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," [860] is fulfilled by the New Testament? "Because," says the prophet, "they continued not in my covenant, I have also rejected them, saith the Lord." [861] 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." [862] 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," [863] because "not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God." [864] 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." [865]
[860] Ex. xx. 17.
[861] Jer. xxxi. 32.
[862] Jer. xxxi. 33.
[863] 2 Cor. iii. 3.
[864] 2 Cor. iii. 3.
[865] Jer. xxxi. 33.
Chapter 36 [XXI.]--The Law Written in Our Hearts.
What then is God's law written by God Himself in the hearts of men, but the very presence of the Holy Spirit, who is "the finger of God," and by whose presence is shed abroad in our hearts the love which is the fulfilling of the law, [866] and the end of the commandment? [867] Now the promises of the Old Testament are earthly; and yet (with the exception of the sacramental ordinances which were the shadow of things to come, such as circumcision, the Sabbath and other observances of days, and the ceremonies of certain meats, [868] and the complicated ritual of sacrifices and sacred things which suited "the oldness" of the carnal law and its slavish yoke) it contains such precepts of righteousness as we are even now taught to observe, which were especially expressly drawn out on the two tables without figure or shadow: for instance, "Thou shalt not commit adultery," "Thou shalt do no murder," "Thou shalt not covet," [869] "and whatsoever other commandment is briefly comprehended in the saying, Thou shall love thy neighbour as thyself." [870] Nevertheless, whereas as in the said Testament earthly and temporal promises are, as I have said, recited, and these are goods of this corruptible flesh (although they prefigure those heavenly and everlasting blessings which belong to the New Testament), what is now promised is a good for the heart itself, a good for the mind, a good of the spirit, that is, an intellectual good; since it is said, "I will put my law in their inward parts, and in their hearts will I write them," [871] --by which He signified that men would not fear the law which alarmed them externally, but would love the very righteousness of the law which dwelt inwardly in their hearts.
[866] Rom. xiii. 10.
[867] 1 Tim. i. 5.
[868] See Retractations, ii. 37, printed at the head of this treatise.
[869] Ex. xx. 13, 14, 17.
[870] Rom. xiii. 9.
[871] Jer. xxxi. 33.
Chapter 37 [XXII.]--The Eternal Reward.
He then went on to state the reward: "I will be their God, and they shall be my people." [872] This corresponds to the Psalmist's words to God: "It is good for me to hold me fast by God." [873] "I will be," says God, "their God, and they shall be my people." What is better than this good, what happier than this happiness,--to live to God, to live from God, with whom is the fountain of life, and in whose light we shall see light? [874] Of this life the Lord Himself speaks in these words: "This is life eternal that they may know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent," [875] --that is, "Thee and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent," the one true God. For no less than this did Himself promise to those who love Him: "He that loveth me, keepeth my commandments; and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself unto him" [876] --in the form, no doubt, of God, wherein He is equal to the Father; not in the form of a servant, for in this He will display Himself even to the wicked also. Then, however, shall that come to pass which is written, "Let the ungodly man be taken away, that he see not the glory of the Lord." [877] Then also shall "the wicked go into everlasting punishment, and the righteous into life eternal." [878] Now this eternal life, as I have just mentioned, has been defined to be, that they may know the one true God. [879] Accordingly John again says: "Beloved, now are we the sons of God; and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is." [880] This likeness begins even now to be reformed in us, while the inward man is being renewed from day to day, according to the image of Him that created him. [881]
[872] Jer. xxxi. 33.
[873] Ps. lxxiii. 28.
[874] Ps. xxxvi. 9.
[875] John xvii. 3.
[876] John xiv. 21.
[877] Isa. xxvi. 10.
[878] Matt. xxv. 46.
[879] John xvii. 3.
[880] 1 John iii. 2.
[881] Col. iii. 10.