Fulfilmentin Passion and Resurrection unseen; in Church seen 9 NON VI 8. 16. 17. 18. 23. 24. saw not what was foretold concerning the wonderful works QUÆ of Christ, Come ye, and see the works of the Lord, what DENTUR wonders He hath set upon the earth: but ye see that which Ps.46,8. was foretold, The Lord said unto Me, My Son art Thou, IPs. 2, 7. have this day begotten Thee; demand of Me and I will give Heb. 1, Thee nations as Thy inheritance, and as Thy possession the 5; 5,5. Acts13, bounds of the earth. Ye saw not that which was foretold 33. and fulfilled concerning the Passion of Christ, They pierced Ps. 22, My hands and My feet, they numbered all My bones; but they themselves regarded and beheld Me; they divided among them John 19, My garments, and upon My vesture they cast the lot; but ye see that which was in the same Psalm foretold, and now is clearly fulfilled; All the ends of the earth shall remember Ps. 22, and be turned unto the Lord, and all the kindreds of the 27.28. nations shall worship in His sight; for the kingdom is the Lord's, and He shall rule over the nations. Ye saw not what was foretold and fulfilled concerning the Resurrection of Christ, the Psalm speaking, in His Person, first concerning His betrayer and persecutors: They went forth out of doors, Ps. 41, and spake together: against Me whispered all My enemies, 6-8. against Me thought they evil for Me; they set in order an unrighteous word against Me. Where, to shew that they availed nothing by slaying Him Who was about to rise again, He adds and says; What? will not He, that sleeps, add this, that He rise again? And a little after, when He had foretold, by means of the same prophecy, concerning His betrayer himself, that which is written in the Gospel also, He that did eat of My bread, enlarged his heel upon Me, P. 41, that is, trampled Me under foot: He straightway added, 9. 10. But do Thou, O Lord, have mercy upon Me, and raise Thou Me up again, and I shall repay them. This was fulfilled, Christ slept and awoke, that is, rose again: Who through the same prophecy in another Psalm says, I slept and took Ps. 4, 8. my rest; and I rose again, for the Lord will uphold Me. But this ye saw not, but ye see His Church, concerning whom it is written in like manner, and fulfilled, O Lord My Jer. 16, God, the nations shall come unto Thee from the extremity of the earth and shall say, Truly our fathers worshipped lying images, and there is not in them any profit. This certainly, whether ye will or no, ye behold; even although 19. 10 Fall of idols, worship every where. Past, Present, and Future DEFIDE ye yet believe, that there either is, or was, in those idols RERUM some profit; yet certainly unnumbered peoples of the nations, 19. 20.c 11. after having left, or cast away, or broken in pieces such like Jer. 16, vanities, ye have heard say, Truly our fathers worshipped lying images, and there is not in them any profit; shall a man make gods, and, lo, they are no gods? Nor think that it was foretold that the nations should come unto some one place of God, in that it was said, Unto Thee shall the nations come from the extremity of the earth. Understand, if you can, that unto the God of the Christians, Who is the Supreme and True God, the peoples of the nations come, not by walking, but by believing. For the same thing was by Zeph. 2, another Prophet thus foretold, The Lord, saith he, shall prevail against them, and shall utterly destroy all the gods of the nations of the earth: and all the isles of the nations shall worship Him, each man from his place. Whereas the one says, Unto Thee all nations shall come; this the other says, They shall worship Him, each man from his place." Therefore they shall come unto Him, not departing from their own place, because believing in Him they shall find Him in their hearts. Ye saw not what was foretold and Ps. 108, fulfilled concerning the ascension of Christ; Be Thou exalted above the Heavens, O God; but ye see what follows immediately after, And above all the earth Thy Glory. Those things concerning Christ already done and past, all of them ye have not seen; but these things present in His Church ye deny not that ye see. Both things we point out to you as foretold; but the fulfilment of both we are therefore unable to point out for you to see, because we cannot bring back into sight things past. 5. V. 8. But as the wills of friends, which are not seen, are believed through tokens which are seen; thus the Church, which is now seen, is, of all things which are not seen, but which are shewn forth in those writings wherein itself also is foretold, an index of the past, and a herald of the future. Because both things past, which cannot now be seen, and things present which cannot be seen all of them, at the time at which they were foretold, no one of these could then be seen. Therefore, since they have begun to come to pass as they were foretold, from those things which in the Church. Witness, and foretold state of the Jews. 11 NON VI DENTUR have come to pass unto those which are coming to pass, QUÆ those things which were foretold concerning Christ and the Church have run on in an ordered series: unto which series these pertain concerning the day of Judgment, concerning the resurrection of the dead, concerning the eternal damnation of the ungodly with the devil, and concerning the eternal recompense of the godly with Christ, things which, foretold in like manner, are yet to come. Why therefore should we not believe the first and the last things which we see not, when we have, as witnesses of both, the things between, which we see, and in the books of the Prophets either hear or read both the first things, and the things between, and the last things, foretold before they came to pass? Unless haply unbelieving men judge those things to have been written by Christians, in order that those things which they already believed might have greater weight of authority, if they should be thought to have been promised before they came. 9. If they suspect this, let them examine carefully the vi. copies of our enemies the Jews. There let them read those 'codices things of which we have made mention, foretold concerning Christ in Whom we believe, and the Church whom we discern from the toilsome beginning of faith even unto the eternal blessedness of the kingdom. But, whilst they read, let them not wonder that they, whose are the books, understand not by reason of the darkness of enmity. For that they would not understand was foretold beforehand by the same Prophets; which it behoved should be fulfilled in like manner as the rest, and that by the secret and just judgment of God a due punishment should be rendered to their deserts. He indeed, Whom they crucified, and unto Whom they gave gall and vinegar, although when hanging upon the Tree, by reason of those whom He had been about to lead forth from darkness into light, He said unto the Father, Forgive them, Luke23, for they know not what they do; yet by reason of those whom through more hidden causes He had been about to desert, by the Prophet so long before foretold, They gave Me Ps. 69, gall for My meat, and in My thirst they gave Me vinegar to drink; let their table become a snare before them, and a recompense, and a stumbling-block: let their eyes be 34. 21-23. RERUM 12 The Jews preserved to attest their Scriptures. DE FIDE darkened that they see not, and ever bow Thou down their back. Thus, having with them the clearest testimonies of our cause, they walk round about with eyes darkened, that by their means those testimonies may be proved, wherein they themselves are disapproved. Therefore was it brought to pass, that they should not be so blotted out, as that this same sect should altogether exist not: but it was scattered abroad upon the earth, in order that, carrying with it the prophecies of the grace conferred upon us, more surely to convince unbelievers, it might every where profit us. And this very thing which I assert, receive ye after what manner it was Ps. 59, prophesied of: Slay them not, saith He, lest at any time they forget Thy law, but scatter them abroad in Thy might. Therefore they were not slain, in that they forgot not those things which were read and heard among them. For if they were altogether to forget, albeit they understand not, the Holy Scriptures, they would be slain in the Jewish ritual itself; because, when the Jews should know nothing of the Law and of the Prophets, they would be unable to profit Therefore they were not slain, but scattered abroad; in order that, although they should not have in faith, whence they might be saved; yet they should retain in their memory, whence we might be helped; in their books our supporters, in their hearts our enemies, in their copies our witnesses. 11. vii. us. 10. Although, even if there went before no testimonies concerning Christ and the Church, whom ought it not to move unto belief, that the Divine brightness hath on a sudden shone on the human race, when we see, (the false gods now abandoned, and their images every where broken in pieces, their temples overthrown or changed into other uses, and so many vain rites plucked out by the roots from the most inveterate usage of men,) the One True God invoked by all? And that this hath been brought to pass by One Man, by men mocked, seized, bound, scourged, smitten with the palms. of the hand, reviled, crucified, slain: His disciples, (whom idiotas He chose common men1, and unlearned, and fishermen, and publicans, that by their means His teaching might be set forth,) proclaiming His Resurrection, His Ascension, which they asserted that they had seen, and being filled with the Holy Ghost, sounded forth this Gospel, in all tongues which Success of the Gospel, as foretold, proves God's Name. 13 NON VI- ' when.' they had not learned. And of them who heard them, part QUE believed, part, believing not, fiercely withstood them who preached. Thus while they were faithful even unto death for the truth, strove not by returning evil, but by enduring, overcame not by killing, but by dying; thus was the world changed unto this religion, thus unto this Gospel were the hearts of mortals turned, of men and women, of small and great, of learned and unlearned, of wise and foolish, of mighty and weak, of noble and ignoble, of high and low, and throughout all nations the Church shed abroad so increased, that even against the Catholic faith itself there arises not any perverse sect, any kind of error, which is found so to oppose itself to Christian truth, as that it affect not and go not about to glory in the name of Christ: which very error would not be suffered to spring up throughout the earth, were it not that the very gainsaying exercised an wholesome discipline. How would The Crucified have availed so' lit. greatly, had He not been God that took upon Him Man, even if He had through the Prophet foretold no such things to come? But when now this so great mystery of godliness. hath had its prophets and heralds going before, by whose divine voices it was afore proclaimed; and when it hath come in such manner as it was afore proclaimed, who is there so mad as to assert that the Apostles lied concerning Christ, of Whom they preached that He was come in such manner as the Prophets foretold afore that He should come, which Prophets were not silent as to true things to come concerning the Apostles themselves? For concerning these they had said, There is neither speech nor language, whereof Ps. 19, their voices are not heard; their sound went out into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world. And this at any rate we see fulfilled in the world, although we have not yet seen Christ in the flesh. Who therefore, unless blinded by amazing madness, or hard and steeled by amazing obstinacy, would be unwilling to put faith in the sacred Scriptures, which have foretold the faith of the whole world? 3.4. 11. But you, beloved, who possess this faith, or who have viii. begun now newly to have it, let it be nourished and increase in For as things temporal have come, so long before |