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," [898] --even that imperfect knowledge of "the child" [899] in which this present life is passed, and which is but "in part," "by means of a mirror darkly." [900] 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," [901] 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; [902] then shall we be like Him, [903] because "we shall then know, even as we are known;" [904] 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." [905] 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. [906] 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. [907] 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.
[898] 1 Cor. xiii. 8.
[899] Ib. ver. 11.
[900] Ib. ver. 12.
[901] 1 Cor. xiii. 10.
[902] John xvii. 3.
[903] 1 John iii. 2.
[904] 1 Cor. xiii. 12.
[905] Jer. xxxi. 34.
[906] Heb. xi. 40.
[907] Matt. xx. 8.
Chapter 42 [XXV.]--Difference Between the Old and the New Testaments.
I beg of you, however, carefully to observe, as far as you can, what I am endeavouring to prove with so much effort. When the prophet promised a new covenant, not according to the covenant which had been formerly made with the people of Israel when liberated from Egypt, he said nothing about a change in the sacrifices or any sacred ordinances, although such change, too, was without doubt to follow, as we see in fact that it did follow, even as the same prophetic scripture testifies in many other passages; but he simply called attention to this difference, that God would impress His laws on the mind of those who belonged to this covenant, and would write them in their hearts, [908] whence the apostle drew his conclusion,--"not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart;" [909] and that the eternal recompense of this righteousness was not the land out of which were driven the Amorites and Hittites, and other nations who dwelt there, [910] but God Himself, "to whom it is good to hold fast," [911] in order that God's good that they love, may be the God Himself whom they love, between whom and men nothing but sin produces separation; and this is remitted only by grace. Accordingly, after saying, "For all shall know me, from the least to the greatest of them," He instantly added, "For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more." [912] By the law of works, then, the Lord says, "Thou shalt not covet:" [913] but by the law of faith He says, "Without me ye can do nothing;" [914] for He was treating of good works, even the fruit of the vine-branches. It is therefore apparent what difference there is between the old covenant and the new,--that in the former the law is written on tables, while in the latter on hearts; so that what in the one alarms from without, in the other delights from within; and in the former man becomes a transgressor through the letter that kills, in the other a lover through the life-giving spirit. We must therefore avoid saying, that the way in which God assists us to work righteousness, and "works in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure," [915] is by externally addressing to our faculties precepts of holiness; for He gives His increase internally, [916] by shedding love abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given to us." [917]
[908] Jer. xxxi. 32, 33.
[909] 2 Cor. iii. 3.
[910] Josh. xii.
[911] Ps. lxxiii. 28.
[912] Jer. xxxi. 34.
[913] Ex. xx. 17.
[914] John xv. 5.
[915] Phil. ii. 13.
[916] 1 Cor. iii. 7.
[917] Rom. v. 5.
Chapter 43 [XXVI.]--A Question Touching the Passage in the Apostle About the Gentiles Who are Said to Do by Nature the Law's Commands, Which They are Also Said to Have Written on Their Hearts.
Now we must see in what sense it is that the apostle says, "For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves, which show the work of the law written in their hearts," [918] lest there should seem to be no certain difference in the new testament, in that the Lord promised that He would write His laws in the hearts of His people, inasmuch as the Gentiles have this done for them naturally. This question therefore has to be sifted, arising as it does as one of no inconsiderable importance. For some one may say, "If God distinguishes the new testament from the old by this circumstance, that in the old He wrote His law on tables, but in the new He wrote them on men's hearts, by what are the faithful of the new testament discriminated from the Gentiles, which have the work of the law written on their hearts, whereby they do by nature the things of the law, [919] as if, forsooth, they were better than the ancient people, which received the law on tables, and before the new people, which has that conferred on it by the new testament which nature has already bestowed on them?"
[918] Rom. ii. 14, 15.
[919] Rom. ii. 14.