Chapter 27 [XV.]—Grace, Concealed in the Old Testament, is Revealed in the New.

This grace hid itself under a veil in the Old Testament, but it has been revealed in the New Testament according to the most perfectly ordered dispensation of the ages, forasmuch as God knew how to dispose all things. And perhaps it is a part of this hiding of grace, that in the Decalogue, which was given on Mount Sinai, only the portion which relates to the Sabbath was hidden under a prefiguring precept. The Sabbath is a day of sanctification; and it is not without significance that, among all the works which God accomplished, the first sound of sanctification was heard on the day when He rested from all His labours. On this, indeed, we must not now enlarge. But at the same time I deem it to be enough for the point now in question, that it was not for nothing that the nation was commanded on that day to abstain from all servile work, by which sin is signified; but because not to commit sin belongs to sanctification, that is, to God’s gift through the Holy Spirit. And this precept alone among the others, was placed in the law, which was written on the two tables of stone, in a prefiguring shadow, under which the Jews observe the Sabbath, that by this very circumstance it might be signified that it was then the time for concealing the grace, which had to be revealed in the New Testament by the death of Christ,—the rending, as it were, of the veil.112    Matt. xxvii. 51. “For when,” says the apostle, “it shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away.”113    2 Cor. iii. 16.

CAPUT XV.

27. Gratia in Vetere Testamento latens, in Novo revelatur. Haec gratia in Testamento vetere velata latitabat, quae in Christi Evangelio revelata est dispensatione temporum ordinatissima, sicut Deus novit cuncta disponere. Et fortasse ad illud ipsum ejus latibulum pertinet, quod in eo Decalogo, qui datus est in monte Sina, hoc solum praecepto figurato occultatum est, quod ad sabbatum pertinet. Sabbatum autem dies sanctificationis est. Nec vacat, quod inter omnia opera quae fecit Deus, illic primo sanctificatio sonuit, ubi ab omnibus operibus requievit (Gen. II, 3): unde nunc non est disserendi locus. Verumtamen, quod rei de qua agitur satis esse arbitror, 0218 non frustra illo die populus ab omni opere servili abstinere praeceptus est, quo significatur peccatum, nisi quia non peccare sanctificationis est, hoc est, muneris Dei per Spiritum sanctum: quod in lege, quae duabus lapideis tabulis conscripta est, solum inter caetera in umbra figurae positum est, in qua Judaei sabbatum observant; ut hoc ipso significaretur tempus tunc fuisse occultandae gratiae, quae Novo Testamento fuerat per Christi passionem, tanquam scissionem veli, revelanda (Matth. XXVII, 51). Cum enim transierit , inquit, ad Christum, auferetur velamen.