Chapter 20.—Of Israel’s Bondage in Egypt, Their Deliverance, and Their Passage Through the Red Sea.

34. “That people, then, having been brought down into Egypt, were in bondage to the harshest of kings; and, taught by the most oppressive labors, they sought their deliverer in God; and there was sent to them one belonging to the people themselves, Moses, the holy servant of God, who, in the might of God, terrified the impious nation of the Egyptians in those days by great miracles, and led forth the people of God out of that land through the Red Sea, where the water parted and opened up a way for them as they crossed it, whereas, when the Egyptians pressed on in pursuit, the waves returned to their channel and overwhelmed them, so that they perished. Thus, then, just as the earth through the agency of the flood was cleansed by the waters from the wickedness of the sinners, who in those times were destroyed in their inundation, while the righteous escaped by means of the wood; so the people of God, when they went forth from Egypt, found a way through the waters by which their enemies were devoured. Nor was the sacrament of the wood wanting there. For Moses smote with his rod, in order that that miracle might be effected. Both these are signs of holy baptism, by which the faithful pass into the new life, while their sins are done away with like enemies, and perish. But more clearly was the passion of Christ prefigured in the case of that people, when they were commanded to slay and eat the lamb, and to mark their door-posts with its blood, and to celebrate this rite every year, and to designate it the Lord’s passover. For surely prophecy speaks with the utmost plainness of the Lord Jesus Christ, when it says that “He was led as a lamb to the slaughter.”115    Isa. liii. 7 And with the sign of His passion and cross, thou art this day to be marked on thy forehead, as on the door-post, and all Christians are marked with the same.

35. “Thereafter this people was conducted through the wilderness for forty years. They also received the law written by the finger of God, under which name the Holy Spirit is signified, as it is declared with the utmost plainness in the Gospel. For God is not defined116    Or = circumscribed, definitus. by the form of a body, neither are members and fingers to be thought of as existent in Him in the way in which we see them in ourselves. But, inasmuch as it is through the Holy Spirit that God’s gifts are divided to His saints, in order that, although they vary in their capacities, they may nevertheless not lapse from the concord of charity, and inasmuch as it is especially in the fingers that there appears a certain kind of division, while nevertheless there is no separation from unity, this may be the explanation of the phrase. But whether this may be the case, or whatever other reason may be assigned for the Holy Spirit being called the finger of God, we ought not at any rate to think of the form of a human body when we hear this expression used. The people in question, then, received the law written by the finger of God, and that in good sooth on tables of stone, to signify the hardness of their heart in that they were not to fulfill the law. For, as they eagerly sought from the Lord gifts meant for the uses of the body, they were held by carnal fear rather than by spiritual charity. But nothing fulfills the law save charity. Consequently, they were burdened with many visible sacraments, to the intent that they should feel the pressure of the yoke of bondage in the observances of meats, and in the sacrifices of animals, and in other rites innumerable; which things, at the same time, were signs of spiritual matters relating to the Lord Jesus Christ and to the Church; which, furthermore, at that time were both understood by a few holy men to the effect of yielding the fruit of salvation, and observed by them in accordance with the fitness of the time, while by the multitude of carnal men they were observed only and not understood.

36. “In this manner, then, through many varied signs of things to come, which it would be tedious to enumerate in complete detail, and which we now see in their fulfillment in the Church, that people were brought to the land of promise, in which they were to reign in a temporal and carnal way in accordance with their own longings: which earthly kingdom, nevertheless, sustained the image of a spiritual kingdom. There Jerusalem was founded, that most celebrated city of God, which, while in bondage, served as a sign of the free city, which is called the heavenly Jerusalem117    Cf. Gal. iv. 26 which latter term is a Hebrew word, and signifies by interpretation the ‘vision of peace.’ The citizens thereof are all sanctified men, who have been, who are, and who are yet to be; and all sanctified spirits, even as many as are obedient to God with pious devotion in the exalted regions of heaven, and imitate not the impious pride of the devil and his angels. The King of this city is the Lord Jesus Christ, the Word of God, by whom the highest angels are governed, and at the same time the Word that took unto Himself human nature,118    Hominem. in order that by Him men also might be governed, who, in His fellowship, shall reign all together in eternal peace. In the service of prefiguring this King in that earthly kingdom of the people of Israel, King David stood forth pre-eminent,119    1 Kings xi. 13 of whose seed according to the flesh that truest King was to come, to wit, our Lord Jesus Christ, ‘who is over all, God blessed for ever.’120    Rom. ix. 5 In that land of promise many things were done, which held good as figures of the Christ who was to come, and of the Church, with which you will have it in your power to acquaint yourself by degrees in the Holy Books.

CAPUT XX.

34. Israelitarum servitus in Aegypto, et liberatio viaque per mare Rubrum. Baptismus figuratus. Ovis immolatio passionis Christi figura. Lex scripta digito Dei. Jerusalem typus civitatis coelestis. Populus ergo ille delatus in Aegyptum, servivit regi durissimo; et gravissimis laboribus eruditus, quaesivit liberatorem Deum: et missus est eis unus de ipso populo, sanctus Dei servus Moyses, qui in virtute Dei magnis miraculis terrens tunc impiam gentem Aegyptiorum, eduxit inde populum Dei per mare Rubrum; ubi discedens aqua viam praebuit transeuntibus: Aegyptii autem cum eos persequerentur, redeuntibus in se fluctibus demersi exstincti sunt. Ita quemadmodum per diluvium aquis terra purgata est a nequitia peccatorum, qui tunc in illa inundatione deleti sunt, et justi evaserunt per lignum: sic ex Aegypto exiens populus Dei, per aquas iter invenit, quibus ipsorum hostes consumpti sunt. Nec ibi defuit ligni sacramentum. Nam virga percussit Moyses, ut illud miraculum fieret. Utrumque signum est sancti Baptismi, per quod fideles in novam vitam transeunt, peccata vero eorum tanquam inimici delentur atque moriuntur. Apertius autem Christi passio in illo populo figurata est, cum jussi sunt ovem occidere et manducare, et de sanguine ejus postes suos signare, et hoc celebrare omni anno, et appellare Pascha Domini. Manifestissime quippe prophetia de Domino Jesu Christo dicit, quia tanquam ovis ad immolandum ductus est (Isai. LIII, 7). Cujus passionis et crucis signo in fronte hodie tanquam in poste signandus es, omnesque Christiani signantur.

35. Inde per desertum populus ille ductus est, per quadraginta annos accepit etiam legem digito Dei 0336 scriptam (Exod. I-XX, XXXII, XXXIV; Num. XIV, 33, et Deut. XXIX, 5), quo nomine significatur Spiritus sanctus, sicut in Evangelio manifestissime declaratur (Luc. XI, 20). Neque enim Deus forma corporis definitus est, nec sic in illo membra et digiti cogitandi sunt, quemadmodum videmus in nobis: sed quia per Spiritum sanctum dona Dei sanctis dividuntur, ut cum diversa possunt, non tamen discedant a concordia charitatis, in digitis autem maxime apparet quaedam divisio, nec tamen ab unitate praecisio; sive propterea, sive propter aliam quamcumque causam Spiritus sanctus appellatus est digitus Dei, non tamen, cum hoc audimus, humani corporis forma cogitanda est. Accepit ergo ille populus legem digito Dei scriptam in tabulis sane lapideis, ad significandam duritiam cordis illorum, quod legem non erant impleturi. Corporalia quippe dona desiderantes a Domino, magis carnali timore quam spirituali charitate tenebantur: legem autem non implet nisi charitas. Ideo multis sacramentis visibilibus onerati sunt, quo servili jugo premerentur, in observationibus ciborum et in sacrificiis animalium, et in aliis innumerabilibus: quae tamen signa erant rerum spiritualium ad Dominum Jesum Christum et ad Ecclesiam pertinentium; quae tunc a paucis sanctis et intelligebantur ad fructum salutis, et observabantur ad congruentiam temporis, a multitudine vero carnalium tantummodo observabantur, non intelligebantur.

36. Per multa itaque et varia signa rerum futurarum, quas longum est omnes commemorare, et eas nunc in Ecclesia videmus impleri, perductus est ille populus ad terram promissionis, ubi temporaliter carnaliterque regnaret pro modo desiderii sui: quod tamen regnum terrenum regni spiritualis imaginem gessit. Ibi Jerusalem condita est famosissima civitas Dei, serviens in signo liberae civitatis, quae coelestis Jerusalem dicitur (Galat. IV, 25, 26), quod verbum est hebraeum, et interpretatur Visio pacis. Cujus cives sunt omnes sanctificati homines qui fuerunt, et qui sunt, et qui futuri sunt; et omnes sanctificati spiritus, etiam quicumque in excelsis coelorum partibus pia devotione obtemperant Deo, nec imitantur impiam diaboli superbiam et angelorum ejus. Hujus civitatis rex est Dominus Jesus Christus, Verbum Dei quo reguntur summi Angeli, et Verbum hominem assumens ut eo regerentur et homines, qui simul omnes cum illo in aeterna pace regnabunt. Ad hujus regis praefigurationem in illo terreno regno populi Israel maxime eminuit rex David, de cujus semine secundum carnem veniret verissimus rex noster Dominus Jesus Christus, qui est super omnia Deus benedictus in saecula (Rom. IX, 5). Multa in illa terra promissionis gesta sunt in figuram venturi Christi et Ecclesiae, quae in sanctis Libris paulatim discere poteris.