Part 11
_Prophecies._--The seventy weeks of Daniel are equivocal in the term of commencement, because of the terms of the prophecy, and in the term of conclusion because of the differences in the chronologists. But all this difference extends only to two hundred years.
We understand the prophecies only when we see the events occur, thus the proofs of retreat, discretion, silence, etc., are evidence only to those who know and believe them.
Joseph so interior in a law so exterior.
Exterior penances dispose to interior, as humiliations to humility. So the....
The more I examine them the more I find truths in them, both in those which preceded and those which followed, both the synagogue which was foretold, and the wretches who adhere to it, and who, being our enemies, are admirable witnesses of the truth of these prophecies, wherein their misery and even their blindness is foretold.
I find this sequence, our Religion wholly divine in its authority, in its duration, in its perpetuity, in its morality, in its conduct, its doctrine, and its effects.
The frightful darkness of the Jews foretold. _Eris palpans in meridie. Dabitur liber scienti literas, et dicet: Non possum legere._
Hosea i. 9. "Ye shall not be my people and I will not be your God," when you are multiplied after the dispersion. "In the places where it was said: Ye are not my people, I will call them my people."
_Predictions._--That under the fourth monarchy, before the destruction of the second temple, before the dominion of the Jews was taken away, and in the seventieth week of Daniel, while the second temple was still standing, the Gentiles should be instructed, and brought to the knowledge of the God worshipped by the Jews, that those who loved him should be delivered from their enemies, and filled with his fear and love.
And it came to pass that under the fourth monarchy, before the destruction of the second temple, etc, the Gentiles in crowds worshipped God and lived an angelic life. Maidens dedicated their virginity and their life to God, men gave up their pleasures, what Plato was only able to effect upon a few men, chosen and instructed to that end, a secret force, by the power of a few words, now wrought upon a hundred million ignorant men.
The rich left their wealth, children left the luxurious homes of their parents to go into the austerity of the desert, etc., according to Philo the Jew. All this was foretold long ages ago. For two thousand years no Gentile had worshipped the God of the Jews, and at the time foretold, the crowd of Gentiles worshipped this only God. The temples were destroyed, the very kings bowed themselves under the cross. All this was of the Spirit of God spread abroad upon the earth.
_Holiness._--_Effundam spiritum meum._--All nations had been in unbelief and lust; the whole world was now ablaze with love. Princes quitted their state, maidens suffered martyrdom. This power sprang from the advent of Messiah, this was the effect and these the tokens of his coming.
_Predictions._--It was foretold that in the time of Messiah he would come and establish a new covenant, such as should make them forget the coming out from Egypt, Jer. xxiii. 5, Is. xliii. 16, that he would put his Law not in externals, but in the heart, that Jesus Christ would put his fear, which had been only from without, in the midst of the heart. Who does not see the Christian law in all this?
_Prophecies._--That the Jews would reject Jesus Christ, and would themselves be rejected of God because the choice vine brought forth only wild grapes; that the chosen people should be disloyal, ungrateful, incredulous, _populum non credentem et contradicentem_; that God would strike them with blindness, and that in full mid-day they would grope like blind men; that his messenger should go before him.
"... Then shall a man no more teach his neighbour, saying, There is the Lord, _for God will make himself felt by all, your sons shall prophesy_. _I will put my spirit and my fear in your heart._"
All that is the same thing. To prophesy is to speak of God, not by outward proofs, but by a feeling interior and direct.
_Prophecies._--_Transfixerunt_, Zech. xii. 10.
That there should come a deliverer to crush the demon's head, and to free his people from their sins, _ex omnibus iniquitatibus_. That there should be a new and eternal covenant, and a new and eternal priesthood after the order of Melchisedek, that the Christ should be glorious, powerful, mighty, and yet so miserable that he would not be recognised, nor taken for what he is, but be rejected and slain, that his people which denied him should be no more his people, that the idolaters would receive him and trust in him, that he would quit Zion to reign in the centre of idolatry, that the Jews should exist for ever, that he would spring from Judah, and at a time when there should be no longer a king.
That Jesus Christ would be small in his beginnings, and afterwards would increase. The little stone of Daniel.
That he would teach men the perfect way,
And never has there come before him nor after him any man who has taught anything divine approaching this.
That then idolatry would be overthrown, that the Messiah would cast down all idols, and would bring men into the worship of the true God.
That the idol temples would be overthrown, and that among all nations and in all places of the world men would offer to God a pure sacrifice, not of beasts.
That he would be king of the Jews and Gentiles. And we see this king of Jews and Gentiles oppressed by both, both equally conspiring his death, we see him bear rule over both, destroying the worship established by Moses in Jerusalem its centre, where he placed his earliest Church, as well as the worship of idols in Rome its centre, where he placed his chief Church.
No Gentile from Moses to Jesus Christ according to the Rabbis themselves. The crowd of the Gentiles after Jesus Christ believed in the books of Moses and observed their essence and spirit, casting away only what was useless.
_Omnis Judæa regio, et Jerosolomitæ universi et baptisabantur._--Because of all the conditions of men who came there.
These stones _can_ become the children of Abraham.
Is. i. 21. Change of good into evil and the vengeance of God.
Is. x. 1. _Væ qui condunt leges iniquas._
Is. xxvi. 20. _Vade populus meus, intra in cubicula tua, claude ostia tua super te, abscondere modicum ad momentum, donec pertranseat indignatio._
Is. xxviii. 1. _Væ coronæ superbiæ._
_Miracles._.--Is. xxxiii. 9. _Luxit, et elanguit terra: confusus est Libanus, et obsorduit, etc._
_Nunc consurgam, dicit Dominus: nunc exaltabor, nunc sublevabor_.
Is. xl. 17. _Omnes gentes quasi non sint._
Is. xli. 26. _Quis annunciavit ab exordio ut sciamus: et a principio ut dicamus: Justus es?_
Is. xliii. 13. _Operabor, et quis avertet illud?_
Jer. xi. 21. _Non prophetabis in nomine Domini, et non morieris in manibus nostris._
_Propterea hæc dicit Dominus._
Jer. xv. 2. _Quod si dixerint ad te: Quo egrediemur? dices ad eos: Hæc dicit Dominus: Qui ad mortem, ad mortem: et qui ad gladium, ad gladium: et qui ad famem, ad famem: et qui ad captivitatem, ad captivitatem._
Jer. xvii. 9. _Pravum est cor omnium, et inscrutabile: quis cognoscet illud?_ that is to say, who can know all its evil, for it is already known to be wicked. _Ego Dominus scrutans cor, et probans renes._
_Et dixerunt: Venite et cogitemus contra Jeremiam cogitationes, non enim peribit lex a sacerdote, neque sermo a propheta._
Jer. xvii. 17. _Non sis tu mihi formidini, spes mea tu in die afflictionis._
Trust in exterior sacrifices.
Jer. vii. 14. _Faciam domui huic, in qua invocatum est nomen meum, et in qua vos habetis fiduciam: et loco, quem dedi vobis et patribus vestris, sicut feci Silo._
Exterior sacrifice is not the essential point.
_Tu ergo noli orare pro populo hoc._
Jer. vii. 22. _Quia non sum locutus cum patribus vestris, et non præcepi eis in die, qua eduxi eos de Terra Ægypti, de verbo holocautomatum, et victimarum._
_Sed hoc verbum præcepi eis, dicens: Audite vocem meam, et ero vobis Deus, et vos eritis mihi populus: et ambulate in omni via, quam mandavi vobis, ut bene sit vobis. Et non audierunt._
Exterior sacrifice is not the essential point.
Jer. xi. 13. _Secundum numerum enim civitatum tuarum erant dii tui Juda: et secundum numerum viarum Jerusalem posuisti aras confusionis. Tu ergo noli orare pro populo hoc._
A multitude of doctrines.
Is. xliv. 20. _Neque dicet: Forte mendacium est in dextera mea._
Is. xliv. 21, etc. _Memento horum Jacob, et Israel, quoniam servus meus es tu. Formavi te, servus meus es tu Israel, ne obliviscaris mei._
_Delevi ut nubem iniquitates tuas, et quasi nebulam peccata tua: revertere ad me, quoniam redemi te._
xliv. 23, 24. _Laudate cæli, quoniam misericordiam fecit Dominus:..., quoniam redemit Dominus Jacob, et Israel gloriabitur. Hæc dicit Dominus redemptor tuus, et formator tuus ex utero: Ego sum Dominus, faciens omnia, extendens cælos solus, stabiliens terram, et nullus mecum._
Is. liv. 8. _In momento indignationis abscondi faciem meam parumper a te, et in misericordia sempiterna misertus sum tui: dixit redemptor tuus Dominus._
Is. lxiii. 12. _Qui eduxit ad dexteram Moysen brachio majestatis suæ, qui scidit aquas ante eos, ut faceret sibi nomen sempiternum._
14. _Sic adduxisti populum tuum ut faceres tibi nomen gloriæ._
Is. lxiii. 16. _Tu enim pater noster, et Abraham nescivit nos, et Israel ignoravit nos._
Is. lxiii. 17. _Quare ... indurasti cor nostrum ne timeremus te?_
Is. lxvi. 17. _Qui sanctificabantur, et mundos se putabant ... simul consumentur, dicit Dominus._
Jer. ii. 35. _Et dixisti: Absque peccato et innocens ego sum: et propterea avertatur furor tuus a me._
_Ecce ego judicio contendam tecum, eo quod dixeris: Non peccavi._
Jer. iv. 22. _Sapientes sunt ut faciant mala, bene autem facere nescierunt._
Jer. iv. 23, 24. _Aspexi terram, et ecce vacua erat, et nihili: et cælos, et non erat lux in eis._
_Vidi montes, et ecce movebantur: et omnes colles conturbati sunt._
_Intuitus sum, et non erat homo: et omne volatile cæli recessit. Aspexi, et ecce Carmelus desertus: et omnes urbes ejus destructæ sunt a facie Domini, et a facie iræ furoris ejus._
_Hæc enim dicit Dominus: Deserta erit omnis terra, sed tamen consummationem non faciam._
Jer. v. 4. _Ego autem dixi: Forsitan pauperes sunt et stulti, ignorantes viam Domini, judicium Dei sui._
_Ibo ad optimates, et loquar eis: ipsi enim cognoverunt viam Domini: et ecce magis hi simul confregerunt jugum, ruperunt vincula. Idcirco percussit eos leo de silva, pardus vigilans super civitates eorum._
Jer. v. 29. _Numquid super his non visitabo, dicit Dominus? aut super gentem hujuscemodi non ulciscetur anima mea?_
Jer. v. 30. _Stupor et mirabilia facta sunt in terra:_
Jer. v. 31. _Prophetæ prophetabant mendacium, et sacerdotes applaudebant manibus suis: et populus meus dilexit talia: quid igitur fiet in novissimo ejus?_
Jer. vi 16._Hæc dicit Dominus: State super vias, et videte, et interrogate de semitis antiquis, quæ sit via bona, et ambulate in ea: et invenietis refrigerium animabus vestris. Et dixerunt: Non ambulabimus._
_Et constituti super vos speculatores. Audite vocem tubæ. Et dixerunt: Non audiemus._
_Ideo audite Gentes, quanta ego faciam eis. Audi terra: Ecce ego adducam mala, etc._
Jer. xxiii. 15._A prophetis enim Hierusalem egressa est pollutio super omnem terram._
Jer. xxiii. 17. _Dicunt his, qui blasphemant me: Locutus est Dominus, Pax erit vobis, et omni qui ambulat in pravitate cordis sui, dixerunt: Non veniet super vos malum._
The Jews witnesses for God. Is. xliii. 9, xliv. 8.
_Prophecies accomplished._--Malachi i. 11. The sacrifice of the Jews rejected, and the sacrifice of the Gentiles, even out of Jerusalem, and in all places.
--Moses before his death foretold the calling of the Gentiles, Deut. xxxii. 21, and the reprobation of the Jews.
Moses foretold what would happen to each tribe.
_Prophecy._--Amos and Zechariah. They sold the just one, and therefore were not recalled.
--Jesus Christ betrayed.
They shall no more remember Egypt. See Is. xliii. 16-19, Jerem. xxiii. 7.
The Jews shall be scattered abroad. Is. xxvii. 6. A new law. Jer. xxxi. 31.
Malachi. Grotius.--The second temple glorious. Jesus Christ will come to it. Haggai ii. 7-10.... The calling of the Gentiles. Joel ii. 28. Hos. ii. 24. Deut. xxxii. 21. Mal. i. 11.
Moses first taught the Trinity, original sin, the Messiah.
David was a great witness.
A king, good, merciful, a fair soul, a fine mind, powerful. He prophesied, and his wonders came to pass. This is infinite.
He had only to say that he was the Messiah, had he been vain enough, for the prophecies are clearer about him than about Jesus Christ. The same with Saint John.
_Special predictions._--They were strangers in Egypt without any private possessions, in that country or in any other, when Jacob dying and blessing his twelve children declared to them that they should possess a great land, and foretold in particular to the family of Judah that the kings who would one day govern them should be of his race, and that all his brethren should be subject to him.
This same Jacob disposing of the future land as though he were its master, gave a portion to Joseph more than to the others. "I give thee," said he, "a portion more than to thy brethren." And blessing his two children, Ephraim and Manasseh, whom Joseph had presented to him, the elder, Manasseh, on his right, and the young Ephraim on his left, he put his arms cross-wise, and placing his right hand on the head of Ephraim, and the left on Manasseh, he blessed them thus. And when Joseph represented to him that he was preferring the younger he answered him with admirable decision, "I know it well, my son, I know it, but Ephraim shall increase in a way quite other than Manasseh." This has been in fact so true in the result that, being alone almost as abundant as the two entire lines which compose a whole kingdom, they have been usually called by the name of Ephraim alone.
This same Joseph when dying commanded his children to bear his bones with them into that land to which they did not come for two hundred years afterwards.
Moses, who wrote all these things so long before they happened, himself made for each family the partition of the land before they entered it, as though he had been master of it.
He gave them judges to divide it, he prescribed the entire political form of government which they should observe, the cities of refuge which they should build, and....
Daniel ii. "All thy sooth-sayers and wise men cannot show unto thee the secret which thou hast demanded.
"But there is a God in heaven, who can do so, and he has revealed in thy dream the things which shall be in the latter days." _This dream must have caused him great uneasiness._
"And it is not by my own wisdom that I have knowledge of this secret, but by the revelation of this same God who has discovered it to me, to make it manifest in thy presence.
"Thy dream was of this kind. Thou sawest a great image, high and terrible, which stood before thee. His head was of gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass. His legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay.
"Thus thou sawest till a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet, that were of iron and clay and brake them to pieces.
"Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and the wind carried them away, but this stone which smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth. This is the dream, and now I will give thee the interpretation.
"Thou who art the greatest of kings, and to whom God has given a power so extended that thou art renowned among all people, art the golden head of the image which thou hast seen.
"But after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth.
"But the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron, and even as iron breaketh in pieces, and subdueth all things, so this empire shall break in pieces and bruise.
"And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of clay and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; and it shall be partly strong and partly broken.
"But as iron cannot be firmly mixed with clay, so they who are represented by the iron and by the clay, cannot cleave one to another though united by marriage.
"Now in the days of these kings will God raise up a Kingdom, which shall never be destroyed, nor ever be delivered up to another people.
"It shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever, according as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it fell from the mountain, and brake in pieces the iron, the clay, the silver and the gold. This is what God has revealed to thee of the things which must come in the fulness of time. This dream is true and the interpretation thereof is faithful. Then Nebuchadnezzar fell upon his face towards the earth, etc."
Daniel viii. "Daniel having seen the combat of the ram and of the he-goat, who vanquished him and ruled over the earth, whereof the principal horn being broken four others came up towards the four winds of heaven, and out of one of them came forth a little horn, which waxed exceeding great toward the South and toward the East, and toward the land of Israel, and it waxed great, even to the host of heaven, and it cast down some of the stars, and stamped upon them, and at last overthrew the prince, and by him the daily sacrifice was taken away and the place of his sanctuary was cast down.
"This is what Daniel saw. He asked the explanation and a voice cried in this manner, 'Gabriel, make this man to understand the vision.' And Gabriel said,
"The ram which thou sawest is the king of the Medes and Persians, and the he-goat is the king of Greece, and the great horn that is between his eyes is the first king of this monarchy.
"Now that being broken, whereas four stood up for it, four kingdoms shall stand up out of the nation, but not with his strength.
"Now in the latter time of their kingdom when iniquities shall be grown up, there shall arise a king insolent and strong, but his power shall be not his own. To him all things shall succeed after his will, and he shall destroy the holy people, and through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand, and he shall destroy many. He shall also stand up against the Prince of Princes, but he shall perish miserably, and nevertheless by a violent hand."
Daniel ix. 20.
"As I was praying God with all my heart, and confessing my sin and the sin of all my people, and prostrating myself before God, even Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, came to me and touched me about the time of the evening oblation, and he informed me and said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to teach thee that thou mightest understand. At the beginning of thy prayer I came to show thee that which thou didst desire, for thou art greatly beloved: therefore understand the matter and consider the vision. Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people, and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to abolish iniquity and to bring in everlasting righteousness; to accomplish the vision and the prophecies, and to anoint the Most Holy.
"After which this people shall be no more thy people, nor this city the holy city. The times of wrath are passed and the years of grace shall come for ever.
"Know therefore, and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince, shall be seven weeks, and three score and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times."
The Hebrews were accustomed to divide numbers, and to place the smaller first, so that seven and sixty-two make sixty-nine. Of this seventy there will then rest the seventieth: that is to say the seven last years of which he will speak next, and after these sixty-two weeks which have followed the seven first, the Christ should be killed, and a people would come with its prince, who should destroy the city, and the sanctuary, and overwhelm all, and the end of that war will accomplish the desolation. Christ shall be killed after the sixty-nine weeks, that is to say, in the last week.
"Now one week, which is the seventieth, which remains, shall confirm the covenant with many, and in the midst of the week, that is to say the last three years and a half, he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate."
Daniel xi. The angel said to Daniel:
"There shall stand up yet,"--after Cyrus, under whom all this still is,--"three kings in Persia,"--Cambyses, Smyrdis, Darius;--"and the fourth,"--Xerxes, who shall then come,--"shall be far richer than they all, and far stronger, and shall stir up all his people against the Greeks, and a mighty king shall stand up,"--Alexander,--"that shall rule with great dominion, and do according to his will. And when he shall stand up, his kingdom shall be broken, and shall be divided in four parts toward the four winds of heaven,"--see also vii. 6 vii. 8--"but not to his posterity, and his successors shall not equal his power, for his kingdom shall be plucked up, even for others beside these,"--his four principal successors.
"And the king--Ptolemy son of Lagos,--of the south,"--Egypt,--"shall be strong,--but one of his princes shall be strong above him,"--Seleucus king of Syria,--"and his dominion shall be a great dominion,"--Appian says that he was the most powerful of Alexander's successors.
"And in the end of years they shall join themselves together, and the king's daughter of the South,"--Berenice, daughter of Ptolemy Philadelphus, son of the other Ptolemy--"shall come to the king of the North to make peace between these princes"--to Antiochus Deus, king of Syria and of Asia, son of Seleucus Lagidas.
"But neither she nor her seed shall have a long authority, for she and they that sent her and they that brought her, and her children and her friends, shall be delivered to death,"--Berenice and her son were killed by Seleucus Callinicus.
"But out of a branch of her roots"--Ptolemy Euergetes was the son of the same father as Berenice--"shall one stand up in his estate, who shall come with an army into the land of the king of the north, and shall put all under subjection, and carry captives into Egypt their gods, their princes, their gold, their silver, and all their precious spoils, and shall continue many years when the king of the North can do nought against him."--If he had not been called into Egypt by domestic reasons, says Justin, he would have entirely ruined Seleucus.
"And thus he shall return into his kingdom, but his sons shall be stirred up and shall prepare an exceeding great multitude"--Seleucus Ceraunus, Antiochus the Great.
"And their army shall come and overthrow all, whereat the king of the South being moved with choler, shall come forth and fight with him and conquer,"--Ptolemy Philopator against Antiochus the Great at Raphia--"and his troops shall become insolent, and his heart shall be lifted up,"--this Ptolemy desecrated the temple--Josephus--"and he shall cast down many ten thousands, but he shall not be strengthened by it.