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| Of the Full Narration to Be Employed in Catechising.
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Chapter 3.—Of the Full
Narration to Be Employed in Catechising.
5. The narration is full when each
person is catechised in the first instance from what is written in
the text, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the
earth,”1343
on to the
present times of the Church. This does not imply, however, either
that we ought to repeat by memory the entire Pentateuch, and the
entire Books of Judges, and Kings, and Esdras,1344
| 1344 In the
mss. we also find the reading Ezræ =
Ezra. | and the entire Gospel and Acts of
the Apostles, if we have learned all these word for word; or that
we should put all the matters which are contained in these volumes
into our own words, and in that manner unfold and expound them as a
whole. For neither does the time admit of that, nor does any
necessity demand it. But what we ought to do is, to give a
comprehensive statement of all things, summarily and generally, so
that certain of the more wonderful facts may be selected which are
listened to with superior gratification, and which have been ranked
so remarkably among the exact turning-points (of the history);1345
| 1345 In ipsis articulis
= “among the very articles,” or “connecting
links.” Reference is made to certain great epochs or articles of
time in sections 6 and 39. | that,
instead of exhibiting them to view only in their wrappings, if we
may so speak, and then instantly snatching them from our sight, we
ought to dwell on them for a certain space, and thus, as it were,
unfold them and open them out to vision, and present them to the
minds of the hearers as things to be examined and admired. But as
for all other details, these should be passed over rapidly, and
thus far introduced and woven into the narrative. The effect of
pursuing this plan is, that the particular facts which we wish to
see specially commended to attention obtain greater prominence in
consequence of the others being made to yield to them; while, at
the same time, neither does the learner, whose interest we are
anxious to stimulate by our statement, come to these subjects with
a mind already exhausted, nor is confusion induced upon the memory
of the person whom we ought to be instructing by our
teaching.
6. In all things, indeed, not only
ought our own eye to be kept fixed upon the end of the commandment,
which is “charity, out of a pure heart, and a good conscience,
and faith unfeigned,”1346
to which we should make all that
we utter refer; but in like manner ought the gaze of the person
whom we are instructing by our utterance to be moved1347
| 1347 Reading movendus, for
which monendus = to be admonished, also occurs in the
editions. | toward the
same, and guided in that direction. And, in truth, for no other
reason were all those things which we read in the Holy Scriptures
written, previous to the Lord’s advent, but for this,—namely,
that His advent might be pressed upon the attention, and that
the Church which was to be, should be intimated beforehand,
that is to say, the people of God throughout all nations; which
Church is His body, wherewith also are united and numbered all the
saints who lived in this world, even before His advent, and who
believed then in His future coming, just as we believe in His past
coming. For (to use an illustration) Jacob, at the time when he was
being born, first put forth from the womb a hand, with which also
he held the foot of the brother who was taking priority of him in
the act of birth; and next indeed the head followed, and
thereafter, at last, and as matter of course, the rest of the
members:1348
while,
nevertheless the head in point of dignity and power has precedence,
not only of those members which followed it then, but also of the
very hand which anticipated it in the process of the birth, and is
really the first, although not in the matter of the time of
appearing, at least in the order of nature. And in an analogous
manner, the Lord Jesus Christ, previous to His appearing in the
flesh, and coming forth in a certain manner out of the womb of His
secrecy, before the eyes of men as Man, the Mediator between God
and men,1349
“who is
over all, God blessed for ever,”1350
sent before Him, in the person of
the holy patriarchs and prophets, a certain portion of His body,
wherewith, as by a hand, He gave token beforetime of His own
approaching birth, and also supplanted1351
| 1351 Reading supplantavit. Some
mss. give supplantaret = wherewith
also He might supplant, etc. | the people who were prior to Him
in their pride, using for that purpose the bonds of the law, as if
they were His five fingers. For through five epochs of times1352
there was
no cessation in the foretelling and prophesying of His own destined
coming; and in a manner consonant with this, he through whom the
law was given wrote five books; and proud men, who were carnally
minded, and sought to “establish their own righteousness,”1353
were not
filled with blessing by the open hand of Christ, but were debarred
from such good by the hand compressed and closed; and therefore
their feet were tied, and “they fell, while we are risen, and
stand upright.”1354
But although, as I have said, the
Lord Christ did thus send before Him a certain portion of His body,
in the person of those holy men who came before Him as regards the
time of birth, nevertheless He is Himself the Head of the body, the
Church,1355
and all
these have been attached to that same body of which He is the head,
in virtue of their believing in Him whom they announced
prophetically. For they were not sundered (from that body) in
consequence of fulfilling their course before Him, but rather were
they made one with the same by reason of their obedience. For
although the hand may be put forward away before the head, still it
has its connection beneath the head. Wherefore all things which
were written aforetime were written in order that we might be
taught thereby,1356
and were
our figures, and happened in a figure in the case of these men.
Moreover they were written for our sakes, upon whom the end of the
ages has come.1357
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