Pascal's Pensées
think it was He. After His death, Saint Paul[248] 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.[249]
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,[250] 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[251] 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.
670
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.[252]
671
_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.[253]
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.
672
_Fac secundum exemplar quod tibi ostensum est in monte._[254]--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.
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[255] 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.
673
_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.[256]
674
... 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._
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 say 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.
675
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!
676
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.
677
_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.
678
_Types._--Jesus Christ opened their mind to understand the Scriptures.
Two great revelations are these. (1) All things happened to them in
types: _vere Israëlitæ, 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."[257] Two advents.
679
_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.
680
_Typical._--The key of the cipher. _Veri adoratores._[258]--_Ecce agnus
Dei qui tollit peccata mundi_.[259]
681
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.
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 multitude 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.
682
_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."[260] Then the other freedom was only a type
of freedom.
"I am the true bread from Heaven."[261]
683
_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, xx,
says that man will not live by the commandments of God and will live by
them.
684