Pascal's Pensees Part 50
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_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 G.o.d humbled to the Cross. It was necessary that Christ should suffer in order to enter into glory, "that He should destroy death through death."[257] Two advents.
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_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 G.o.d; 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.
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_Typical._--The key of the cipher. _Veri adoratores._[258]--_Ecce agnus Dei qui tollit peccata mundi._[259]
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Is. i, 21. Change of good into evil, and the vengeance of G.o.d. Is. x, I; xxvi, 20; xxviii, I. Miracles: Is. x.x.xiii, 9; xl, 17; xli, 26; xliii, 13.
Jer. xi, 21; xv, 12; xvii, 9. _Pravum est cor omnium et incrustabile; quis cognoscet illud?_ that is to say, Who can know all its evil? For it is already known to be wicked. _Ego dominus_, etc.--vii, 14, _Faciam domui huic_, etc. Trust in external sacrifices--vii, 22, _Quia non sum locutus_, etc. Outward sacrifice is not the essential point--xi, 13, _Secundum numerum_, etc. A mult.i.tude of doctrines.
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.
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_Types_,--The letter kills. All happened in types. Here is the cipher which Saint Paul gives us. Christ must suffer. An humiliated G.o.d.
Circ.u.mcision 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."[260] Then the other freedom was only a type of freedom.
"I am the true bread from Heaven."[261]
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_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 pa.s.sages agree.
Thus, to understand Scripture, we must have a meaning in which all the contrary pa.s.sages are reconciled. It is not enough to have one which suits many concurring pa.s.sages; but it is necessary to have one which reconciles even contradictory pa.s.sages.
Every author has a meaning in which all the contradictory pa.s.sages 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 princ.i.p.ality, 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 pa.s.sages. They must then necessarily be only types. We cannot even reconcile the pa.s.sages 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 G.o.d and will live by them.
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_Types._--If the law and the sacrifices are the truth, it must please G.o.d, 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 G.o.d 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 pa.s.sages indicate what is real? No. Do they then indicate what is typical? No, but what is either real or typical. But the first pa.s.sages, excluding as they do reality, indicate that all this is only typical.
All these pa.s.sages 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._[262] A sacrificing judge.
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_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.
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_Types._--When the word of G.o.d, which is really true, is false literally, it is true spiritually. _Sede a dextris meis:_[263] this is false literally, therefore it is true spiritually.
In these expressions, G.o.d 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, G.o.d will have also. It is then an indication of the intention of G.o.d, not of His manner of carrying it out.
Thus when it is said, "G.o.d 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, G.o.d 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 G.o.d,"[264] etc. For, the things of G.o.d being inexpressible, they cannot be spoken of otherwise, and the Church makes use of them even to-day: _Quia confortavil seras_,[265] etc.
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_[266] 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.
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