8. But as the wills of friends, which are not seen, are believed through tokens which are seen; thus the Church, which is now seen, is, of all things which are not seen, but which are shown forth in those writings wherein itself also is foretold, an index of the past, and a herald of the future. Because both things past, which cannot now be seen, and things present which cannot be seen all of them, at the time at which they were foretold, no one of these could then be seen. Therefore, since they have begun to come to pass as they were foretold, from those things which have come to pass unto those which are coming to pass, those things which were foretold concerning Christ and the Church have run on in an ordered series: unto which series these pertain concerning the day of Judgment, concerning the resurrection of the dead, concerning the eternal damnation of the ungodly with the devil, and concerning the eternal recompense of the godly with Christ, things which, foretold in like manner, are yet to come. Why therefore should we not believe the first and the last things which we see not, when we have, as witnesses of both, the things between, which we see, and in the books of the Prophets either hear or read both the first things, and the things between, and the last things, foretold before they came to pass? Unless haply unbelieving men judge those things to have been written by Christians, in order that those things which they already believed might have greater weight of authority, if they should be thought to have been promised before they came.

CAPUT V.

8. Praesentium exhibitio astruit fidem praeteritorum et futurorum. Sed quemadmodum voluntates amicorum quae non videntur, creduntur per indicia quae videntur; sic Ecclesia quae nunc videtur, omnium quae non videntur, sed in eis litteris ubi et ipsa est praedicta monstrantur, et index est praeteritorum, et praenuntia futurorum. Quia et praeterita quae jam non possunt videri, et praesentia quae nec possunt videri omnia , cum praenuntiarentur, nihil horum poterat tunc videri. Cum ergo fieri praedicta coeperunt, ex illis quae facta sunt usque ad ista quae fiunt, de Christo et Ecclesia quae praedicta sunt ordinata serie cucurrerunt: ad quam seriem pertinent de die judicii, de resurrectione mortuorum, de impiorum aeterna damnatione cum diabolo, et de piorum aeterna remuneratione cum Christo, quae similiter praedicta ventura sunt. Cur ergo res primas et novissimas quas non videmus non credamus, cum testes utrarumque res medias quas videmus habeamus, atque in propheticis libris et primas et medias et novissimas vel audiamus praenuntiatas antequam fierent, vel legamus? Nisi forte arbitrantur homines infideles a Christianis illa esse conscripta, ut ista quae jam credebant majus haberent pondus auctoritatis, si antequam venirent, putarentur esse promissa.