Chapter 39 [XXIV]—The Eternal Reward Which is Specially Declared in the New Testament, Foretold by the Prophet.

Accordingly, in our prophet likewise, whose testimony we are dealing with, this is added, that in God is the reward, in Him the end, in Him the perfection of happiness, in Him the sum of the blessed and eternal life. For after saying, “I will be their God, and they shall be my people,” he at once adds, “And they shall no more teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least even unto the greatest of them.”173    Jer. xxxi. 34. Now, the present is certainly the time of the New Testament, the promise of which is given by the prophet in the words which we have quoted from his prophecy. Why then does each man still say even now to his neighbour and his brother, “Know the Lord?” Or is it not perhaps meant that this is everywhere said when the gospel is preached, and when this is its very proclamation? For on what ground does the apostle call himself “a teacher of the Gentiles,” 174    1 Tim. ii. 7. if it be not that what he himself implies in the following passage becomes realized: “How shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?”175    Rom. x. 14. Since, then, this preaching is now everywhere spreading, in what way is it the time of the New Testament of which the prophet spoke in the words, “And they shall not every man teach his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord; for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them,”176    Jer. xxxi. 34. unless it be that he has included in his prophetic forecast the eternal reward of the said New Testament, by promising us the most blessed contemplation of God Himself?

Chapter 40.—How that is to Be the Reward of All; The Apostle Earnestly Defends Grace.

What then is the import of the “All, from the least unto the greatest of them,” but all that belong spiritually to the house of Israel and to the house of Judah,—that is, to the children of Isaac, to the seed of Abraham? For such is the promise, wherein it was said to him, “In Isaac shall thy seed be called; for they which are the children of the flesh are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed. For this is the word of promise, At this time will I come, and Sarah shall have a son. And not only this; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac, (for the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of Him that calleth,) it was said unto her, “The elder shall serve the younger.”177    Rom. ix. 7–12. This is the house of Israel, or rather the house of Judah, on account of Christ, who came of the tribe of Judah. This is the house of the children of promise,—not by reason of their own merits, but of the kindness of God. For God promises what He Himself performs: He does not Himself promise, and another perform; which would no longer be promising, but prophesying. Hence it is “not of works, but of Him that calleth,”178    Rom. ix. 11. lest the result should be their own, not God’s; lest the reward should be ascribed not to His grace, but to their due; and so grace should be no longer grace which was so earnestly defended and maintained by him who, though the least of the apostles, laboured more abundantly than all the rest,—yet not himself, but the grace of God that was with him.179    1 Cor. xv. 9, 10. “They shall all know me,”180    Jer. xxxi. 34. He says,—“All,” the house of Israel and house of Judah. “All,” however, “are not Israel which are of Israel,”181    Rom. ix. 6. but they only to whom it is said in “the psalm concerning the morning aid”182    See title of Ps. xxii. (xxi. Sept.) in the Sept. and Latin. (that is, concerning the new refreshing light, meaning that of the new testament), “All ye the seed of Jacob, glorify Him; and fear Him, all ye the seed of Israel.”183    Ps. xxii. 23. All the seed, without exception, even the entire seed of the promise and of the called, but only of those who are the called according to His purpose.184    Rom. viii. 28. “For whom He did predestinate, them He also called; and whom He called, them He also justified; and whom He justified, them He also glorified.”185    Rom. viii. 30. “Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed: not to that only which is of the law,”—that is, which comes from the Old Testament into the New,—“but to that also which is of faith,” which was indeed prior to the law, even “the faith of Abraham,”—meaning those who imitate the faith of Abraham,—“who is the father of us all; as it is written, I have made thee the father of many nations.” 186    Rom. iv. 16, 17. Now all these predestinated, called, justified, glorified ones, shall know God by the grace of the new testament, from the least to the greatest of them.

Chapter 41.—The Law Written in the Heart, and the Reward of the Eternal Contemplation of God, Belong to the New Covenant; Who Among the Saints are the Least and the Greatest.

As then the law of works, which was written on the tables of stone, and its reward, the land of promise, which the house of the carnal Israel after their liberation from Egypt received, belonged to the old testament, so the law of faith, written on the heart, and its reward, the beatific vision which the house of the spiritual Israel, when delivered from the present world, shall perceive, belong to the new testament. Then shall come to pass what the apostle describes: “Whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away,”187    1 Cor. xiii. 8.—even that imperfect knowledge of “the child”188    Ib. ver. 11. in which this present life is passed, and which is but “in part,” “by means of a mirror darkly.”189    Ib. ver. 12. Because of this, indeed, “prophecy” is necessary, for still to the past succeeds the future; and because of this, too, “tongues” are required,—that is, a multiplicity of expressions, since it is by different ones that different things are suggested to him who does not as yet contemplate with a perfectly purified mind the everlasting light of transparent truth. “When that, however, which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away,” 190    1 Cor. xiii. 10. then, what appeared to the flesh in assumed flesh shall display Itself as It is in Itself to all who love It; then, there shall be eternal life for us to know the one very God;191    John xvii. 3. then shall we be like Him,192    1 John iii. 2. because “we shall then know, even as we are known;”193    1 Cor. xiii. 12. then “they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord; for they shall all know me, from the least unto the greatest of them.”194    Jer. xxxi. 34. Now this may be understood in several ways: Either, that in that life the saints shall differ one from another in glory, as star from star. It matters not how the expression runs,—whether (as in the passage before us) it be, “From the least unto the greatest of them,” or the other way, From the greatest unto the least. And, in like manner, it matters not even if we understand “the least” to mean those who simply believe, and “the greatest” those who have been further able to understand—so far as may be in this world—the light which is incorporeal and unchangeable. Or, “the least” may mean those who are later in time; whilst by “the greatest” He may have intended to indicate those who were prior in time. For they are all to receive the promised vision of God hereafter, since it was for us that they foresaw the future which would be better than their present, that they without us should not arrive at complete perfection. 195    Heb. xi. 40. And so the earlier are found to be the lesser, because they were less deferred in time; as in the case of the gospel “penny a day,” which is given for an illustration.196    Matt. xx. 8. This penny they are the first to receive who came last into the vineyard. Or, “the least and the greatest” ought perhaps to be taken in some other sense, which at present does not occur to my mind.

CAPUT XXIV.

39. Aeterna merces Novi Testamenti propria praedicta per prophetam. Quomodo omnium erit illa merces. Apostolus vehemens defensor gratiae. Lex scripta in cordibus et merces aeternae contemplationis pertinet ad Testamentum Novum. Minores et majores in beatis quinam. Proinde etiam per hunc prophetam, cujus testimonium pertractamus, hoc additur: ut in eo merces, in eo finis, in eo perfectio felicitatis, in eo beatae aeternaeque vitae summa consistat. Cum enim dixisset, Et ero illis in Deum, et ipsi erunt mihi populus; continuo addidit, Et non docebit unusquisque civem suum et unusquisque fratrem suum, dicens, Cognosce Dominum: quia omnes 0224cognoscent me, a minore usque ad majorem eorum. Nunc certe jam tempus est Testamenti Novi, cujus per Prophetam facta est promissio per haec verba; quae ex illa prophetia commemoravimus: cur ergo adhuc dicit unusquisque civi suo et fratri suo, Cognosce Dominum? An forte non dicitur, cum Evangelium praedicetur, et ejus ipsa sit praedicatio, ut hoc ubique dicatur? Nam unde se Apostolus Gentium dicit esse doctorem (I Tim. II, 7), nisi quia hoc fit quod ipse ait, Quomodo invocabunt in quem non crediderunt? aut quomodo credent quem non audierunt? quomodo autem audient sine praedicante (Rom. X, 14)? Cum ergo nunc ista praedicatio usquequaque crebrescat, quomodo tempus est Testamenti Novi, de quo Propheta dixit, Et non docebit unusquisque civem suum et unusquisque fratrem suum, dicens, Cognosce Dominum: quia omnes cognoscent me, a minore usque ad majorem eorum; nisi quia ejusdem Testamenti Novi aeternam mercedem, id est, ipsius Dei beatissimam contemplationem promittendo conjunxit?

40. Quid ergo est, omnes a minore usque ad majorem eorum; nisi, omnes pertinentes spiritualiter ad domum Israel, et ad domum Juda, hoc est, ad filios Isaac, ad semen Abrahae? Ipsa est enim promissio, qua ei dictum est, In Isaac vocabitur tibi semen. Non enim qui filii carnis, hi filii Dei; sed filii promissionis deputantur in semen . Promissionis autem verbum hoc est: Ad hoc tempus veniam, et erit Sarae filius. Non solum autem, sed et Rebecca ex uno concubitu habens Isaac patris nostri. De nondum enim natis, neque qui aliquid operati fuerantboni aut mali, ut secundum electionem propositum Dei maneret, non ex operibus, sed ex vocante dictum est ei, quia major serviet minori (Id. IX, 7-13). Haec est domus Israel, vel domus Juda propter Christum, qui venit ex tribu Juda. Domus filiorum promissionis haec est, non operum propriorum , sed beneficii Dei. Hoc enim Deus promittit, quod ipse facit: non enim ipse promittit et alius facit, quod jam non est promittere, sed praedicere. Ideo non ex operibus, sed ex vocante: ne ipsorum sit, non Dei; ne merces non imputetur secundum gratiam, sed secundum debitum (Id. IV, 4), atque ita gratia jam non sit gratia, cujus vehemens defensor est atque assertor minimus Apostolorum, qui plus omnibus illis laboravit, non ipse autem, sed gratia Dei cum illo (I Cor. XV, 9, 10). Omnes enim, inquit, agnoscent me: Omnes, domus Israel et domus Juda. Neque enim omnes qui ex Israel, hi sunt Israel: sed omnes quibus dicitur in Psalmo pro susceptione matutina, hoc est, pro luce nova, Testamenti scilicet Novi, Universum semen Jacob, magnificate eum; timeat eum omne semen Israel (Psal. XXI, 1, 24). Universum omnino semen, prorsus omne semen promissorum atque vocatorum, sed eorum qui secundum propositum vocati sunt. Quos enim praedestinavit, illos et vocavit, quos autem vocavit, illos et justificavit; quos autem justificavit, 0225illos et glorificavit (Rom. VIII, 28, 30). Ideoex fide, ut secundum gratiam firma sit promissio omni semini, non ei tantum quod ex lege est, id est, quod ex Vetere Testamento venit ad Novum; sed et ei quod ex fide est, non sibi praemissa lege . Ex fide autem Abraham, id est, imitatores fidei Abraham: qui est pater omnium nostrum, sicut scriptum est, Quia patrem multarum gentium posui te (Id. IV, 16, 17). Omnes ergo hi praedestinati, vocati, justificati, glorificati cognoscent Deum gratia Testamenti Novi, a minore usque ad majorem eorum.

41. Sicut ergo lex factorum scripta in tabulis lapideis, mercesque ejus terra illa promissionis, quam carnalis domus Israel cum ex Aegypto liberata esset, accepit, pertinet ad Testamentum Vetus: ita lex fidei scripta in cordibus, mercesque ejus species contemplationis, quam spiritualis domus Israel ab hoc mundo liberata percipiet, pertinet ad Testamentum Novum. Tunc fiet quod dicit Apostolus, Sive prophetiae evacuabuntur, sive linguae cessabunt, sive scientia evacuabitur; illa scilicet parvulorum scientia in qua hic vivitur, quae ex parte est per speculum in aenigmate: propter hanc enim necessaria est prophetia, cum adhuc praeteritis futura succedunt; propter hanc linguae, id est, multiplicitas significationum, cum ex alio atque alio aliud atque aliud admonetur, qui nondum aeternam lucem perspicuae veritatis mente purgatissima contemplatur. Cum autem venerit quod perfectum est, et totum hoc quod ex parte est fuerit evacuatum (I Cor. XIII, 8, 9); tunc quod assumpta carne carni apparuit, ostendet se ipsum dilectoribus suis: tunc erit vita aeterna, ut cognoscamus unum verum Deum (Joan. XVII, 3); tunc similes ei erimus (I Joan. III, 2), quoniam tunc cognoscemus sicut et cogniti sumus (I Cor. XIII, 12). Tunc non docebit unusquisque civem suum, aut fratrem suum, dicens, Cognosce Dominum: omnes enim cognoscent eum, a minore usque ad majorem eorum. Quod multis modis intelligi potest. Sive quia et illic quisque sanctorum tanquam stella ab stella differt in gloria (Id. XV, 41). Nec ad rem quidquam interest, utrum a minore usque ad majorem, sicut dictum est, an si a majore usque ad minorem diceretur: quod similiter nihil interest, etiamsi minores intellexerimus, qui tantummodo credere, majores autem qui etiam intelligere, quantum in hac vita potest , lumen incorporeum atque incommutabile valuerunt. Sive minores, tempore posteriores; majores autem tempore priores intelligi voluit. Simul enim promissam Dei contemplationem accepturi sunt omnes; quia et illi pro nobis meliora providerunt, ne sine nobis perfecti perficerentur (Hebr. XI, 40). Et ideo velut priores reperiuntur minores , quia minus 0226 dilati sunt; sicut in illo evangelico denario per similitudinem dicitur, quem prius accipiunt qui posterius venerunt ad vineam (Matth. XX, 8-12). Sive quolibet alio modo, qui me in praesentia forsitan fugit, minores majoresque accipiendi sunt.