Chapter 9. Both Covenants Have Only One Author and One Purpose.
Chapter 9
1. All things, therefore, are from one and the same substance, namely, from one and the same God, as the Lord for his part said to the disciples, therefore, every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old. He did not teach that one God brought out the old things and another the new; but he was one and the same. For the Lord is the householder who has dominion over the Father’s entire home, giving a suitable law to the slaves and those uninstructed; but to the free men and those justified through faith he gives suitable precepts, and to the children he opens up the inheritance. Now it was his disciples whom he called scribes and teachers of the kingdom of heaven. Of them, too, he said, Therefore I send you wise men and scribes and teachers, some of whom you will kill and persecute from town to town. Thus, then, the new and the old that are brought out from the storeroom, he, without contradicting himself, calls the two covenants. The old covenant he shows to be the previous Law; the new, the mode of life that is according to the Gospel.
Of this David said, O sing to the Lord a new song. And Isaiah, Sing to the Lord a new song. The beginning is his. Let them give glory to his name from the top of the earth; let them declare his powers in the coastlands. And Jeremiah says, Behold I will make a new covenant not like the covenant which I made with your fathers on mount Horeb. But one and the same householder made both covenants, the Word of God, Our Lord Jesus Christ who spoke with both Abraham and Moses, who restored liberty to us in the newness and made the grace which is from himself abound.
2. Something greater than the temple is here, he said. But “greater” and “less” are not said about things that have nothing in common and are of opposite natures and mutually repugnant, but of things that are of the same substance and have something in common but differ only in quantity and size. For example, water from water, light from light, and grace from grace. So the law that was given for liberty is greater than that which was given for servitude. It is therefore diffused not on one nation but in the whole world. One and the same Lord, however, who is greater than the temple and greater than Solomon and greater than Jonah, gives gifts to man, namely, his own presence and the resurrection from the dead. But he does not change God, nor proclaim another Father, but one and the same who always has more gifts to measure out to those of his household; and who gives more and greater gifts in the measure in which their love toward him grows. The Lord said as much to his disciples, You shall see greater things than these. Paul, too, said, Not that I have already obtained this, or am already justified, or am already perfect. For we know in part and we prophesy in part; but when the perfect comes, the imperfect will pass away.
So when what is perfect will come, we shall not see a different Father but the same one whom we now long to see; Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. Nor shall we await a different Christ and Son of God from the one who was born of the Virgin Mary, who suffered, in whom we believe, and whom we love. What Isaiah said is to the point, And they will say in that day: Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and we have rejoiced in our salvation. Peter, too, wrote in his letter, without having seen him you love him; though you do not now see him you believe in him and rejoice with unutterable joy. Nor shall we receive a different Holy Spirit from the one who is with us, and who cries out, Abba, Father. In these [Divine Persons] we shall receive the increase and make progress so that we shall no longer enjoy God’s blessings through a mirror and by means of enigmas, but face-to-face. Thus, though even now we receive something greater than the temple or than Solomon, namely, the presence of God’s Son; nevertheless, we have not learned of another God besides the Maker and Creator of all things, who has been manifested to us from the beginning; nor another Christ, God’s Son, besides the one heralded by the Prophets.
3. Since the new covenant was known and announced by the Prophets, he too was heralded who would make it according to the Father’s good pleasure. He was manifested to men just as God willed, in order that by believing in him they might always make progress, and might through the covenants make progress toward the perfection of salvation. For there is one salvation and one God, but the precepts that fashion man are many, and not a few the steps that lead man to God. It is lawful for an earthly and temporal king who is but a man sometimes to give greater advancements to his subjects. Now, should that not be permitted to God, since he is the same and always wills to bestow greater grace on the human race, and continuously to honor with many gifts those who please him?
If it would be an advancement to think up another god besides the one who was announced from the beginning, and to think up a third one besides this second one who is thought to have been found, then it will be the same kind of advancement to go from the third one to a fourth, and from this to another. Now, if such a thinking considers itself always making progress, it would never come to a standstill in one God. Truly, when he has been expelled by the one who exists and has turned his back on him, he will seek forever, but never find God. On the contrary, it will always swim in the depth of incomprehensibility, unless he converts through repentance, and having returned whence he had been expelled, he confesses and believes the one God the Father to be the Creator who was announced by the Law and the Prophets and was testified to by Christ.
This Christ said to those who accused his disciples of not keeping the tradition: Why do you transgress the commandments of God for the sake of your tradition? For God commanded: “Honor your father and your mother”; and “He who speaks evil of father and mother, let him surely die.” A second time he said, so, for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God. Most clearly does Christ confess as Father and God him who said in the Law, Honor your father and your mother that it may be well with you. For the truthful God professed that the precept of the Law was the word of God, and called no one else God except his Father.