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<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Pascal's Pensées, by Blaise Pascal.</title>
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<body><p>The Old Testament contained 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, <i>cum amaritudinibus</i>.<a id="FNanchor_246_250"/><a href="@public@vhost@g@gutenberg@html@files@18269@[email protected]#Footnote_246_250" class="fnanchor pginternal">[246]</a></p>
<p><i>Singularis sum ego donec transeam.</i><a id="FNanchor_247_251"/><a href="@public@vhost@g@gutenberg@html@files@18269@[email protected]#Footnote_247_251" class="fnanchor pginternal">[247]</a>—Jesus Christ before His death was almost the only martyr.</p>
<h4 id="pgepubid00689"><a id="p_666"/>666</h4>
<p><i>Typical.</i>—The expressions, sword, shield. <i>Potentissime.</i></p>
<h4 id="pgepubid00690"><a id="p_667"/>667</h4>
<p>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 [<i>mercy</i>], but of the justice of God, if they are not [<i>those of</i>] Jesus Christ. He has adopted our sins, and has [<i>admitted</i>] us into union [<i>with Him</i>], for virtues are [<i>His own, and</i>] sins are foreign to Him; while virtues <i>[are]</i> foreign to us, and our sins are our own.</p>
<p>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 [<i>God</i>]; all that He wills is good and right to us, all that He does not will is [<i>bad</i>].</p>
<p>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<a id="Page_188" class="pageno" title="[Pg 188]"/> as the absence of God's will, which alone is all goodness and all justice, renders it unjust and wrong.</p>
<h4 id="pgepubid00691"><a id="p_668"/>668</h4>
<p>To change the type, because of our weakness.</p>
<h4 id="pgepubid00692"><a id="p_669"/>669</h4>
<p><i>Types.</i>—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.</p>
<p>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<a id="FNanchor_248_252"/><a href="@public@vhost@g@gutenberg@html@files@18269@[email protected]#Footnote_248_252" class="fnanchor pginternal">[248]</a> 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.<a id="FNanchor_249_253"/><a href="@public@vhost@g@gutenberg@html@files@18269@[email protected]#Footnote_249_253" class="fnanchor pginternal">[249]</a></p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>All that tends not to charity is figurative.</p>
<p>The sole aim of the Scripture is charity.</p>
<p>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.<a id="Page_189" class="pageno" title="[Pg 189]"/></p>
<p>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,<a id="FNanchor_250_254"/><a href="@public@vhost@g@gutenberg@html@files@18269@[email protected]#Footnote_250_254" class="fnanchor pginternal">[250]</a> and we love variety; and God satisfies both by these varieties, which lead to the one thing needful.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>The Rabbis take the breasts of the Spouse<a id="FNanchor_251_255"/><a href="@public@vhost@g@gutenberg@html@files@18269@[email protected]#Footnote_251_255" class="fnanchor pginternal">[251]</a> for types, and all that does not express the only end they have, namely, temporal good.</p>
<p>And Christians take even the Eucharist as a type of the glory at which they aim.</p>
<h4 id="pgepubid00693"><a id="p_670"/>670</h4>
<p>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.<a id="FNanchor_252_256"/><a href="@public@vhost@g@gutenberg@html@files@18269@[email protected]#Footnote_252_256" class="fnanchor pginternal">[252]</a></p>
<h4 id="pgepubid00694"><a id="p_671"/>671</h4>
<p><i>A formal point.</i>—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.<a id="FNanchor_253_257"/><a href="@public@vhost@g@gutenberg@html@files@18269@[email protected]#Footnote_253_257" class="fnanchor pginternal">[253]</a></p>
<p>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.</p>
<h4 id="pgepubid00695"><a id="p_672"/>672</h4>
<p><i>Fac secundum exemplar quod tibi ostensum est in monte.</i><a id="FNanchor_254_258"/><a href="@public@vhost@g@gutenberg@html@files@18269@[email protected]#Footnote_254_258" class="fnanchor pginternal">[254]</a>— 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 Jewish religion, which was the type of it.</p>
<p>Among the Jews the truth was only typified; in heaven it is revealed.</p>
<p>In the Church it is hidden, and recognised by its resemblance to the type.</p>
<p>The type has been made according to the truth, and the truth has been recognised according to the type.<a id="Page_190" class="pageno" title="[Pg 190]"/></p>
<p>Saint Paul<a id="FNanchor_255_259"/><a href="@public@vhost@g@gutenberg@html@files@18269@[email protected]#Footnote_255_259" class="fnanchor pginternal">[255]</a> 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.</p>
<h4 id="pgepubid00696"><a id="p_673"/>673</h4>
<p><i>Typical.</i>—"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.<a id="FNanchor_256_260"/><a href="@public@vhost@g@gutenberg@html@files@18269@[email protected]#Footnote_256_260" class="fnanchor pginternal">[256]</a></p>
<h4 id="pgepubid00697"><a id="p_674"/>674</h4>
<p>... 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.</p>
<p>For nature is an image of Grace, and visible miracles are images of the invisible. <i>Ut sciatis ... tibi dico: Surge.</i></p>
<p>Isaiah says that Redemption will be as the passage of the Red Sea.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Thus the Jews had miracles and prophecies, which they say fulfilled and the teaching of their law was to worship and<a id="Page_191" class="pageno" title="[Pg 191]"/> 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.</p>
<h4 id="pgepubid00698"><a id="p_675"/>675</h4>
<p>The veil, which is upon these books for the Jews, is there also for evil Christians, and for all who do not hate themselves.</p>
<p>But how well disposed men are to understand them and to know Jesus Christ, when they truly hate themselves!</p>
<h4 id="pgepubid00699"><a id="p_676"/>676</h4>
<p>A type conveys absence and presence, pleasure and pain.</p>
<p>A cipher has a double meaning, one clear, and one in which it is said that the meaning is hidden.</p>
<h4 id="pgepubid00700"><a id="p_677"/>677</h4>
<p><i>Types.</i>—A portrait conveys absence and presence, pleasure and pain. The reality excludes absence and pain.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.?</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>How greatly then ought we to value those who interpret the<a id="Page_192" class="pageno" title="[Pg 192]"/> 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.</p>
<h4 id="pgepubid00701"><a id="p_678"/>678</h4>
<p><i>Types.</i>—Jesus Christ opened their mind to understand the Scriptures.</p>
<p>Two great revelations are these. (1) All things happened to them in types: <i>vere Israëlitæ, vere liberi</i>, 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."<a id="FNanchor_257_261"/><a href="@public@vhost@g@gutenberg@html@files@18269@[email protected]#Footnote_257_261" class="fnanchor pginternal">[257]</a> Two advents.</p>
<h4 id="pgepubid00702"><a id="p_679"/>679</h4>
<p><i>Types.</i>—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.</p>
<p>All these sacrifices and ceremonies were then either types or nonsense. Now these are things too clear, and too lofty, to be thought nonsense.</p>
<p>To know if the prophets confined their view in the Old Testament, or saw therein other things.</p>
<h4 id="pgepubid00703"><a id="p_680"/>680</h4>
<p><i>Typical.</i>—The key of the cipher. <i>Veri adoratores.</i><a id="FNanchor_258_262"/><a href="@public@vhost@g@gutenberg@html@files@18269@[email protected]#Footnote_258_262" class="fnanchor pginternal">[258]</a>—<i>Ecce agnus Dei qui tollit peccata mundi</i>.<a id="FNanchor_259_263"/><a href="@public@vhost@g@gutenberg@html@files@18269@[email protected]#Footnote_259_263" class="fnanchor pginternal">[259]</a></p>
<h4 id="pgepubid00704"><a id="p_681"/>681</h4>
<p>Is. i, 21. Change of good into evil, and the vengeance of God. Is. x, I; xxvi, 20; xxviii, I. Miracles: Is. xxxiii, 9; xl, 17; xli, 26; xliii, 13.</p>
<p>Jer. xi, 21; xv, 12; xvii, 9. <i>Pravum est cor omnium et<a id="Page_193" class="pageno" title="[Pg 193]"/> incrustabile; quis cognoscet illud?</i> that is to say, Who can know all its evil? For it is already known to be wicked. <i>Ego dominus</i>, etc.—vii, 14, <i>Faciam domui huic</i>, etc. Trust in external sacrifices—vii, 22, <i>Quia non sum locutus</i>, etc. Outward sacrifice is not the essential point—xi, 13, <i>Secundum numerum</i>, etc. A multitude of doctrines.</p>
<p>Is. xliv, 20-24; liv, 8; lxiii, 12-17; lxvi, 17. Jer. ii, 35; iv, 22-24; v, 4, 29-31; vi, 16; xxiii, 15-17.</p>
<h4 id="pgepubid00705"><a id="p_682"/>682</h4>
<p><i>Types</i>,—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.</p>
<p>Not the meat which perishes, but that which does not perish.</p>
<p>"Ye shall be free indeed."<a id="FNanchor_260_264"/><a href="@public@vhost@g@gutenberg@html@files@18269@[email protected]#Footnote_260_264" class="fnanchor pginternal">[260]</a> Then the other freedom was only a type of freedom.</p>
<p>"I am the true bread from Heaven."<a id="FNanchor_261_265"/><a href="@public@vhost@g@gutenberg@html@files@18269@[email protected]#Footnote_261_265" class="fnanchor pginternal">[261]</a></p>
<h4 id="pgepubid00706"><a id="p_683"/>683</h4>
<p><i>Contradiction.</i>—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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>The true meaning then is not that of the Jews; but in Jesus Christ all the contradictions are reconciled.</p>
<p>The Jews could not reconcile the cessation of the royalty and principality, foretold by Hosea, with the prophecy of Jacob.</p>
<p>If we take the law, the sacrifices, and the kingdom as realities, we cannot reconcile all the passages. They must then necessarily<a id="Page_194" class="pageno" title="[Pg 194]"/> 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, xx, says that man will not live by the commandments of God and will live by them.</p>
<h4 id="pgepubid00707"><a id="p_684"/>684</h4>
<p><i>Types.</i>—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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p><i>Agnus occisus est ab origine mundi.</i><a id="FNanchor_262_266"/><a href="@public@vhost@g@gutenberg@html@files@18269@[email protected]#Footnote_262_266" class="fnanchor pginternal">[262]</a> A sacrificing judge.</p>
<h4 id="pgepubid00708"><a id="p_685"/>685</h4>
<p><i>Contradictions.</i>—The sceptre till the Messiah—without king or prince.</p>
<p>The eternal law—changed.</p>
<p>The eternal covenant—a new covenant.</p>
<p>Good laws—bad precepts. Ezekiel.</p>
<h4 id="pgepubid00709"><a id="p_686"/>686</h4>
<p><i>Types.</i>—When the word of God, which is really true, is false literally, it is true spiritually. <i>Sede a dextris meis:</i><a id="FNanchor_263_267"/><a href="@public@vhost@g@gutenberg@html@files@18269@[email protected]#Footnote_263_267" class="fnanchor pginternal">[263]</a> this is false literally, therefore it is true spiritually.</p>
<p>In these expressions, God is spoken of after the manner of<a id="Page_195" class="pageno" title="[Pg 195]"/> 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.</p>
<p>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 <i>iratus est</i>, a "jealous God,"<a id="FNanchor_264_268"/><a href="@public@vhost@g@gutenberg@html@files@18269@[email protected]#Footnote_264_268" class="fnanchor pginternal">[264]</a> etc. For, the things of God being inexpressible, they cannot be spoken of otherwise, and the Church makes use of them even to-day: <i>Quia confortavil seras</i>,<a id="FNanchor_265_269"/><a href="@public@vhost@g@gutenberg@html@files@18269@[email protected]#Footnote_265_269" class="fnanchor pginternal">[265]</a> etc.</p>
<p>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 <i>mem</i><a id="FNanchor_266_270"/><a href="@public@vhost@g@gutenberg@html@files@18269@[email protected]#Footnote_266_270" class="fnanchor pginternal">[266]</a> of Isaiah signifies six hundred, has not been revealed. It might be said that the final <i>tsade</i> and <i>he deficientes</i> 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.</p>
<h4 id="pgepubid00710"><a id="p_687"/>687</h4>
<p>I do not say that the <i>mem</i> is mystical.</p>
<h4 id="pgepubid00711"><a id="p_688"/>688</h4>
<p>Moses (Deut. xxx) promises that God will circumcise their heart to render them capable of loving Him.</p>
<h4 id="pgepubid00712"><a id="p_689"/>689</h4>
<p>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.</p>
<h4 id="pgepubid00713"><a id="p_690"/>690</h4>
<p>If one of two persons, who are telling silly stories, uses language with a double meaning, understood in his own circle, while the<a id="Page_196" class="pageno" title="[Pg 196]"/> 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.</p>
<p>The Old Testament is a cipher.</p>
<h4 id="pgepubid00714"><a id="p_691"/>691</h4>
<p>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, [<i>satiate</i>] themselves with them, and [<i>die</i>] 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.</p>
<p>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.<a id="Page_197" class="pageno" title="[Pg 197]"/></p>
<p>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 [<i>that of</i>] Moses when speaking of enemies?</p>
<p>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 <i>eternal</i> justice, not legal, but eternal.</p>
<hr class="c2"/>
<p><a id="Page_198" class="pageno" title="[Pg 198]"/></p>
<h2 id="pgepubid00715"><a id="SECTION_XI"/>SECTION XI</h2>
<h3 id="pgepubid00716">THE PROPHECIES</h3>
<h4 id="pgepubid00717"><a id="p_692"/>692</h4>
<p>When I see the blindness and the wretchedness of man, when I regard the whole silent universe, and man without light, left to himself, and, as it were, lost in this corner of the universe, without knowing who has put him there, what he has come to do, what will become of him at death, and incapable of all knowledge, I become terrified, like a man who should be carried in his sleep to a dreadful desert island, and should awake without knowing where he is, and without means of escape. And thereupon I wonder how people in a condition so wretched do not fall into despair. I see other persons around me of a like nature. I ask them if they are better informed than I am. They tell me that they are not. And thereupon these wretched and lost beings, having looked around them, and seen some pleasing objects, have given and attached themselves to them. For my own part, I have not been able to attach myself to them, and, considering how strongly it appears that there is something else than what I see, I have examined whether this God has not left some sign of Himself.</p>
<p>I see many contradictory religions, and consequently all false save one. Each wants to be believed on its own authority, and threatens unbelievers. I do not therefore believe them. Every one can say this; every one can call himself a prophet. But I see that Christian religion wherein prophecies are fulfilled; and that is what every one cannot do.</p>
<h4 id="pgepubid00718"><a id="p_693"/>693</h4>
<p>And what crowns all this is prediction, so that it should not be said that it is chance which has done it.</p>
<p>Whosoever, having only a week to live, will not find out that it is expedient to believe that all this is not a stroke of chance ...</p>
<p>Now, if the passions had no hold on us, a week and a hundred years would amount to the same thing.<a id="Page_199" class="pageno" title="[Pg 199]"/></p>
<h4 id="pgepubid00719"><a id="p_694"/>694</h4>
<p><i>Prophecies.</i>—Great Pan is dead.<a id="FNanchor_267_271"/><a href="@public@vhost@g@gutenberg@html@files@18269@[email protected]#Footnote_267_271" class="fnanchor pginternal">[267]</a></p>
<h4 id="pgepubid00720"><a id="p_695"/>695</h4>
<p><i>Susceperunt verbum cum omni aviditate, scrutantes Scripturas, si ita se haberent.</i><a id="FNanchor_268_272"/><a href="@public@vhost@g@gutenberg@html@files@18269@[email protected]#Footnote_268_272" class="fnanchor pginternal">[268]</a></p>
<h4 id="pgepubid00721"><a id="p_696"/>696</h4>
<p><i>Prodita lege.</i>—<i>Impleta cerne.</i>—<i>Implenda collige.</i></p>
<h4 id="pgepubid00722"><a id="p_697"/>697</h4>
<p>We understand the prophecies only when we see the events happen. Thus the proofs of retreat, discretion, silence, etc. are proofs only to those who know and believe them.</p>
<p>Joseph so internal in a law so external.</p>
<p>Outward penances dispose to inward, as humiliations to humility. Thus the ...</p>
<h4 id="pgepubid00723"><a id="p_698"/>698</h4>
<p>The synagogue has preceded the church; the Jews, the Christians. The prophets have foretold the Christians; Saint John, Jesus Christ.</p>
<h4 id="pgepubid00724"><a id="p_699"/>699</h4>
<p>It is glorious to see with the eyes of faith the history of Herod and of Cæsar.</p>
<h4 id="pgepubid00725"><a id="p_700"/>700</h4>
<p>The zeal of the Jews for their law and their temple (Josephus, and Philo the Jew, <i>Ad Caïum</i>). What other people had such a zeal? It was necessary they should have it.</p>
<p>Jesus Christ foretold as to the time and the state of the world. The ruler taken from the thigh,<a id="FNanchor_269_273"/><a href="@public@vhost@g@gutenberg@html@files@18269@[email protected]#Footnote_269_273" class="fnanchor pginternal">[269]</a> and the fourth monarchy. How lucky we are to see this light amidst this darkness!</p>
<p>How fine it is to see, with the eyes of faith, Darius and Cyrus, Alexander, the Romans, Pompey and Herod working, without knowing it, for the glory of the Gospel!</p>
<h4 id="pgepubid00726"><a id="p_701"/>701</h4>
<p>Zeal of the Jewish people for the law, especially after there were no more prophets.<a id="Page_200" class="pageno" title="[Pg 200]"/></p>
<h4 id="pgepubid00727"><a id="p_702"/>702</h4>
<p>While the prophets were for maintaining the law, the people were indifferent. But since there have been no more prophets, zeal has succeeded them.</p>
<h4 id="pgepubid00728"><a id="p_703"/>703</h4>
<p>The devil troubled the zeal of the Jews before Jesus Christ, because he would have been their salvation, but not since.</p>
<p>The Jewish people scorned by the Gentiles; the Christian people persecuted.</p>
<h4 id="pgepubid00729"><a id="p_704"/>704</h4>
<p><i>Proof.</i>—Prophecies with their fulfilment; what has preceded and what has followed Jesus Christ.</p>
<h4 id="pgepubid00730"><a id="p_705"/>705</h4>
<p>The prophecies are the strongest proof of Jesus Christ. It is for them also that God has made most provision; for the event which has fulfilled them is a miracle existing since the birth of the Church to the end. So God has raised up prophets during sixteen hundred years, and, during four hundred years afterwards, He has scattered all these prophecies among all the Jews, who carried them into all parts of the world. Such was the preparation for the birth of Jesus Christ, and, as His Gospel was to be believed by all the world, it was not only necessary that there should be prophecies to make it believed, but that these prophecies should exist throughout the whole world, in order to make it embraced by the whole world.</p>
<h4 id="pgepubid00731"><a id="p_706"/>706</h4>
<p>But it was not enough that the prophecies should exist. It was necessary that they should be distributed throughout all places, and preserved throughout all times. And in order that this agreement might not be taken for an effect of chance, it was necessary that this should be foretold.</p>
<p>It is far more glorious for the Messiah that the Jews should be the spectators, and even the instruments of His glory, besides that God had reserved them.</p>
<h4 id="pgepubid00732"><a id="p_707"/>707</h4>
<p><i>Prophecies.</i>—The time foretold by the state of the Jewish people, by the state of the heathen, by the state of the temple, by the number of years.<a id="Page_201" class="pageno" title="[Pg 201]"/></p>
<h4 id="pgepubid00733"><a id="p_708"/>708</h4>
<p>One must be bold to predict the same thing in so many ways. It was necessary that the four idolatrous or pagan monarchies, the end of the kingdom of Judah, and the seventy weeks, should happen at the same time, and all this before the second temple was destroyed.</p>
<h4 id="pgepubid00734"><a id="p_709"/>709</h4>
<p><i>Prophecies.</i>—If one man alone had made a book of predictions about Jesus Christ, as to the time and the manner, and Jesus Christ had come in conformity to these prophecies, this fact would have infinite weight.</p>
<p>But there is much more here. Here is a succession of men during four thousand years, who, consequently and without variation, come, one after another, to foretell this same event. Here is a whole people who announce it, and who have existed for four thousand years, in order to give corporate testimony of the assurances which they have, and from which they cannot be diverted by whatever threats and persecutions people may make against them. This is far more important.</p>
<h4 id="pgepubid00735"><a id="p_710"/>710</h4>
<p><i>Predictions of particular things.</i>—They were strangers in Egypt, without any private property, either in that country or elsewhere. [There was not the least appearance, either of the royalty which had previously existed so long, or of that supreme council of seventy judges which they called the <i>Sanhedrin</i>, and which, having been instituted by Moses, lasted to the time of Jesus Christ. All these things were as far removed from their state at that time as they could be], when Jacob, dying, and blessing his twelve children, declared to them, that they would be proprietors of a great land, and foretold in particular to the family of Judah, that the kings, who would one day rule them, should be of his race; and that all his brethren should be their subjects; [and that even the Messiah, who was to be the expectation of nations, should spring from him; and that the kingship should not be taken away from Judah, nor the ruler and law-giver of his descendants, till the expected Messiah should arrive in his family].</p>
<p>This same Jacob, disposing of this future land as though he had been its ruler, gave a portion to Joseph more than to the others. "I give you," said he, "one part more than to your<a id="Page_202" class="pageno" title="[Pg 202]"/> brothers." And blessing his two children, Ephraim and Manasseh, whom Joseph had presented to him, the elder, Manasseh, on his right, and the young Ephraim on his left, he put his arms crosswise, and placing his right hand on the head of Ephraim, and his left on Manasseh, he blessed them in this manner. And, upon Joseph's representing to him that he was preferring the younger, he replied to him with admirable resolution: "I know it well, my son; but Ephraim will increase more than Manasseh." This has been indeed so true in the result, that, being alone almost as fruitful as the two entire lines which composed a whole kingdom, they have been usually called by the name of Ephraim alone.</p>
<p>This same Joseph, when dying, bade his children carry his bones with them when they should go into that land, to which they only came two hundred years afterwards.</p>
<p>Moses, who wrote all these things so long before they happened, himself assigned to each family portions of that land before they entered it, as though he had been its ruler. [In fact he declared that God was to raise up from their nation and their race a prophet, of whom he was the type; and he foretold them exactly all that was to happen to them in the land which they were to enter after his death, the victories which God would give them, their ingratitude towards God, the punishments which they would receive for it, and the rest of their adventures.] He gave them judges who should make the division. He prescribed the entire form of political government which they should observe, the cities of refuge which they should build, and ...</p>
<h4 id="pgepubid00736"><a id="p_711"/>711</h4>
<p>The prophecies about particular things are mingled with those about the Messiah, so that the prophecies of the Messiah should not be without proofs, nor the special prophecies without fruit.</p>
<h4 id="pgepubid00737"><a id="p_712"/>712</h4>
<p><i>Perpetual captivity of the Jews.</i>—Jer. xi, 11: "I will bring evil upon Judah from which they shall not be able to escape."</p>
<p><i>Types.</i>—Is. v: "The Lord had a vineyard, from which He looked for grapes; and it brought forth only wild grapes. I will therefore lay it waste, and destroy it; the earth shall only bring forth thorns, and I will forbid the clouds from <i>[raining]</i> upon it. The vineyard of the Lord is the house of Israel, and<a id="Page_203" class="pageno" title="[Pg 203]"/> the men of Judah His pleasant plant. I looked that they should do justice, and they bring forth only iniquities."</p>
<p>Is. viii: "Sanctify the Lord with fear and trembling; let Him be your only dread, and He shall be to you for a sanctuary, but for a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and many among them shall stumble against that stone, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and perish. Hide my words, and cover my law for my disciples.</p>
<p>"I will then wait in patience upon the Lord that hideth and concealeth Himself from the house of Jacob."</p>
<p>Is. xxix: "Be amazed and wonder, people of Israel; stagger and stumble, and be drunken, but not with wine; stagger, but not with strong drink. For the Lord hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep. He will close your eyes; He will cover your princes and your prophets that have visions." (Daniel xii: "The wicked shall not understand, but the wise shall understand." Hosea, the last chapter, the last verse, after many temporal blessings, says: "Who is wise, and he shall understand these things, etc.?") "And the visions of all the prophets are become unto you as a sealed book, which men deliver to one that is learned, and who can read; and he saith, I cannot read it, for it is sealed. And when the book is delivered to them that are not learned, they say I am not learned.</p>
<p>"Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me,"—there is the reason and the cause of it; for if they adored God in their hearts, they would understand the prophecies,— "and their fear towards me is taught by the precept of man. Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder; for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and their understanding shall be [hid]."</p>
<p><i>Prophecies. Proofs of Divinity.</i>—Is. xli: "Shew the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that ye are gods: we will incline our heart unto your words. Teach us the things that have been at the beginning, and declare us things for to come.</p>
<p>"By this we shall know that ye are gods. Yea, do good or do evil, if you can. Let us then behold it and reason together. Behold, ye are of nothing, and only an abomination, etc. Who," (among contemporary writers), "hath declared from the<a id="Page_204" class="pageno" title="[Pg 204]"/> beginning that we may know of the things done from the beginning and origin? that we may say, You are righteous. There is none that teacheth us, yea, there is none that declareth the future."</p>
<p>Is. xlii: "I am the Lord, and my glory will I not give to another. I have foretold the things which have come to pass, and things that are to come do I declare. Sing unto God a new song in all the earth.</p>
<p>"Bring forth the blind people that have eyes and see not, and the deaf that have ears and hear not. Let all the nations be gathered together. Who among them can declare this, and shew us former things, and things to come? Let them bring forth their witnesses, that they may be justified; or let them hear, and say, It is truth.</p>
<p>"Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen; that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am He.</p>
<p>"I have declared, and have saved, and I alone have done wonders before your eyes: ye are my witnesses, said the Lord, that I am God.</p>
<p>"For your sake I have brought down the forces of the Babylonians. I am the Lord, your Holy One and creator.</p>
<p>"I have made a way in the sea, and a path in the mighty waters. I am He that drowned and destroyed for ever the mighty enemies that have resisted you.</p>
<p>"Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old.</p>
<p>"Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.</p>
<p>"This people have I formed for myself; I have established them to shew forth my praise, etc.</p>
<p>"I, even I, am He that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins. Put in remembrance your ingratitude: see thou, if thou mayest be justified. Thy first father hath sinned, and thy teachers have transgressed against me."</p>
<p>Is. xliv: "I am the first, and I am the last, saith the Lord. Let him who will equal himself to me, declare the order of things since I appointed the ancient people, and the things that are coming. Fear ye not: have I not told you all these things? Ye are my witnesses."<a id="Page_205" class="pageno" title="[Pg 205]"/></p>
<p><i>Prophecy of Cyrus.</i>—Is. xlv, 4: "For Jacob's sake, mine elect, I have called thee by thy name."</p>
<p>Is. xlv, 21: "Come and let us reason together. Who hath declared this from ancient time? Who hath told it from that time? Have not I, the Lord?"</p>
<p>Is. xlvi: "Remember the former things of old, and know there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure."</p>
<p>Is. xlii: "Behold, the former things are come to pass, and new things do I declare; before they spring forth I tell you of them."</p>
<p>Is. xlviii, 3: "I have declared the former things from the beginning; I did them suddenly; and they came to pass. Because I know that thou art obstinate, that thy spirit is rebellious, and thy brow brass; I have even declared it to thee before it came to pass: lest thou shouldst say that it was the work of thy gods, and the effect of their commands.</p>
<p>"Thou hast seen all this; and will not ye declare it? I have shewed thee new things from this time, even hidden things, and thou didst not know them. They are created now, and not from the beginning; I have kept them hidden from thee; lest thou shouldst say, Behold, I knew them.</p>
<p>"Yea, thou knewest not; yea, thou heardest not; yea, from that time that thine ear was not opened: for I knew that thou couldst deal very treacherously, and wast called a transgressor from the womb."</p>
<p><i>Reprobation of the Jews and conversion of the Gentiles.</i>—Is. lxv: "I am sought of them that asked not for me; I am found of them that sought me not; I said, Behold me, behold me, behold me, unto a nation that did not call upon my name.</p>
<p>"I have spread out my hands all the day unto an unbelieving people, which walketh in a way that was not good, after their own thoughts; a people that provoketh me to anger continually by the sins they commit in my face; that sacrificeth to idols, etc.</p>
<p>"These shall be scattered like smoke in the day of my wrath, etc.</p>
<p>"Your iniquities, and the iniquities of your fathers, will I assemble together, and will recompense you for all according to your works.</p>
<p>"Thus saith the Lord, As the new wine is found in the cluster, and one saith, Destroy it not, for a blessing is in it [and the<a id="Page_206" class="pageno" title="[Pg 206]"/> promise of fruit]: for my servants' sake I will not destroy all Israel.</p>
<p>"Thus I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob and out of Judah, an inheritor of my mountains, and mine elect and my servants shall inherit it, and my fertile and abundant plains; but I will destroy all others, because you have forgotten your God to serve strange gods. I called, and ye did not answer; I spake, and ye did not hear; and ye did choose the thing which I forbade.</p>
<p>"Therefore thus saith the Lord, Behold, my servants shall eat, but ye shall be hungry; my servants shall rejoice, but ye shall be ashamed; my servants shall sing for joy of heart, but ye shall cry and howl for vexation of spirit.</p>
<p>"And ye shall leave your name for a curse unto my chosen: for the Lord shall slay thee, and call His servants by another name, that he who blesseth himself in the earth shall bless himself in God, etc., because the former troubles are forgotten.</p>
<p>"For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former things shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.</p>
<p>"But be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create; for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy.</p>
<p>"And I will rejoice in Jerusalem and joy in my people; and the voice of weeping shall no more be heard in her, nor the voice of crying.</p>
<p>"Before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear. The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock; and dust shall be the serpent's meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain."</p>
<p>Is. lvi, 3: "Thus saith the Lord, Keep ye judgment, and do justice: for my salvation is near to come, and my righteousness to be revealed.</p>
<p>"Blessed is the man that doeth this, that keepeth the Sabbath, and keepeth his hand from doing any evil.</p>
<p>"Neither let the strangers that have joined themselves to me, say, God will separate me from His people. For thus saith the Lord: Whoever will keep my Sabbath, and choose the things that please me, and take hold of my covenant; even unto them will I give in mine house a place and a name better than that of sons and of daughters: I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off."</p>
<p>Is. lix, 9: "Therefore for our iniquities is justice far from us: we wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we<a id="Page_207" class="pageno" title="[Pg 207]"/> walk in darkness. We grope for the wall like the blind; we stumble at noon day as in the night: we are in desolate places as dead men.</p>
<p>"We roar all like bears, and mourn sore like doves; we look for judgment, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far from us."</p>
<p>Is. lxvi, 18: "But I know their works and their thoughts; it shall come that I will gather all nations and tongues, and they shall see my glory.</p>
<p>"And I will set a sign among them, and I will send those that escape of them unto the nations, to Africa, to Lydia, to Italy, to Greece, and to the people that have not heard my fame, neither have seen my glory. And they shall bring your brethren."</p>
<p>Jer. vii. <i>Reprobation of the Temple</i>: "Go ye unto Shiloth, where I set my name at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people. And now, because ye have done all these works, saith the Lord, I will do unto this house, wherein my name is called upon, wherein ye trust, and unto the place which I gave to your priests, as I have done to Shiloth." (For I have rejected it, and made myself a temple elsewhere.)</p>
<p>"And I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your brethren, even the seed of Ephraim." (Rejected for ever.) "Therefore pray not for this people."</p>
<p>Jer. vii, 22: "What avails it you to add sacrifice to sacrifice? For I spake not unto your fathers, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices. But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey and be faithful to my commandments, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people." (It was only after they had sacrificed to the golden calf that I gave myself sacrifices to turn into good an evil custom.)</p>
<p>Jer. vii, 4: "Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, are these."</p>
<h4 id="pgepubid00738"><a id="p_713"/>713</h4>
<p>The Jews witnesses for God. Is. xliii, 9; xliv, 8.</p>
<p><i>Prophecies fulfilled.</i>—I Kings xiii, 2.—I Kings xxiii, 16.— Joshua vi, 26.—I Kings xvi, 34.—Deut. xxiii.</p>
<p>Malachi i, II. The sacrifice of the Jews rejected, and the sacrifice of the heathen, (even out of Jerusalem,) and in all places.<a id="Page_208" class="pageno" title="[Pg 208]"/></p>
<p>Moses, before dying, foretold the calling of the Gentiles, Deut. xxxii, 21, and the reprobation of the Jews.</p>
<p>Moses foretold what would happen to each tribe.</p>
<p><i>Prophecy.</i>—"Your name shall be a curse unto mine elect, and I will give them another name."</p>
<p>"Make their heart fat,"<a id="FNanchor_270_274"/><a href="@public@vhost@g@gutenberg@html@files@18269@[email protected]#Footnote_270_274" class="fnanchor pginternal">[270]</a> and how? by flattering their lust and making them hope to satisfy it.</p>
<h4 id="pgepubid00739"><a id="p_714"/>714</h4>
<p><i>Prophecy.</i>—Amos and Zechariah. They have sold the just one, and therefore will not be recalled.—Jesus Christ betrayed.</p>
<p>They shall no more remember Egypt. See Is. xliii, 16, 17, 18, 19. Jer. xxiii, 6, 7.</p>
<p><i>Prophecy.</i>—The Jews shall be scattered abroad. Is. xxvii, 6.—A new law, Jerem. xxxi, 32.</p>
<p>Malachi. <i>Grotius.</i>—The second temple glorious.—Jesus Christ will come. Haggai ii, 7, 8, 9, 10.</p>
<p>The calling of the Gentiles. Joel ii, 28. Hosea ii, 24. Deut. xxxii, 21. Malachi i, 11.</p>
<h4 id="pgepubid00740"><a id="p_715"/>715</h4>
<p>Hosea iii.—Is. xlii, xlviii, liv, lx, lxi, last verse. "I foretold it long since that they might know that it is I." Jaddus to Alexander.</p>
<h4 id="pgepubid00741"><a id="p_716"/>716</h4>
<p>[<i>Prophecies.</i>—The promise that David will always have descendants. Jer. xiii, 13.]</p>
<h4 id="pgepubid00742"><a id="p_717"/>717</h4>
<p>The eternal reign of the race of David, 2 Chron., by all the prophecies, and with an oath. And it was not temporally fulfilled. Jer. xxiii, 20.</p>
<h4 id="pgepubid00743"><a id="p_718"/>718</h4>
<p>We might perhaps think that, when the prophets foretold that the sceptre should not depart from Judah until the eternal King came, they spoke to flatter the people, and that their prophecy was proved false by Herod. But to show that this was not their meaning, and that, on the contrary, they knew well that this temporal kingdom should cease, they said that they would be without a king and without a prince, and for a long time. Hosea iii, 4.<a id="Page_209" class="pageno" title="[Pg 209]"/></p>
<h4 id="pgepubid00744"><a id="p_719"/>719</h4>
<p><i>Non habemus regem nisi Cæsarem.</i><a id="FNanchor_271_275"/><a href="@public@vhost@g@gutenberg@html@files@18269@[email protected]#Footnote_271_275" class="fnanchor pginternal">[271]</a> Therefore Jesus Christ was the Messiah, since they had no longer any king but a stranger, and would have no other.</p>
<h4 id="pgepubid00745"><a id="p_720"/>720</h4>
<p>We have no king but Cæsar.</p>
<h4 id="pgepubid00746"><a id="p_721"/>721</h4>
<p>Daniel ii: "All thy soothsayers and wise men cannot shew unto thee the secret which thou hast demanded. But there is a God in heaven who can do so, and that hath revealed to thee in thy dream what shall be in the latter days," (This dream must have caused him much misgiving.)</p>
<p>"And it is not by my own wisdom that I have knowledge of this secret, but by the revelation of this same God, that hath revealed it to me, to make it manifest in thy presence.</p>
<p>"Thy dream was then of this kind. Thou sawest a great image, high and terrible, which stood before thee. His head was of gold, his breast and arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, his legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay. Thus thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet, that were of iron and of clay, and brake them to pieces.</p>
<p>"Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold broken to pieces together, and the wind carried them away; but this stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth. This is the dream, and now I will give thee the interpretation thereof.</p>
<p>"Thou who art the greatest of kings, and to whom God hath given a power so vast that thou art renowned among all peoples, art the head of gold which thou hast seen. But after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth.</p>
<p>"But the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron, and even as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things, so shall this empire break in pieces and bruise all.</p>
<p>"And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of clay and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of iron and of the weakness of clay.</p>
<p>"But as iron cannot be firmly mixed with clay, so they who<a id="Page_210" class="pageno" title="[Pg 210]"/> are represented by the iron and by the clay, shall not cleave one to another though united by marriage.</p>
<p>"Now in the days of these kings shall God set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed, nor ever be delivered up to other people. It shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever, according as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it fell from the mountain, and brake in pieces the iron, the clay, the silver, and the gold. God hath made known to thee what shall come to pass hereafter. This dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure.</p>
<p>"Then Nebuchadnezzar fell upon his face towards the earth," etc.</p>
<p>Daniel viii, 8. "Daniel having seen the combat of the ram and of the he-goat, who vanquished him and ruled over the earth, whereof the principal horn being broken four others came up toward the four winds of heaven, and out of one of them came forth a little horn, which waxed exceedingly great toward the south, and toward the east, and toward the land of Israel, and it waxed great even to the host of heaven; and it cast down some of the stars, and stamped upon them, and at last overthrew the prince, and by him the daily sacrifice was taken away, and the place of his sanctuary was cast down.</p>
<p>"This is what Daniel saw. He sought the meaning of it, and a voice cried in this manner, 'Gabriel, make this man to understand the vision,' And Gabriel said:</p>
<p>"The ram which thou sawest is the king of the Medes and Persians, and the he-goat is the king of Greece, and the great horn that is between his eyes is the first king of this monarchy.</p>
<p>"Now that being broken, whereas four stood up for it, four kingdoms shall stand up out of the nation, but not in his power.</p>
<p>"And in the latter time of their kingdom, when iniquities are come to the full, there shall arise a king, insolent and strong, but not by his own power, to whom all things shall succeed after his own will; and he shall destroy the holy people, and through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand, and he shall destroy many. He shall also stand up against the Prince of princes, but he shall perish miserably, and nevertheless by a violent hand."</p>
<p>Daniel ix, 20. "Whilst I was praying with all my heart, and confessing my sin and the sin of all my people, and prostrating myself before my God, even Gabriel, whom I had seen in the<a id="Page_211" class="pageno" title="[Pg 211]"/> vision at the beginning, came to me and touched me about the time of the evening oblation, and he informed me and said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee the knowledge of things. At the beginning of thy supplications I came to shew that which thou didst desire, for thou are greatly beloved: therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision. Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people, and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to abolish iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness; to accomplish the vision and the prophecies, and to anoint the Most Holy. (After which this people shall be no more thy people, nor this city the holy city. The times of wrath shall be passed, and the years of grace shall come for ever.)</p>
<p>"Know therefore, and understand, that, from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince, shall be seven weeks, and three score and two weeks." (The Hebrews were accustomed to divide numbers, and to place the small first. Thus, 7 and 62 make 69. Of this 70 there will then remain the 70th, that is to say, the 7 last years of which he will speak next.)</p>
<p>"The street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. And after three score and two weeks," (which have followed the first seven. Christ will then be killed after the sixty-nine weeks, that is to say, in the last week), "the Christ shall be cut off, and a people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary, and overwhelm all, and the end of that war shall accomplish the desolation."</p>
<p>"Now one week," (which is the seventieth, which remains), "shall confirm the covenant with many, and in the midst of the week," (that is to say, the last three and a half years), "he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate."</p>
<p>Daniel xi. "The angel said to Daniel: There shall stand up yet," (after Cyrus, under whom this still is), "three kings in Persia," (Cambyses, Smerdis, Darius); "and the fourth who shall then come," (Xerxes) "shall be far richer than they all, and far stronger, and shall stir up all his people against the Greeks.</p>
<p>"But a mighty king shall stand up," (Alexander), "that shall rule with great dominion, and do according to his will. And<a id="Page_212" class="pageno" title="[Pg 212]"/> when he shall stand up, his kingdom shall be broken, and shall be divided in four parts toward the four winds of heaven," (as he had said above, vii, 6; viii, 8), "but not his posterity; and his successors shall not equal his power, for his kingdom shall be plucked up, even for others besides these," (his four chief successors).</p>
<p>"And the king of the south," (Ptolemy, son of Lagos, Egypt), "shall be strong; but one of his princes shall be strong above him, and his dominion shall be a great dominion," (Seleucus, King of Syria. Appian says that he was the most powerful of Alexander's successors).</p>
<p>"And in the end of years they shall join themselves together, and the king's daughter of the south," (Berenice, daughter of Ptolemy Philadelphus, son of the other Ptolemy), "shall come to the king of the north," (to Antiochus Deus, King of Syria and of Asia, son of Seleucus Lagidas), "to make peace between these princes.</p>
<p>"But neither she nor her seed shall have a long authority; for she and they that brought her, and her children, and her friends, shall be delivered to death." (Berenice and her son were killed by Seleucus Callinicus.)</p>
<p>"But out of a branch of her roots shall one stand up," (Ptolemy Euergetes was the issue of the same father as Berenice), "which shall come with a mighty army into the land of the king of the north, where he shall put all under subjection, and he shall also carry captive into Egypt their gods, their princes, their gold, their silver, and all their precious spoils," (if he had not been called into Egypt by domestic reasons, says Justin, he would have entirely stripped Seleucus); "and he shall continue several years when the king of the north can do nought against him.</p>
<p>"And so he shall return into his kingdom. But his sons shall be stirred up, and shall assemble a multitude of great forces," (Seleucus Ceraunus, Antiochus the Great). "And their army shall come and overthrow all; wherefore the king of the south shall be moved with choler, and shall also form a great army, and fight him," (Ptolemy Philopator against Antiochus the Great at Raphia), "and conquer; and his troops shall become insolent, and his heart shall be lifted up," (this Ptolemy desecrated the temple; Josephus): "he shall cast down many ten thousands, but he shall not be strengthened by it. For the king of the north," (Antiochus the Great), "shall return with a<a id="Page_213" class="pageno" title="[Pg 213]"/> greater multitude than before, and in those times also a great number of enemies shall stand up against the king of the south," (during the reign of the young Ptolemy Epiphanes); "also the apostates and robbers of thy people shall exalt themselves to establish the vision; but they shall fall." (Those who abandon their religion to please Euergetes, when he will send his troops to Scopas; for Antiochus will again take Scopas, and conquer them.) "And the king of the north shall destroy the fenced cities, and the arms of the south shall not withstand, and all shall yield to his will; he shall stand in the land of Israel, and it shall yield to him. And thus he shall think to make himself master of all the empire of Egypt," (despising the youth of Epiphanes, says Justin). "And for that he shall make alliance with him, and give his daughter" (Cleopatra, in order that she may betray her husband. On which Appian says that doubting his ability to make himself master of Egypt by force, because of the protection of the Romans, he wished to attempt it by cunning). "He shall wish to corrupt her, but she shall not stand on his side, neither be for him. Then he shall turn his face to other designs, and shall think to make himself master of some isles," (that is to say, seaports), "and shall take many," (as Appian says).</p>
<p>"But a prince shall oppose his conquests," (Scipio Africanus, who stopped the progress of Antiochus the Great, because he offended the Romans in the person of their allies), "and shall cause the reproach offered by him to cease. He shall then return into his kingdom and there perish, and be no more." (He was slain by his soldiers.)</p>
<p>"And he who shall stand up in his estate," (Seleucus Philopator or Soter, the son of Antiochus the Great), "shall be a tyrant, a raiser of taxes in the glory of the kingdom," (which means the people), "but within a few days he shall be destroyed, neither in anger nor in battle. And in his place shall stand up a vile person, unworthy of the honour of the kingdom, but he shall come in cleverly by flatteries. All armies shall bend before him; he shall conquer them, and even the prince with whom he has made a covenant. For having renewed the league with him, he shall work deceitfully, and enter with a small people into his province, peaceably and without fear. He shall take the fattest places, and shall do that which his fathers have not done, and ravage on all sides. He shall forecast great devices during his time."<a id="Page_214" class="pageno" title="[Pg 214]"/></p>
<h4 id="pgepubid00747"><a id="p_722"/>722</h4>
<p><i>Prophecies.</i>—The seventy weeks of Daniel are ambiguous as regards the term of commencement, because of the terms of the prophecy; and as regards the term of conclusion, because of the differences among chronologists. But all this difference extends only to two hundred years.</p>
<h4 id="pgepubid00748"><a id="p_723"/>723</h4>
<p><i>Predictions.</i>—That in the fourth monarchy, before the destruction of the second temple, before the dominion of the Jews was taken away, in the seventieth week of Daniel, during the continuance of the second temple, the heathen should be instructed, and brought to the knowledge of the God worshipped by the Jews; that those who loved Him should be delivered from their enemies, and filled with His fear and love.</p>
<p>And it happened that in the fourth monarchy, before the destruction of the second temple, etc., the heathen in great number worshipped God, and led an angelic life. Maidens dedicated their virginity and their life to God. Men renounced their pleasures. What Plato could only make acceptable to a few men, specially chosen and instructed, a secret influence imparted, by the power of a few words, to a hundred million ignorant men.</p>
<p>The rich left their wealth. Children left the dainty homes of their parents to go into the rough desert. (See Philo the Jew.) All this was foretold a great while ago. For two thousand years no heathen had worshipped the God of the Jews; and at the time foretold, a great number of the heathen worshipped this only God. The temples were destroyed. The very kings made submission to the cross. All this was due to the Spirit of God, which was spread abroad upon the earth.</p>
<p>No heathen, since Moses until Jesus Christ, believed according to the very Rabbis. A great number of the heathen, after Jesus Christ, believed in the books of Moses, kept them in substance and spirit, and only rejected what was useless.</p>
<h4 id="pgepubid00749"><a id="p_724"/>724</h4>
<p><i>Prophecies.</i>—The conversion of the Egyptians (Isaiah xix, 19); an altar in Egypt to the true God.</p>
<h4 id="pgepubid00750"><a id="p_725"/>725</h4>
<p><i>Prophecies.</i>—<i>In Egypt.</i>—<i>Pugio Fidei</i>, p. 659. <i>Talmud.</i></p>
<p>"It is a tradition among us, that, when the Messiah shall<a id="Page_215" class="pageno" title="[Pg 215]"/> come, the house of God, destined for the dispensation of His Word, shall be full of filth and impurity; and that the wisdom of the scribes shall be corrupt and rotten. Those who shall be afraid to sin, shall be rejected by the people, and treated as senseless fools."</p>
<p>Is. xlix: "Listen, O isles, unto me, and hearken, ye people, from afar: The Lord hath called me by my name from the womb of my mother; in the shadow of His hand hath He hid me, and hath made my words like a sharp sword, and said unto me, Thou art my servant in whom I will be glorified. Then I said, Lord, have I laboured in vain? have I spent my strength for nought? yet surely my judgment is with Thee, O Lord, and my work with Thee. And now, saith the Lord, that formed me from the womb to be His servant, to bring Jacob and Israel again to Him, Thou shalt be glorious in my sight, and I will be thy strength. It is a light thing that thou shouldst convert the tribes of Jacob; I have raised thee up for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the ends of the earth. Thus saith the Lord to him whom man despiseth, to him whom the nation abhorreth, to a servant of rulers, Princes and kings shall worship thee, because the Lord is faithful that hath chosen thee.</p>
<p>"Again saith the Lord unto me, I have heard thee in the days of salvation and of mercy, and I will preserve thee for a covenant of the people, to cause to inherit the desolate nations, that thou mayest say to the prisoners: Go forth; to them that are in darkness show yourselves, and possess these abundant and fertile lands. They shall not hunger nor thirst, neither shall the heat nor sun smite them; for he that hath mercy upon them shall lead them, even by the springs of waters shall he guide them, and make the mountains a way before them. Behold, the peoples shall come from all parts, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south. Let the heavens give glory to God; let the earth be joyful; for it hath pleased the Lord to comfort His people, and He will have mercy upon the poor who hope in Him.</p>
<p>"Yet Sion dared to say: The Lord hath forsaken me, and hath forgotten me. Can a woman forget her child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? but if she forget, yet will not I forget thee, O Sion. I will bear thee always between my hands, and thy walls are continually before me. They that shall build thee are come, and thy destroyers shall<a id="Page_216" class="pageno" title="[Pg 216]"/> go forth of thee. Lift up thine eyes round about, and behold; all these gather themselves together, and come to thee. As I live, saith the Lord, thou shalt surely clothe thee with them all, as with an ornament. Thy waste and thy desolate places, and the land of thy destruction, shall even now be too narrow by reason of the inhabitants, and the children thou shalt have after thy barrenness shall say again in thy ears: The place is too strait for me: give place to me that I may dwell. Then shalt thou say in thy heart: Who hath begotten me these, seeing I have lost my children, and am desolate, a captive, and removing to and fro? and who brought up these? Behold, I was left alone; these, where had they been? And the Lord shall say to thee: Behold, I will lift up mine hand to the Gentiles, and set up my standard to the people; and they shall bring thy sons in their arms and in their bosoms. And kings shall be their nursing fathers, and queens their nursing mothers; they shall bow down to thee with their face toward the earth, and lick up the dust of thy feet; and thou shalt know that I am the Lord; for they shall not be ashamed that wait for me. Shall the prey be taken from the mighty? But even if the captives be taken away from the strong, nothing shall hinder me from saving thy children, and from destroying thy enemies; and all flesh shall know that I am the Lord, thy Saviour and thy Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob.</p>
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