Chapter 35 [XX.]—The Old Law; The New Law.

The one was therefore old, because the other is new. But whence comes it that one is old and the other new, when the same law, which said in the Old Testament, “Thou shalt not covet,”149    Ex. xx. 17. is fulfilled by the New Testament? “Because,” says the prophet, “they continued not in my covenant, I have also rejected them, saith the Lord.”150    Jer. xxxi. 32. It is then on account of the offence of the old man, which was by no means healed by the letter which commanded and threatened, that it is called the old covenant; whereas the other is called the new covenant, because of the newness of the spirit, which heals the new man of the fault of the old. Then consider what follows, and see in how clear a light the fact is placed, that men who bare faith are unwilling to trust in themselves: “Because,” says he, “this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts.”151    Jer. xxxi. 33. See how similarly the apostle states it in the passage we have already quoted: “Not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart,”152    2 Cor. iii. 3. because “not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God.”153    2 Cor. iii. 3. And I apprehend that the apostle in this passage had no other reason for mentioning “the New Testament” (“who hath made us able ministers of the New Testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit”), than because he had an eye to the words of the prophet, when he said “Not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart,” inasmuch as in the prophet it runs: “I will write it in their hearts.”154    Jer. xxxi. 33.

CAPUT XX.

35. Lex vetus. Lex nova. Ergo illud Vetus erat, quia hoc novum est. Unde igitur illud vetus, hoc novum, cum lex eadem impleatur per Testamentum Novum, quae dixit in Vetere, Non concupisces 0222 (Exod. XX, 17)? Quia ipsi, inquit, non perseveraverunt in Testamento meo, et ego neglexi eos, dicit Dominus. Ergo propter veteris hominis noxam, quae per litteram jubentem et minantem minime sanabatur, dicitur illud Testamentum vetus; hoc autem novum, propter novitatem spiritus, quae hominem novum sanat a vitio vetustatis. Denique attende quod sequitur, et vide quanta luce fiat perspicuum, quod sibi fidentes nolunt homines intueri: Quia hoc testamentum est, inquit, quod ordinabo domui Israel: Post dies illos, dicit Dominus, dabo leges meas in cor illorum, et in mente eorum scribam eas. Ecce est unde Apostolus ait, quod supra commemoravimus, Non in tabulis lapideis, sed in tabulis cordis; quia non atramento, sed spiritu Dei vivi. Nec ob aliud arbitror in eo loco Apostolum voluisse commemorare Testamentum Novum (ibi quippe ait, Qui et idoneos nos fecit ministros Novi Testamenti, non litterae, sed spiritus [II Cor. III, 3, 6]), nisi quia istam intuebatur prophetiam, cum diceret, Non in tabulis lapideis, sed in tabulis cordis carnalibus: quoniam hic dictum est, In cordibus eorum scribam eas, ubi nominatim promissum est Testamentum Novum.