|
Blaise Pascal
Pensées
The translation is that
of W. F. Trotter (William Finlayson) and was published in New York by Harvard
Classics, 1909-1914.
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contents page]
SECTION X
TYPOLOGY
642. Proof of the two
Testaments at once.—To prove the two at one stroke, we need only see if the
prophecies in one are fulfilled in the other. To examine the prophecies, we
must understand them. For if we believe they have only one meaning, it is
certain that the Messiah has not come; but if they have two meanings, it is
certain that He has come in Jesus Christ.
The whole problem then is to
know if they have two meanings.
That the Scripture has two
meanings, which Jesus Christ and the Apostles have given, is shown by the
following proofs:
1. Proof by Scripture itself.
2. Proof by the Rabbis. Moses
Maimonides says that it has two aspects and that the prophets have prophesied
Jesus Christ only.
3. Proof by the Kabbala.
4. Proof by the mystical
interpretation which the Rabbis themselves give to Scripture.
5. Proof by the principles of
the Rabbis, that there are two meanings; that there are two advents of the
Messiah, a glorious and an humiliating one, according to their desert; that
the prophets have prophesied of the Messiah only—the Law is not eternal, but
must change at the coming of the Messiah—that then they shall no more
remember the Red Sea; that the Jews and the Gentiles shall be mingled.
6. Proof by the key which
Jesus Christ and the Apostles give us.
643. Isaiah 51. The Red Sea an
image of the Redemption. Ut sciatis quod filius hominis habet potestatem
remittendi peccata... tibi dico: Surge.115 God, wishing to show that He could form a people holy with an
invisible holiness, and fill them with an eternal glory, made visible things.
As nature is an image of grace, He has done in the bounties of nature what He
would do in those of grace, in order that we might judge that He could make
the invisible, since He made the visible excellently.
115 Mark 2. 10, 11. “But that ye
may know that the son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins... I say
unto thee, Arise.”
Therefore He saved this people
from the deluge; He has raised them up from Abraham, redeemed them from their
enemies, and set them at rest.
The object of God was not to
save them from the deluge, and raise up a whole people from Abraham, only in
order to bring them into a rich land.
And even grace is only the
type of glory, for it is not the ultimate end. It has been symbolised by the
law, and itself symbolises glory. But it is the type of it, and the origin or
cause.
The ordinary life of men is
like that of the saints. They all seek their satisfaction and differ only in
the object in which they place it; they call those their enemies who hinder
them, etc. God has then shown the power which He has of giving invisible
blessings, by that which He has shown Himself to have over things visible.
644. Types.—God, wishing to
form for Himself an holy people, whom He should separate from all other
nations, whom He should deliver from their enemies and should put into a
place of rest, has promised to do so and has foretold by His prophets the
time and the manner of His coming. And yet, to confirm the hope of His elect,
He has made them see in it an image through all time, without leaving them
devoid of assurances of His power and of His will to save them. For, at the
creation of man, Adam was the witness, and guardian of the promise of a
Saviour, who should be born of woman, when men were still so near the
creation that they could not have forgotten their creation and their fall.
When those who had seen Adam were no longer in the world, God sent Noah whom
He saved, and drowned the whole earth by a miracle which sufficiently
indicated the power which He had to save the world, and the will which He had
to do so, and to raise up from the seed of woman Him whom He had promised.
This miracle was enough to confirm the hope of men.
The memory of the Deluge being
so fresh among men, while Noah was still alive, God made promises to Abraham,
and, while Shem was still living, sent Moses, etc....
645. Types.—God, willing to
deprive His own of perishable blessings, created the Jewish people in order
to show that this was not owing to lack of power.
646. The Synagogue did not
perish, because it was a type. But, because it was only a type, it fell into
servitude. The type existed till the truth came, in order that the Church
should be always visible, either in the sign which promised it, or in
substance.
647. That the law was
figurative.
648. Two errors: 1. To take
everything literally. 2. To take everything spiritually.
649. To speak against too
greatly figurative language.
650. There are some types
clear and demonstrative, but others which seem somewhat far-fetched, and
which convince only those who are already persuaded. These are like the
Apocalyptics. But the difference is that they have none which are certain, so
that nothing is so unjust as to claim that theirs are as well founded as some
of ours; for they have none so demonstrative as some of ours. The comparison
is unfair. We must not put on the same level and confound things, because
they seem to agree in one point, while they are so different in another. The
clearness in divine things requires us to revere the obscurities in them.
It is like men, who employ a
certain obscure language among themselves. Those who should not understand it
would understand only a foolish meaning.
651. Extravagances of the
Apocalyptics, Preadamites, who would base extravagant opinions on Scripture
will, for example, base them on this. It is said that “this generation shall
not pass till all these things be fulfilled.” Upon that I will say that after
that generation will come another generation, and so on ever in succession.
Solomon and the King are
spoken of in the second book of Chronicles as if they were two different
persons. I will say that they were two.
652. Particular Types.—A
double law, double tables of the law, a double temple, a double captivity.
653. Types.—The prophets
prophesied by symbols of a girdle, a beard, and burnt hair, etc.
654. Difference between dinner
and supper.
In God the word does not
differ from the intention, for He is true; nor the word from the effect, for
He is powerful; nor the means from the effect, for He is wise. St. Bernard,
Ultimo Sermo in Missam.
St. Augustine, City of God, v.
10. This rule is general. God can do everything, except those things which,
if He could do, He would not be almighty, as dying, being deceived, lying,
etc.
Several Evangelists for the
confirmation of the truth; their difference useful.
The Eucharist after Lord’s
Supper. Truth after the type.
The ruin of Jerusalem, a type
of the ruin of the world, forty years after the death of Jesus. “I know not,”
as a man, or as an ambassador (Mark 13. 32; Matthew 24. 36.)
Jesus condemned by the Jews
and the Gentiles.
The Jews and the Gentiles
typified by the two sons. St. Augustine City of God, xx. 29.
655. The six ages, the six
Fathers of the six ages, the six wonders at the beginning of the six ages,
the six mornings at the beginning of the six ages.
656. Adam forma futuri.116 The six days to form the one,
the six ages to form the other. The six days, which Moses represents for the
formation of Adam, are only the picture of the six ages to form Jesus Christ
and the Church. If Adam had not sinned, and Jesus Christ had not come, there
had been only one covenant, only one age of men, and the creation would have
been represented as accomplished at one single time.
116 Rom. 5. 14. “The figure of
him that was to come.”
657. Types.—The Jewish and
Egyptian peoples were plainly foretold by the two individuals whom Moses met;
the Egyptian beating the Jew, Moses avenging him and killing the Egyptian,
and the Jew being ungrateful.
658. The symbols of the Gospel
for the state of the sick soul are sick bodies; but, because one body cannot
be sick enough to express it well, several have been needed. Thus there are
the deaf, the dumb, the blind, the paralytic, the dead Lazarus, the
possessed. All this crowd is in the sick soul.
659. Types.—To show that the
Old Testament is only figurative and that the prophets understood by temporal
blessings other blessings, this is the proof:
First, that this would be
unworthy of God.
Secondly, that their
discourses express very clearly the promise of temporal blessings, and that
they say nevertheless that their discourses are obscure, and that their
meaning will not be understood. Whence it appears that this secret meaning
was not that which they openly expressed, and that consequently they meant to
speak of other sacrifices, of another deliverer, etc. They say that they will
be understood only in the fullness of time (Jer. 30. 24).
The third proof is that their
discourses are contradictory, and neutralise each other; so that, if we think
that they did not mean by the words law and sacrifice anything else than that
of Moses, there is a plain and gross contradiction. Therefore they meant
something else, sometimes contradicting themselves in the same chapter. Now,
to understand the meaning of an author...
660. Lust has become natural
to us and has made our second nature. Thus there are two natures in us—the
one good, the other bad. Where is God? Where you are not, and the kingdom of
God is within you.The Rabbis.
661. Penitence, alone of all
these mysteries, has been manifestly declared to the Jews, and by Saint John,
the Forerunner; and then the other mysteries; to indicate that in each man,
as in the entire world, this order must be observed.
662. The carnal Jews
understood neither the greatness nor the humiliation of the Messiah foretold
in their prophecies. They misunderstood Him in His foretold greatness, as
when He said that the Messiah should be lord of David, though his son, and
that He was before Abraham, who had seen Him. They did not believe Him so
great as to be eternal, and they likewise misunderstood Him in His
humiliation and in His death. “The Messiah,” said they, “abideth for ever,
and this man says that he shall die.” Therefore they believed Him neither
mortal nor eternal; they only sought in Him for a carnal greatness.
663. Typical.—Nothing is so
like charity as covetousness, and nothing is so opposed to it. Thus the Jews,
full of possessions which flattered their covetousness, were very like
Christians, and very contrary. And by this means they had the two qualities
which it was necessary they should have, to be very like the Messiah to
typify Him, and very contrary not to be suspected witnesses.
664. Typical.—God made use of
the lust of the Jews to make them minister to Jesus Christ, who brought the
remedy for their lust.
665. Charity is not a
figurative precept. It is dreadful to say that Jesus Christ, who came to take
away types in order to establish the truth, came only to establish the type
of charity, in order to take away the existing reality which was there
before.
“If the light be darkness, how
great is that darkness!”
666. Fascination. Somnum suum.117 Figura hujus mundi.118(2)
The Eucharist. Comedes panem
tuum.119(3) Panem nostrum.120(4)
Inimici Dei terram lingent.121(5) Sinners lick the dust,
that is to say, love earthly pleasures.
The Old Testament contains the
types of future joy, and the New contains the means of arriving at it. The
types were of joy; the means of penitence; and nevertheless the Paschal Lamb
was eaten with bitter herbs, cum amaritudinibus.122(6)
Singularis sum ego donec
transeam.123(7) Jesus Christ before His death was almost the only martyr.
117 Ps. 75. 5. “They have slept
their sleep.”
118(2) I Cor. 7. 31 “The fashion
of this world.”
119(3) Deut. 8. 9. “Bread without
scarceness.”
120(4) Luke 11. 3. “Our daily
bread.”
121(5) Ps. 71. 9. “The enemies of
the Lord shall lick the dust.”
122(6) Exod. 12. 8. Cum
lacticibus agrestibus. “With bitter herbs.”
123(7) Ps. 140. 10. “Whilst that
I withal escape.”
667. Typical.—The expressions
sword, shield. Potentissime.124
124 Ps. 44. 4 “O most mighty.”
668. We are estranged only by
departing from charity. Our prayers and our virtues are abominable before
God, if they are not the prayers and the virtues of Jesus Christ. And our
sins will never be the object of mercy, but of the justice of God, if they
are not Jesus Christ. He has adopted our sins, and has us into union, for
virtues are His own, and sins are foreign to Him; while virtues are foreign to
us, and our sins are our own.
Let us change the rule which
we have hitherto chosen for judging what is good. We had our own will as our
rule. Let us now take the will of God; all that He wills is good and right to
us, all that He does not will is bad.
All that God does not permit
is forbidden. Sins are forbidden by the general declaration that God has
made, that He did not allow them. Other things which He has left without
general prohibition, and which for that reason are said to be permitted, are
nevertheless not always permitted. For when God removed some one of them from
us, and when, by the event, which is a manifestation of the will of God, it
appears that God does not will that we should have a thing, that is then
forbidden to us as sin; since the will of God is that we should not have one
more than another. There is this sole difference between these two things,
that it is certain that God will never allow sin, while it is not certain
that He will never allow the other. But so long as God does not permit it, we
ought to regard it as sin; so long as the absence of God’s will, which alone
is all goodness and all justice, renders it unjust and wrong.
669. To change the type,
because of our weakness.
670. Types.—The Jews had grown
old in these earthly thoughts, that God loved their father Abraham, his flesh
and what sprung from it; that on account of this He had multiplied them and
distinguished them from all other nations, without allowing them to
intermingle; that, when they were languishing in Egypt, He brought them out
with all these great signs in their favour; that He fed them with manna in
the desert, and led them into a very rich land; that He gave them kings and a
well-built temple, in order to offer up beasts before Him, by the shedding of
whose blood they should be purified; and that, at last, He was to send them
the Messiah to make them masters of all the world, and foretold the time of
His coming.
The world having grown old in
these carnal errors, Jesus Christ came at the time foretold, but not with the
expected glory; and thus men did not think it was He. After His death, Saint
Paul came to teach men that all these things had happened in allegory; that
the kingdom of God did not consist in the flesh, but in the spirit; that the
enemies of men were not the Babylonians, but the passions; that God delighted
not in temples made with hands, but in a pure and contrite heart; that the
circumcision of the body was unprofitable, but that of the heart was needed;
that Moses had not given them the bread from heaven, etc.
But God, not having desired to
reveal these things to this people who were unworthy of them and having,
nevertheless, desired to foretell them, in order that they might be believed,
foretold the time clearly, and expressed the things sometimes clearly, but
very often in figures, in order that those who loved symbols might consider
them and those who loved what was symbolised might see it therein.
All that tends not to charity
is figurative.
The sole aim of the Scripture
is charity.
All which tends not to the
sole end is the type of it. For since there is only one end, all which does
not lead to it in express terms is figurative.
God thus varies that sole
precept of charity to satisfy our curiosity which seeks for variety, by that
variety which still leads us to the one thing needful. For one thing alone is
needful, and we love variety; and God satisfies both by these varieties,
which lead to the one thing needful.
The Jews have so much loved
the shadows and have so strictly expected them that they have misunderstood
the reality, when it came in the time and manner foretold.
The Rabbis take the breasts of
the Spouse for types, and all that does not express the only end they have,
namely, temporal good.
And Christians take even the
Eucharist as a type of the glory at which they aim.
671. The Jews, who have been
called to subdue nations and kings, have been the slaves of sin; and the
Christians, whose calling has been to be servants and subjects, are free
children.
672. A formal point.—When
Saint Peter and the Apostles deliberated about abolishing circumcision, where
it was a question of acting against the law of God, they did not heed the
prophets, but simply the reception of the Holy Spirit in the persons
uncircumcised.
They thought it more certain
that God approved of those whom He filled with His Spirit than it was that
the law must be obeyed. They knew that the end of the law was only the Holy
Spirit; and that thus, as men certainly had this without circumcision, it was
not necessary.
673. Fac secundum exemplar
quod tibi ostensum est in monte.125—The Jewish religion then has been formed on its likeness to the
truth of the Messiah; and the truth of the Messiah has been recognised by the
religion, which was the type of it.
125 Exod. 25. 40. “Make them
after their pattern, which was showed thee on the mount.”
Among the Jews the truth was
only typified; in heaven it is revealed.
In the Church it is hidden and
recognised by its resemblance to the type.
The type has been made
according to the truth, and the truth has been recognised according to the
type.
Saint Paul says himself that
people will forbid to marry, and he himself speaks of it to the Corinthians
in a way which is a snare. For if a prophet had said the one, and Saint Paul
had then said the other, he would have been accused.
674. Typical.—“Do all things
according to the pattern which has been shown thee on the mount.” On which
Saint Paul says that the Jews have shadowed forth heavenly things.
675.... And yet this Covenant,
made to blind some and enlighten others, indicated in those very persons,
whom it blinded, the truth which should be recognised by others. For the visible
blessings which they received from God were so great and so divine that He
indeed appeared able to give them those that are invisible and a Messiah.
For nature is an image of
Grace, and visible miracles are images of the invisible. Ut sciatis... tibi
dico: Surge.126
126 Mark 2. 10, 11. “That ye may
know... I say unto thee: Arise.”
Isaiah says that Redemption
will be as the passage of the Red Sea.
God has, then, shown by the
deliverance from Egypt, and from the sea, by the defeat of kings, by the
manna, by the whole genealogy of Abraham, that He was able to save, to send
down bread from heaven, etc.; so that the people hostile to Him are the type
and the representation of the very Messiah whom they know not, etc.
He has, then, taught us at
last that all these things were only types and what is “true freedom,” a
“true Israelite,” “true circumcision,” “true bread from heaven,” etc.
In these promises each one
finds what he has most at heart, temporal benefits or spiritual, God or the
creatures; but with this difference, that those who therein seek the
creatures find them, but with many contradictions, with a prohibition against
loving them, with the command to worship God only, and to love Him only,
which is the same thing, and, finally, that the Messiah came not for them;
whereas those who therein seek God find Him, without any contradiction, with
the command to love Him only, and that the Messiah came in the time foretold,
to give them the blessings which they ask.
Thus the Jews had miracles and
prophecies, which they saw fulfilled, and the teaching of their law was to
worship and love God only; it was also perpetual. Thus it had all the marks
of the true religion; and so it was. But the Jewish teaching must be
distinguished from the teaching of the Jewish law. Now the Jewish teaching
was not true, although it had miracles and prophecy and perpetuity, because
it had not this other point of worshipping and loving God only.
676. The veil, which is upon
these books for the Jews, is there also for evil Christians and for all who
do not hate themselves.
But how well disposed men are
to understand them and to know Jesus Christ, when they truly hate themselves!
677. A type conveys absence
and presence, pleasure and pain.
A cipher has a double meaning,
one clear and one in which it is said that the meaning is hidden.
678. Types.—A portrait conveys
absence and presence, pleasure and pain. The reality excludes absence and
pain.
To know if the law and the
sacrifices are a reality or a type, we must see if the prophets, in speaking
of these things, confined their view and their thought to them, so that they
saw only the old covenant; or if they saw therein something else of which they
were the representation, for in a portrait we see the thing figured. For this
we need only examine what they say of them.
When they say that it will be
eternal, do they mean to speak of that covenant which they say will be
changed; and so of the sacrifices, etc.?
A cipher has two meanings.
When we find out an important letter in which we discover a clear meaning,
and in which it is nevertheless said that the meaning is veiled and obscure,
that it is hidden, so that we might read the letter without seeing it, and
interpret it without understanding it, what must we think but that here is a
cipher with a double meaning, and the more so if we find obvious
contradictions in the literal meaning? The prophets have clearly said that
Israel would be always loved by God and that the law would be eternal; and
they have said that their meaning would not be understood and that it was
veiled.
How greatly, then, ought we to
value those who interpret the cipher and teach us to understand the hidden
meaning, especially if the principles which they educe are perfectly clear
and natural! This is what Jesus Christ did, and the Apostles. They broke the
seal; He rent the veil, and revealed the spirit. They have taught us through
this that the enemies of man are his passions; that the Redeemer would be
spiritual, and His reign spiritual; that there would be two advents, one in
lowliness to humble the proud, the other in glory to exalt the humble; that
Jesus Christ would be both God and man.
679. Types.—Jesus Christ
opened their mind to understand the Scriptures.
Two great revelations are
these. (1) All things happened to them in types: vere Israelitae, vere
liberi, true bread from Heaven. (2) A God humbled to the Cross. It was
necessary that Christ should suffer in order to enter into glory, “that He
should destroy death through death.” Two advents.
680. Types.—When once this
secret is disclosed, it is impossible not to see it. Let us read the Old
Testament in this light, and let us see if the sacrifices were real; if the
fatherhood of Abraham was the true cause of the friendship of God; and if the
promised land was the true place of rest. No. They are therefore types. Let
us in the same way examine all those ordained ceremonies, all those
commandments which are not of charity, and we shall see that they are types.
All these sacrifices and
ceremonies were then either types or nonsense. Now these are things too clear
and too lofty to be thought nonsense.
To know if the prophets
confined their view in the Old Testament, or saw therein other things.
681. Typical.—The key of the
cipher. Veri adoratores.127 Ecce agnus Dei qui tollit peccata mundi.128(2)
127 John 4. 23. “True
worshippers.”
128(2) John 1. 29. “Behold the
Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.”
682. Is. 1. 21. Change of good
into evil, and the vengeance of God. Is. 10. 1; 26. 20; 28. 1. Miracles: Is.
33. 9; 40. 17; 41. 26; 43. 13.
Jer. 11. 21; 15. 12; 17. 9.
Pravum est cor omnium et incrustabile; quis cognoscet illud?129 that is to say, Who can know
all its evil? For it is already known to be wicked. Ego dominus,130(2) etc.—vii. 14, Faciam domui
huic,131(3) etc. Trust in external sacrifices—7. 22, Quia non sum
locutus,132(4) etc. Outward sacrifice is not the essential point—11. 13,
Secundum numerum,133(5) etc. A multitude of doctrines.
129 “The heart is deceitful above
all things and desperately wicked: who can know it?”
130(2) Is. 44. 24. “I am the
Lord.”
131(3) “I will do unto this
house.”
132(4) “For I spoke not unto your
fathers.”
133(5) “According to the number.”
Is. 44. 20-24; 54. 8; 63.
12-17; 66. 17. Jer. 2. 35; 4. 22-24; 5. 4, 29-31; 6. 16; 22. 15-17.
683. Types.—The letter kills.
All happened in types. Here is the cipher which Saint Paul gives us. Christ
must suffer. An humiliated God. Circumcision of the heart, true fasting, true
sacrifice, a true temple. The prophets have shown that all these must be
spiritual.
Not the meat which perishes,
but that which does not perish.
“Ye shall be free indeed.”
Then the other freedom was only a type of freedom.
“I am the true bread from
Heaven.”
684. Contradiction.—We can
only describe a good character by reconciling all contrary qualities, and it
is not enough to keep up a series of harmonious qualities, without
reconciling contradictory ones. To understand the meaning of an author, we
must make all the contrary passages agree.
Thus, to understand Scripture,
we must have a meaning in which all the contrary passages are reconciled. It
is not enough to have one which suits many concurring passages; but it is
necessary to have one which reconciles even contradictory passages.
Every author has a meaning in
which all the contradictory passages agree, or he has no meaning at all. We
cannot affirm the latter of Scripture and the prophets; they undoubtedly are
full of good sense. We must, then, seek for a meaning which reconciles all
discrepancies.
The true meaning, then, is not
that of the Jews; but in Jesus Christ all the contradictions are reconciled.
The Jews could not reconcile
the cessation of the royalty and principality, foretold by Hosea, with the
prophecy of Jacob.
If we take the law, the
sacrifices, and the kingdom as realities, we cannot reconcile all the
passages. They must then necessarily be only types. We cannot even reconcile
the passages of the same author, nor of the same book, nor sometimes of the
same chapter, which indicates copiously what was the meaning of the author.
As when Ezekiel, chap. 20., Says that man will not live by the commandments
of God and will live by them.
685. Types.—If the law and the
sacrifices are the truth, it must please God, and must not displease Him. If
they are types, they must be both pleasing and displeasing.
Now in all the Scripture they
are both pleasing and displeasing. It is said that the law shall be changed;
that the sacrifice shall be changed; that they shall be without law, without
a prince, and without a sacrifice; that a new covenant shall be made; that
the law shall be renewed; that the precepts which they have received are not
good; that their sacrifices are abominable; that God has demanded none of
them.
It is said, on the contrary,
that the law shall abide for ever; that this covenant shall be for ever; that
sacrifice shall be eternal; that the sceptre shall never depart from among
them, because it shall not depart from them till the eternal King comes.
Do all these passages indicate
what is real? No. Do they then indicate what is typical? No, but what is
either real or typical. But the first passages, excluding as they do reality,
indicate that all this is only typical.
All these passages together
cannot be applied to reality; all can be said to be typical; therefore they
are not spoken of reality, but of the type.
Agnus occisus est ab origine
mundi.134 A sacrificing judge.
134 Rev. 13. 8. “The Lambs slain
from the foundation of the world.”
686. Contradictions.—The
sceptre till the Messiah—without king or prince.
The eternal law—changed.
The eternal covenant—a new
covenant.
Good laws—bad precepts.
Ezekiel.
687. Types.—When the word of
God, which is really true, is false literally, it is true spiritually. Sede a
dextris meis:135 this is false literally, therefore it is true spiritually.
135 Ps. 109. 1. “ Sit then at my
right hand.”
In these expressions, God is
spoken of after the manner of men; and this means nothing else but that the
intention which men have in giving a seat at their right hand, God will have
also. It is then an indication of the intention of God, not of His manner of
carrying it out.
Thus when it is said, “God has
received the odour of your incense, and will in recompense give you a rich
land,” that is equivalent to saying that the same intention which a man would
have, who, pleased with your perfumes, should in recompense give you a rich
land, God will have towards you, because you have had the same intention as a
man has towards him to whom he presents perfumes. So iratus est, a “jealous
God,” etc. For, the things of God being inexpressible, they cannot be spoken
of otherwise, and the Church makes use of them even to-day: Quia confortavit
seras,136 etc.
136 Ps. 147. 13. Quoniam not
quia. “For he hath strengthened the bars.”
It is not allowable to
attribute to Scripture the meaning which is not revealed to us that it has.
Thus, to say that the closed mem of Isaiah signifies six hundred, has not
been revealed. It might be said that the final tsade and he deficientes may
signify mysteries. But it is not allowable to say so, and still less to say
this is the way of the philosopher’s stone. But we say that the literal
meaning is not the true meaning, because the prophets have themselves said
so.
688. I do not say that the mem
is mystical.
689. Moses (Deut. 30) Promises
that God will circumcise their heart to render them capable of loving Him.
690. One saying of David, or
of Moses, as for instance that “God will circumcise the heart,” enables us to
judge of their spirit. If all their other expressions were ambiguous and left
us in doubt whether they were philosophers or Christians, one saying of this
kind would in fact determine all the rest, as one sentence of Epictetus
decides the meaning of all the rest to be the opposite. So far ambiguity
exists, but not afterwards.
691. If one of two persons,
who are telling silly stories, uses language with a double meaning,
understood in his own circle, while the other uses it with only one meaning,
any one not in the secret, who hears them both talk in this manner, will pass
upon them the same judgment. But, if, afterwards, in the rest of their
conversation one says angelic things, and the other always dull commonplaces,
he will judge that the one spoke in mysteries, and not the other; the one
having sufficiently shown that he is incapable of such foolishness and
capable of being mysterious; and the other that he is incapable of mystery
and capable of foolishness.
The Old Testament is a cipher.
692. There are some that see clearly
that man has no other enemy than lust, which turns him from God, and not God;
and that he has no other good than God, and not a rich land. Let those who
believe that the good of man is in the flesh, and evil in what turns him away
from sensual pleasures, satiate themselves with them, and die in them. But
let those who seek God with all their heart, who are only troubled at not
seeing Him, who desire only to possess Him and have as enemies only those who
turn them away from Him, who are grieved at seeing themselves surrounded and
overwhelmed with such enemies, take comfort. I proclaim to them happy news.
There exists a Redeemer for them. I shall show Him to them. I shall show that
there is a God for them. I shall not show Him to others. I shall make them
see that a Messiah has been promised, who should deliver them from their
enemies, and that One has come to free them from their iniquities, but not
from their enemies.
When David foretold that the
Messiah would deliver His people from their enemies, one can believe that in
the flesh these would be the Egyptians; and then I cannot show that the
prophecy was fulfilled. But one can well believe also that the enemies would
be their sins; for indeed the Egyptians were not their enemies, but their
sins were so. This word enemies is, therefore, ambiguous. But if he says
elsewhere, as he does, that He will deliver His people from their sins, as
indeed do Isaiah and others, the ambiguity is removed, and the double meaning
of enemies is reduced to the simple meaning of iniquities. For if he had sins
in his mind, he could well denote them as enemies; but if he thought of
enemies, he could not designate them as iniquities.
Now Moses, David, and Isaiah
used the same terms. Who will say, then, that they have not the same meaning
and that David’s meaning, which is plainly iniquities when he spoke of
enemies, was not the same as that of Moses when speaking of enemies?
Daniel (ix)
prays for the deliverance of the people from the captivity of their enemies.
But he was thinking of sins, and, to show this, he says that Gabriel came to
tell him that his prayer was heard, and that there were only seventy weeks to
wait, after which the people would be freed from iniquity, sin would have an
end, and the Redeemer, the Holy of Holies, would bring eternal justice, not
legal, but eternal.
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