thee: 'Your new moons,' he says, 'and the sabbath and the great day I cannot bear: my soul abhors your feasts and fasting.' And not without cause did the Lord hate your ceremonies, in which ye slew his only and firstborn Son.
O harsh day, and lamentable hour, and mournful solemnity, and ill-omened land, and profane city, and people bloodied with the murder of the Lord: for they slew the Lord and set free a robber. For this cause, then, the Lord was compelled to make a new testament, with seven spirits signing it, with Moses and Elijah as witnesses on the mountain, where he charged that the mystery of the Scripture should not be laid open unless the Son of Man had risen from the dead. But soon the Lord rose on the third day, opened the new testament, the living testament, and thus said: 'Come, foreign nations, my heirs: for Israel did not obey; wherefore go, ye disciples, unto the uttermost part of the earth, and preach throughout the world in these words:
Come from every side, ye peoples of the nations, enter into the eternal inheritance, for Israel would not. Do not doubt: here there is no exception of freeborn status, nor of dignity, nor of condition, nor of position, nor of appearance, nor of age. Though magnificent in dignity, though noble, though old, though young, poor, rich, good and bad, masters and servants — indifferently and equally enter into the inheritance: even if one be crippled in his feet, deformed in body, even if disfigured with blemishes and lacking his head's soundness, even if bereft of eyes — all are freely permitted to recline at the banquet and feast the Bridegroom's wedding.' Let no man be ashamed of his age, nor of his lowliness, nor of his ill health, nor of his condition: for the Lord is accustomed to bear with men of this kind.
For he restored eyes to the blind and made the lame to walk, and gave speech back to the dumb, and cleansed the blemished, and raised the dead. Fear not, ye who have sinned; come first to life; let not him who has committed murder be afraid because he did it, nor let him who has stolen another's goods despair because he seized them, nor let the publican fear because he extorted. For to all remission of sins is appointed, and such men the Lord desires — the humbled by lowliness, and the unsightly in appearance, and the broken in health, and the oppressed by servitude. For the blessed and glorious and magnificent and powerful and rich and strong were unwilling to acquiesce to the Lord, nor to enter into the Bridegroom's wedding; moreover, they most unworthily slew the Bridegroom.
Therefore each of the loftiest of them became the lowliest, and the strongest weak, and the prudent foolish, and the noble ignoble, and the rich most poor, and the heir disinherited: since indeed they themselves disowned the most modest and most kindly King, saying, 'We know not who this is, for he is not our king: we have another king, Caesar.' Therefore let them have him whom they proclaimed. Then was fulfilled the voice of the prophecy which foretold to them: 'Ye would not have the water of Siloam that goes in silence, but ye rather willed the water of Rezin. Wherefore I bring upon you the king of the Assyrians, who shall lay your mountains flat and enter your lands.'
And so it came to pass: for Christ being rejected, he sent to the people the tyrant whom they willed, who destroyed their cities and condemned their people to captivity and took their spoils and reduced their fatherland to the desolation of Sodom. For the Lord in his indignation took away from Jerusalem the strength of bread and water, the strong man, the giant, the warrior, the judge, the prophet, the ordainer, and the elder, the praiseworthy counselor, and the skilled architect, and the prudent helper. All these aids, fortifications, and bulwarks he transferred to the nations, and his whole kingdom, with the sign fixed: he dwelt among them and pitched his camp on the threshold, and there he established an army of power, and there he reigned. No more is there
a kingdom of Jerusalem, but in us is here the camp, here the army, here the leader, here the power, here the Bridegroom, here the wedding, here the King, here Christ, here life, here resurrection, here eternity. This is he who was prefigured from the beginning and honored by the prophets, and made flesh in the womb, and dipped in the Jordan, and despised by the people, and hung upon the wood, and buried in the earth. This is he who broke his old testament and wrote a new one, whereby he called the nations to the possession of his goods: and therefore we, the nations, bear upon our shoulders the cross of our Lord, the cross which Israel made the Lord confess, whom he addressed peaceably in these words: 'Come to me, all ye who labor under burdens, and I will refresh you:
for my yoke is gentle and my burden most light.' And they answered: 'We have not heard.' But the nations heard and believed the saving word, whereby their ears were opened and the eyes of the blind enlightened and the tongues of the impeded made to speak, and the lame leaped forth like a frisking wild beast. And Christ indeed, with his kingdom, set his seat among them: but the people were left naked, deserted, widowed of the kingdom both heavenly and earthly: for from the heavenly they were cast out, having attained all the instruments and things which they possessed — the lamp of seven lights, and the tabernacle of the testament, and the sacred vessels, and the trumpets, and a fatherland from heaven, and a holy land flowing with milk and honey: of this inheritance Israel was deprived.
And now thou art left in all thy land without nourishment, without the aid of light. For thou hast slain thy help and defense, and persecuted the light, and repelled thy protector, and nailed up the hanged one, and hanged the King: therefore thou art an exile from thy fatherland, wandering about the rivers of the nations, with suppliant voice and tearful prayer saying: 'I, wretched, am expelled from my own seats, and am made a guest and a stranger of another's possession, without home, without roof: have pity on the forsaken, the impious, and the unworthily vanquished.' This is the punishment upon Israel, and the condition in Jerusalem: and unless they turn their minds and say, 'The Lord lives for ever,' they shall not be able to enter into the life of the Lord.
For he lives indeed, and his inheritances live, and he lives whom ye slew, O impious Jerusalem; and yet the Lord has not utterly denied thee hope: for he has granted the pardon of repentance, if in any way thou canst repent. Who is so good, who so merciful, so compassionate? 'Receive,' he says, 'salvation, although thou hast slain me: be an heir with the Virgin, although thou dost not deserve it. I forgive, if thou repent.' Therefore, if it be lawful, take a good mind; even late, even tardily, understand the new testament. Come, ye nations, absolve for them their own scriptures, but say: 'Adore the Lord according to his merits: for that thou hast stretched out thy hands to him, though thou multiply thy prayer, he hears not: for thy hands are full of blood.'
Wash yourselves, be clean, and come, let us reason together, says the Lord God; he will wash away the blood from among you, and will make your hearts cleaner than snow and your souls cleaner than milk. Come hither, believe the Scriptures: here is salvation. Out of Zion shall go forth the law of God, and the word out of Jerusalem; and he shall judge in the midst of the nations and rebuke a numerous people: they beat their swords into plowshares and turn their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not take up the sword against nation, they shall cease to wage war. And you, house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord; for he has let his people go. Your land is filled with foreign soothsayings, and your sons have become estranged. For the land itself is yours, yet strangers have become the people of the Lord. Come therefore, enter in, and be as one nation.
Have mercy on those who go astray: it is just that the decree of God be honored, in how the mighty are laid low and the lowly lifted up, the strong made weak and the weak made firm, the rich brought down to poverty and the poor made heirs of an inheritance, the ruling made servants and the ruled made to reign, the subjected called to a kingdom, the seeing made blind and the blind enlightened, the prudent turned to folly and the foolish turned to prudence. For those who once were senseless and untaught in spirit now teach the Scriptures, and know and understand them:
but those who from the beginning were learned and skilled and versed in the discipline of the Law do not know how to read, nor do they understand spiritual things; and one of those prudent men, desiring to see, comes and understands, and asks a little child or an old woman or a widow or a peasant, saying: 'I long to live; be my guide, O man, in Zion: expound to me the New Testament, reconcile me to the Lord. Behold, I hand myself over to you as a disciple; interpret for me the Law that was given at Horeb, set forth the precepts that are in Zion and in the Law.' Without letters he expounds the Scriptures to them, and the boy instructs the old man, and the old woman persuades the learned.
Israel, therefore, being seized, follows with a hand laid upon him to the laver, and there he testifies that he has believed; and having received the sign, purified through the Spirit, he asks to receive life through the food of grace, the bread that comes from the blessing; and a wondrous spectacle takes place: the Levites who used to make the offerings, and the sacrificing priests, and the high priests pouring out libations, stand by the boy who now offers; those who once taught now learn, those who gave commands are now commanded, those who baptized are now baptized, and those who circumcised are now circumcised. Thus the Lord willed the nations to flourish. You see how Christ has loved you.