By Water & Blood

Book 4, §13: Now a spiritual interpretation is of this nature: when one is able to point out what are the heavenl

Now a spiritual interpretation is of this nature: when one is able to point out what are the heavenly things of which these serve as the pat­terns and shadow, who are Jews according to the flesh, and of what things future the law contains a shadow, and any other expressions of this kind that may be found in holy Scripture; or when it is a subject of inquiry, what is that wisdom hidden in a mystery which God ordained before the world for our glory, which none of the princes of this world knew; or the meaning of the apostle's language, when, employ­ing certain illustrations from Exodus or Numbers, he says: These things happened to them in a figure, and they are written on our account, on whom the ends of the ages have come. Now, an opportunity is afforded us of understanding of what those things which happened to them were figures, when he adds: And they drank of that spiritual Rock which fol­lowed them, and that Rock was Christ. In an­other Epistle also, when referring to the tabernacle, he mentions the direction which was given to Moses: You shall make (all things) according to the pat­tern which was showed you in the mount. And writing to the Galatians, and upbraiding certain indi­viduals who seem to themselves to read the law, and yet without understanding it, because of their igno­rance of the fact that an allegorical meaning underlies what is written, he says to them in a certain tone of rebuke: Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons; the one by a bond-maid, the other by a free woman. But he who was of the bond-woman was born according to the flesh; but he of the free woman was by promise. Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants. And here this point is to be attended to, viz., the caution with which the apostle employs the expres­sion, You who are under the law, do you not hear the law? Do you not hear, i.e., do you not understand and know? In the Epistle to the Colossians, again, briefly summing up and condensing the meaning of the whole law, he says: Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of holy days, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath, which are a shadow of things to come. Writing to the Hebrews also, and treating of those who belong to the circum­cision, he says: Those who serve to the example and shadow of heavenly things. Now perhaps, through these illustrations, no doubt will be enter­tained regarding the five books of Moses, by those who hold the writings of the apostle, as divinely in­spired. And if they require, with respect to the rest of the history, that those events which are contained in it should be considered as having happened for an ensample to those of whom they are written, we have observed that this also has been stated in the Epistle to the Romans, where the apostle adduces an in­stance from the third book of Kings, saying, I have left me seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal; which expression Paul understood as figuratively spoken of those who are called Israel­ites according to the election, in order to show that the advent of Christ had not only now been of ad­vantage to the Gentiles, but that very many even of the race of Israel had been called to salvation.