;^T,. To mention only a few things in the times of the kings, at the very outset does not the change in the priesthood when Eli was rejected and Samuel chosen, and in the kingdom when Saul was rejected and David chosen, clearly predict the new priesthood and kingdom to come in our Lord Jesus Christ, when the old, which was a shadow of the new, was rejected? Did not David, when he ate the shew-bread, which it was not law- ful for any but the priests to eat, prefigure the union of the kingdom and priesthood in one person, Jesus Christ? In the separation of the ten tribes from the temple while two were left, is there not a figure of what the apostle asserts of the whole nation: "A rem- nant is saved by the election of grace."?'
34. In the time of famine, Elijah is fed by ravens bringing bread in the morning and flesh in the evening; but the Manichaeans cannot in this perceive Christ, who, as it were, hungers for our salvation, and to whom sinners come in confession, having now the first-fruits of the Sp'rit, while in the end, that is to say in the evening of the age, they will have the resurrection of their bodies also. Elijah is sent to be fed by a widow woman of another nation, who was going to gather two sticks before she died, denoting the two wooden beams of the cross. Her meal and oil are blessed, as the fruit and cheerfulness of charity do not diminish by expenditure, for God loveth a cheerful giver. ^ 35. The children that mocked Elisha by calling out Baldhead, are devoured by wild beasts, as those who ni childish folly scoff at Christ crucified on Calvary are destroyed by devils. Elisha sends his servants to lay his staff on the dead body, but it does not revive; he comes himself, and lays himself exactly upon the dead body, and it revives: as the Word of God sent the law by His servant, without any profit to mankind dead in sins; and yet it was not sent without purpose by Him who knew the necessity of its being first sent. Then He Himself came, conformed Himself to us by participation in our death, and we were revived. When they were cut- ting down wood with axes, the iron, flying off the wood, sank to the bottom of the river, and came up again when the wood was thrown in by Elisha. So, when Christ's bodily presence was cutting down the unfruitful trees among the unbelieving Jews, according to the saying of John, " Behold, the axe is laid to the roots of the tree," ^ by the death they inflicted, Christ was separated from His body, and descended to the depths of the infernal world; and then, when His body was laid in the tomb, like the wood on the water, His spirit returned, like the iron to the handle, and He rose. The reader will observe how many things of this kind are omitted for the sake of brevity.
36. As regards the departure to Babylon, where the Spirit of God by the prophet Jeremiah enjoins them to go, telling them to pray for the people in whose land they dwell as strangers, because in their peace they would find peace, and to build houses, and plant vineyards and gardens, — the figurative meaning is plain, when we consider that the true Israelites, in whom is no guile, passed over in the ministry of the apostles with the ordinances of the gospel into the kingdom of the Gentiles. So the apostle, like an echo of Jeremiah, says to us, " I will first of all that prayer, supplications, intercessions and giving of tnanks be made for all men, and for those in authority, that we may live a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and charity; for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour, who will have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth."" Accordingly the basilicas of Chris- tian congregations have been built by believers as abodes of peace, and vineyards of the faithful have been renewed, and gardens planted, where chief among the plants is the mustard tree, in whose wide-spreading branches the pride of the Gentiles, like the birds of heaven, in its soaring ambition, takes shelter. Again, in the return from captivity after seventy years, according to Jeremiah's prophecy, and in the restoration of the temple, every believer in Christ must see a figure of our return as the Church of God from the exile of this world to the heavenly Jerusalem, after the seven days of time have fulfilled their course. Joshua the high priest, after the captivity, who rebuilt the temple, was a .lom. XI. 5.
^ 2 Cor. ix. 7.
3 Matt. iii. 10.
4 I Tim. li. 1-4.
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195 figure of Jesus Christ, the true High Priest of our restoration. The prophet Zechariah saw this Joshua in a filthy garment; and after the devil who stood by to accuse him was defeated, the filthy garment was taken from him, and a dress of honor and glory given iiim. So the body of Jesus Christ, which is the Church, when the adversary is conquered in the judgment at the end of the world, will liass from the pains of exile to the glory of ' verlasting safety. This is the song of the Psalmist at the dedication of his house: " Thou hast turned for me my mourning into gladness; Thou hast removed my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness, that my glory may sing praise unto Thee, and not be silent." ' 37. It is impossible, in a digression like this, to refer, however briefly, to all the figura- tive predictions of Christ which are to be found in the law and the prophets. Will it be said tliat these things happened in the regular course of things, and that it is a mere in- genious fancy to make them typical of Christ? Such an objection might come from Jews and Pagans; but those who wish to be considered Christians must yield to the authority of the apostle when he says, "All these things hap- pened to them for an example;" and again, ■' These things are our examples.*'- For if 'WO men, Ishmael and Isaac, are types of the iwo covenants, can it be supposed that there IS no significance in the vast number of par- 'iculars which have no historical or natural V alue? Suppose we were to see some Hebrew characters written on the wall of a noble building, should we be so foolish as to con- clude that, because we cannot understand the characters, they are not intended to be read, and are mere painting, without any meaning? So, whoever with a candid mind reads all these things that are contained in the Old Testament Scriptures, must feel constrained to acknowledge that they have a meaning.
38. As an example of those particulars which have no meaning at all if not a sym- bolical one: Granting that it was necessary that woman should be made as an help meet for man, what natural reason can be assigned for her being taken from his side while he slept? Granting that an ark was required in order to escape from the flood, why should it have precisely these dimensions, and why should they be recorded for the devout study of future generations? Granting that the ani- mals were brought into the ark to preserve the various races, why should there be seven clean and two unclean? Granting that the ' Ps..x.xx.
II, 12.
' I Cor. X. 10, 6.
ark must have a door, w^hy should it be in the side, and why should this fact be committed to writing? Abraham is commanded to sac- rifice his son: we may allow that this proof of his obedience was required in order to make it conspicuous in all ages; we may allow, too, that it was a proper thing for the son to carry the wood instead of the aged father, and that in the end the fatal stroke was forbidden, lest the father should be left childless. But what had the shedding of the ram's blood to do with Abraham's trial? or if it was necessary to complete the sacrifice, was the ram any the better of being caught by the horns in a bush? The human mind, that is to say, a rational mind, is led by the consideration of the way in which these apparently superfluous things are blended with what is necessary, first to acknowledge their significance, and then to try to discover it.
39. The Jews themselves, who scoff at the crucified Saviour in whom we believe, and who consequently will not allow that Christ is predicted in the sayings and actions recorded in the Old Testament, are compelled to come to us for an explanation of those things which, if not explained, must appear trifling and ridiculous. This led Philo, a Jew of great learning, whom the Greeks speak of as rival- ling Plato in eloquence, to attempt to explain some things without any reference to Christ, in whom he did not believe. His attempt only shows the inferiority of all ingenious speculations, when made without keeping Christ in view, to whom all the predictions really point. So true is that saying of the apostle: " When they shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away." 3 For instance, Noah's ark is, according to Philo, a type of the human body, member by member: with this view, he shows that the numerical pro- portions agree perfectly. For there is no reason why a type of Christ should not be a type of the human body, too, since the Saviour of mankind appeared in a human body, though what is typical of a human body is not necessarily typical of Christ. Philo's explanation fails, however, as regards the door in the side of the ark. He actually, for the sake of saying something, makes this door represent the lower apertures of the body. He has the hardihood to put this in words, and on paper. Indeed, he knew not the door and could not understand the sym- bol. Had he turned to Christ the veil would have been taken awa}', and he would have found the sacraments of the Church flowing from the side of Christ's human body. For, 3 2 Cor. iii. 16.
196 THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN.
[Book XII.
according to the announcement, " They two shall be one flesh," some things in the ark, which is a type of Christ, refer to Christ, and some to the Church. This contrast between the explanations which keep Christ in view, and all other ingenious perversions, is the same in every particular of all the figures in Scripture.
40. The Pagans, too, cannot deny our right to give a figurative meaning to both words and things, especially as we can point to the fulfillment of the types and figures. For the Pagans themselves try to find in their own fables figures of natural and religious truth. Sometimes they give clear explanations, while at other times they disguise their meaning, and what is sacred in the temples becomes a jest in the theatres. They unite a disgraceful licentiousness to a degrading superstition.
41. Besides this wonderful agreement be- tween the types and the things typified, the adversary may be convinced by plain prophetic intimations, such as this: " In thy seed shall all nations be blessed.'' This was said to Abraham,^ and again to Isaac, ^ and again to Jacob. 3 Hence the significance of the words, "I am the God of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob." * God fulfills His promise to their seed in blessing all nations. With a like sig- nificance, Abraham himself^ when he made his servant swear, told him to put his hand under his thigh;s for he knew that thence would come the flesh of Christ, in whom we have now, not the promise of blessing to all nations, but the promise fulfilled.
42. I should like to know, or rather, it would be well not to know, with what blind- ness of mind Faustus reads the passage where Jacob calls his sons, and says, "Assemble, that I may tell you the things that are to happen in the last day. Assemble and hear, ye sons of Jacob; give ear to Israel, your father.'' Surely these are the words of a prophet. What, then, does he say of his son Judah, of whose tribe Christ came of the seed of David according to the flesh, as the apostle teaches? "Judah," he says, " thy brethren shall praise thee: thy hand shall be upon the backs of thine enemies; the sons of thy father shall bow down to thee. Judah is a lion's whelp; my son and offspring: bowing down, thou hast gone up: thou sleepest as a lion, and as a young lion, who will rouse him up? A prince shall not depart from Judah, nor a leader from his loins, till those things come which have been laid up for him. He also is the desire of nations: binding his I Gen. xxii. i8. 4 Ex. iii. 6.
2 Gen. xxvi, 4. 5 Gen. xxiv. 2.
3 Gen. xxviii, 14, foal unto the vine, and his ass's colt with sackcloth, he shall wash his garment in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes: his eyes are bright with wine, and his teeth whiter than milk."*^ There is no falsehood or ob- scurity in these words when we read them in the clear light of Christ. We see His brethren the apostles and all His joint-heirs praising Him, seeking, not their own glory, but His. We see His hands on the backs of His enemies, who are bent and bowed to the earth by the growth of the Christian communities in spite of their opposition. We see Him worshipped by the sons of Jacob, the remnant saved according to the election of grace. Christ, who was born as an infant, is the lion's whelp, as it is added. My son and off- spring, to show why this whelp, in whose praise it is said, " The lion's whelp is stronger than the herd,"^ is even in infancy stronger than its elders. We see Christ ascending the cross, and bowing down when He gave up His spirit. We see Him sleeping as a lion, because in death itself He was not the con- quered, but the conqueror, and as a lion's whelp; for the reason of His birth and of His death was the same. And He is raised from the dead by Him whom no man hath seen or can see; for the words, " Who will raise Him up?" point to an unknown power. A prince did not depart from Judah, nor a leader from his loins, till in due time those things came which had been laid up in the promise. For we learn from the authentic history of the Jews themselves, that Herod, under whom Christ was born, was their first foreign king. So the sceptre did not depart from the seed of Judah till the things laid up for him came. Then, as the promise is not only to the be- lieving Jews, it is added: " He is the desire of the nations." Christ bound His foal — that is. His people — to the vine, when He preached in sackcloth, crying, " Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." The Gentiles made subject to Him are represented by the ass's colt, on which He also sat, lead- ing it into Jerusalem, that is, the vision of peace teaching the meek His ways. We see Him washing His garments in wine; for He is one with the glorious Church, which He presents to Himself, not having spot or wrinkle; to whom also it is said by Isaiah: " Though your sins be as scarlet, I will make them white as snow. "^ How is this done but by the remission of sins? And the wine is none other than that of which it is said that it is " shed for many, for the remission of sms.
Christ is the cluster that hung on the 7 Prov. XXX. 30.
8 Isa. i. 18.
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197 pole. So it is added, " and His clothes in the blood of the grape." Again, what is said of His eyes being bright with wine, is under- stood by those members of His body who are enabled, in holy aberration of mind from the current of earthly things, to gaze on the eter- nal light of wisdom. So Paul says in a passage quoted before: " If we be beside ourselves, ft is to God.'^ Those are the eyes bright with wine. But he adds: "If we be sober, it is for your sakes." The babes needing to be fed with milk are not forgotten, as is denoted by the words, " His teeth are whiter than milk."
43. What can our deluded adversaries say to such plain examples, which leave no room for perverse denial, or even for sceptical un- certainty? I call on the Manicheeans to begin to inquire into these subjects, and to admit the force of these evidences, on which I have no time to dwell; nor do 1 wish to make a selection, in case the ignorant reader should think there are no others, while the Christian student might blame me for the omission of many points more striking than those which occur to me at the moment. You will find many passages which require no such ex- planation as has been given here of Jacob's prophecy. For instance, every reader can understand the words, " He was led as a lamb to the slaughter," and the whole of that plain prophecy, "With His stripes we are healed " — " He bore our sins." ' We have a poetical g'ospel in the words: " They pierced my hands and feet. They have told all my bones. They look and stare upon me. They divided my garments among them, and cast lots on my vesture. "= The blind even may. now seethe fulfillment of the words: "All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn unto the Lord, and all kingdoms of the nations shall worship before Him." The words in the Gospel, " My soul is sorrowful, even unto death," *' My soul is troubled," are a repetition of the words in the Psalm, " I slept in trouble." 3 And who made Him sleep? Whose voices cried, Crucify him, crucify him? The Psalm tells us: " The sons of men, their teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword."* But they could not prevent His resurrection, or His ascension above the heavens, or His filling the earth with the glory of His name; for the Psalm says: " Be Thou exalted, O God, above the heavens, and let Thy glory be above all the earth." Every one must apply these words to Christ: " The Lord said unto me, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten Thee. Ask of me, and I Isa. liii.
3 Ps. Ivii. 4 (Vulg.).
2 Ps. xxii. 4 Ps. Ivii. 4.
I will give Thee the heathen for Thine in- heritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for Thy possession." s And what Jeremiah says of wisdom plainly applies to Christ: "Jacob delivered it to his son, and Israel to his chosen one. Afterwards He ap- peared on earth, and conversed with men.^' ^ 44. The same Saviour is spoken of in Daniel, where the Son of man appears before the Ancient of days, and receives a kingdom without end, that all nations may serve Him.' In the passage quoted from Daniel by the Lord Himself, " When ye shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place, let him that readeth understand,'' * the number of weeks points not only to Christ, but to the very time of His advent. With the Jews, who look to Christ for salvation as we do, but deny that He has come and suf- fered, we can argue from actual events. Be- sides the conversion of the heathen, now so universal, as prophesied of Christ in their own Scriptures, there are the events in the history of the Jews themselves. Their holy place is thrown down, the sacrifice has ceased, and the priest, and the ancient anointing; which was all clearly foretold by Daniel when he prophesied of the anointing of the Most Holy. 5 Now, that all these things have taken place, we ask the Jews for the anointed Most Holy, and they have no answer to give. But it is from the Old Testament that the Jews derive all the knowledge they have of Christ and His advent. Why do they ask John whether he is Christ? Why do they say to the Lord, ' How long dost thou make us to doubt? If thou art the Christ, tell us plainly.-" Why do Peter and Andrew and Philip say to Nathanael, "We have found Messias, which is interpreted Christ," but be- cause this name was known to them from the prophecies of their Scriptures? In no other nation were the kings and priests anointed, and called Anointed or Christs. Nor could this symbolical anointing be discontinued till the coming of Him who was thus prefigured. For among all their anointed ones the Jews looked ior one who was to save them. But in the mysterious justice of God they were blinded; and thinking only of the power of the Messiah, they did not understand His weakness, in which He died for us. In the book of Wisdom it is prophesied of the Jews: "Let us condemn him to an ignominious death; for he will be proved in his words. If he is truly the Son of God, He will aid him,. and deliver him from the hand of his 8 Matt. XXIV. 15. 9 Dan. ix. 24-37.
Dan.
vn. 13, 14.
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[Book XII.
enemies. Thus they thought, and erred; for their wickedness blinded them."' These words apply also to those who, in spite of all these evidences, in spite of such a series of prophecies, and of their fulfillment, still deny that Christ is foretold in the Scriptures. As often as they repeat this denial, we can pro- duce fresh proofs, with the help of Him who has made such provision against human per- versity, that proofs already given need not be repeated.
45. Faustus has an evasive objection, which he no doubt thinks a most ingenious way of eluding the force of the clearest evidence of prophecy, but of which one is unwilling to take any notice, because answering it may give it an appearance of importance which it does not really possess. What could be more irrational than to say that it is weak faith which will not believe in Christ without evi- dence? Do our adversaries, then, believe in testimony about Christ? Faustus wishes us to believe the voice from heaven as distin- guished from human testimony. But did they hear this voice? Has not the knowledge of it come to us through human testimony? The apostle describes the transmission of this knowledge, when he says: " How shall they call on Him on whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe on Him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? and how shall they preach except they be sent? As it is written, " How beautiful are the feet of them who publish peace, who bring good tidings! " ^ Clearly, in the preaching of the apostles there was a reference to prophetic testimony. The apostles quoted the predictions of the prophets, to prove the truth and importance of their doctrines. For although their preaching was accompanied with the power of working miracles, the miracles would have been ascribed to magic, as some even now venture to insinuate, unless the apostles had shown that the authority of the prophets was in trieir favor. The testimony of prophets who lived so long before could not be ascribed to magical arts. Perhaps the reason why Faustus will not have us believe the Hebrew prophets as witnesses of the true Christ, is because he believes Persian heresies about a false Christ.
46. According to the teaching of the Catholic Church, the Christian mind must first be nourished in simple faith, in order that it may become capable of understanding things heavenly and eternal. Thus it is said by the prophet: " Unless ye believe, ye shall not understand." 3 Sunple faith is that by which, before we attain to the height of the knowledge of the love of Christ, that we may be filled with all the fullness of God, we believe that not without reason was the dispensation of Christ's humiliation, in which He was born and suffered as man, foretold so long before by the prophets through a prophetic race, a prophetic people, a prophetic kingdom. This faith teaches us, that in the foolishness which is wiser than men, and in the weakness which is stronger than men, is contained the hidden means of our justification and glorification. There are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, which are opened to no one who despises the nourishment transmitted through the breast of his mother, that is, the milk of apostolic and prophetic instruction; or who, thinking himself too old for infantile nourish- ment, devours heretical poison instead of the food of wisdom, for which he rashly thought himself prepared. To require simple faith is quite consistent with requiring faith in the prophets. The very use of simple faith is to believe the prophets at the outset, while the understanding of the person who speaks in the prophets is attained after the mind has been purified and strengthened.
47. But, it is said, if the prophets foretold Christ, they did not live in a way becoming their office. How can you tell whether they did or not? You are bad judges of what it is to live well or ill, whose justice consists in giving relief to an inanimate melon by eating it, instead of giving food to the starving beggar. It is enough for the babes in the Catholic Church, who do not yet know the perfect justice of the human soul, and the difference between the justice aimed at and that actually attained, to think of those men according to the wholesome doctrine of the apostles, that the just lives by faith. "Abra- ham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness. For the scripture, fore- seeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached before the gospel unto Abra- ham, saying. In thy seed shall all nations be blessed." ■* These are the words of the apos- tle. If you would, at his c:ear well-known voice, wake up from your unprofitable dreams, you would follow in the footsteps of our father Abraham, and would be blessed, along with all nations, in his seed. For, as the apostle says, " He received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had, yet being uncircumcised, that he