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Chapter XX.
Celsus adds, that it was foretold to the Jews, that if
they did not obey the law, they would be treated in the same way as
they treated their enemies; and then he quotes from the teaching of
Christ some precepts which he considers contrary to those of the law,
and uses that as an argument against us. But before proceeding to
this point, we must speak of that which precedes. We hold, then,
that the law has a twofold sense,—the one literal, the other
spiritual,—as has been shown by some before us. Of the
first or literal sense it is said, not by us, but by God, speaking in
one of the prophets, that “the statutes are not good, and the
judgments not good;”4710
whereas, taken in a
spiritual sense, the same prophet makes God say that “His
statutes are good, and His judgments good.” Yet evidently
the prophet is not saying things which are contradictory of each
other. Paul in like manner says, that “the letter killeth,
and the spirit giveth life,”4711
meaning by
“the letter” the literal sense, and by “the
spirit” the spiritual sense of Scripture. We may therefore
find in Paul, as well as in the prophet, apparent contradictions.
Indeed, if Ezekiel says in one place, “I gave them commandments
which were not good, and judgments whereby they should not live,”
and in another, “I gave them good commandments and judgments,
which if a man shall do, he shall live by them,”4712
Paul in like manner, when he wishes to
disparage the law taken literally, says, “If the ministration of
death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the
children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for
the glory of his countenance, which glory was to be done away; how
shall not the ministration of the Spirit be rather
glorious?”4713
But when in
another place he wishes to praise and recommend the law, he calls it
“spiritual,” and says, “We know that the law is
spiritual;” and, “Wherefore the law is holy, and the
commandment holy, and just, and good.”4714
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