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| The Householder and His Treasury.
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15. The Householder and His Treasury.
Now since “every scribe who has been made a
disciple to the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is a
householder who bringeth forth out of his treasury things new and
old,”5242
it clearly follows,
by “conversion of the proposition,” as it is called, that
every one who does not bring forth out of his treasury things new and
old, is not a scribe who has been made a disciple unto the kingdom of
heaven. We must endeavour, therefore, in every way to gather in
our heart, “by giving heed to reading, to exhortation, to
teaching,”5243
and by
“meditating in the law of the Lord day and night,”5244
not only the new oracles of the Gospels and
of the Apostles and their Revelation, but also the old things in the law “which has
the shadow of the good things to come,”5245
and in the prophets who prophesied in accordance with them. And
these things will be gathered together, when we also read and know, and
remembering them, compare at a fitting time things spiritual with
spiritual, not comparing things that cannot be compared with one
another, but things which admit of comparison, and which have a certain
likeness of diction signifying the same thing, and of thoughts and of
opinions, so that by the mouth of two or three or more
witnesses5246
from the Scripture,
we may establish and confirm every word of God. By means of them
also we must refute those who, as far as in them lies, cleave in twain
the Godhead and cut off the New from the Old,5247
so
that they are far removed from likeness to the householder who brings
forth out of his treasury things new and old. And since he who is
likened to any one is different from the one to whom he is likened, the
scribe “who is made a disciple unto the kingdom of heaven”
will be the one who is likened, but different from him is the
householder “who brings out of his treasury things new and
old.” But he who is likened to him, as in imitation of him,
wishes to do that which is like. Perhaps, then, the man who is a
householder is Jesus Himself, who brings forth out of His treasury,
according to the time of the teaching, things new, things spiritual,
which also are always being renewed by Him in the “inner
man” of the righteous, who are themselves always being renewed
day by day,5248
and old things,
things “written and engraven on stones,”5249
and in the stony hearts of the old man, so
that by comparison of the letter and by exhibition of the spirit He may
enrich the scribe who is made a disciple unto the kingdom of heaven,
and make him like unto Himself; until the disciple shall be as the
Master, imitating first the imitator of Christ, and after him Christ
Himself, according to that which is said by Paul, “Be ye
imitators of me even as I also of Christ.”5250
And likewise, Jesus the householder
may in the simpler sense bring forth out of His treasury things
new,—that is, the evangelic teaching—and things
old,—that is, the comparison of the sayings which are taken from
the law and the prophets, of which we may find examples in the
Gospels. And with regard to these things new and old, we must
attend also to the spiritual law which says in Leviticus, “And ye
shall eat old things, and the old things of the old, and ye shall bring
forth the old from before the new; and I will set my tabernacle among
you.”5251
For we eat
with blessing the old things,—the prophetic words,—and the
old things of the old things,—the words of the law; and, when the
new and evangelical words came, living according to the Gospel we bring
forth the old things of the letter from before the new, and He sets His
tabernacle in us, fulfilling the promise which He spoke, “I will
dwell among them and walk in them.”5252
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