Chapter 10. Of the Likeness of the Old and New Testaments

By the things aforesaid it may now appear evidently, that all the men whom from the beginning of the world God adopted into the estate of his people, were with the same law, and with the bond of the same doctrine, which now remains in force among us, bound in covenant to him. But because it is of no small importance that this point be well established, I will add to it for an addition, since the fathers were partakers of all one inheritance with us, and hoped for all one salvation by the grace of all one mediator, how far their estate differed from ours in this fellowship. But although the testimonies that we have gathered out of the law and the Prophets for proof thereof, do make it plain that there was never any other rule of religion and godliness in the people of God: yet because in writers there are oftentimes many things spoken of the difference of the old and new Testament, that may make the reader who is not of very sharp judgment to be in doubt: therefore we shall rightly appoint one peculiar place for the better and more exact discussing of this matter. Indeed that thing also, which otherwise should have been very profitable for us, is now made necessary by that monstrous scoundrel Servetus, and by diverse other mad men of the sect of Anabaptists, which have no other opinion of the people of Israel, than as of a herd of swine: which they foolishly feign to have been fattened up by the Lord here in this earth, without any hope of heavenly immortality. Therefore that we may keep away this pestilent error from godly minds, and also to pluck out of them all doubts which are used to arise upon hearing mention of the diversity between the old and new Testament: let us by the way look, what they have in them alike, and what unlike one to the other: what covenant the Lord made with the Israelites in the old time before the coming of Christ, and what covenant he has now made with us since Christ has been openly revealed.

And both these points may be made plain with one word. The covenant of all the fathers so differs nothing from ours in substance and in the matter itself, that it is altogether one and the self same: but the administration is diverse. But because of so great brevity no man would be able to attain a certain understanding, we must needs proceed on with a longer declaration if we mean to profit anything at all. But in showing how they are alike or rather all one, it shall be superfluous to discourse again anew upon all the special particulars that have already been declared: and it shall be out of season to mingle those things together that remain yet to be spoken in other places. Here we must chiefly rest upon three principal points: First, that we hold, that carnal wealth and felicity was not the mark appointed to the Jews to aspire to, but that they were by adoption chosen to the hope of immortality: and that the truth of this adoption was certainly assured to them both by oracles, and by the law, and by the Prophets. Second, that the covenant whereby they were joined to the Lord, was upheld not by any merits of theirs, but by the only mercy of God that called them. Third, that they both had and knew Christ the mediator, by whom they should both be joined to God and enjoy his promises. Of which points, because the second perhaps is not yet sufficiently known, it shall in the place appointed for it be declared at large. For we shall confirm by many and clear testimonies of the Prophets, that it was of his own mere goodness and tender favor, whatever good the Lord at any time did, and promised to the people of Israel. The third also has already had here and there some plain declarations of it, and we have not left the first altogether untouched.

Therefore in setting out of this point, because it most especially belongs to this present matter, and for that they make us most controversy about it, we will employ the more earnest effort: but yet so that if there lacks yet anything of the explanation of the other, it may be by the way supplied, or in convenient place be added. Truly the Apostle takes away all doubt of them all, when he says, that God the Father long before by the Prophets in the holy Scriptures promised the Gospel, which he afterward published according to the time appointed. Again, that the righteousness of faith which is obtained by the Gospel itself, has witness of the law and the Prophets. For the gospel does not hold the hearts of men in the joy of this present life, but lifts them up to the hope of immortality: does not fasten them to earthly delights, but preaching to them a hope laid up in heaven, does in a manner transport them there. For thus he defines in another place: Since you believed the Gospel, you are sealed up with the holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance, for the redemption of the possession purchased. Again, we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of your charity toward the holy ones, for the hope's sake that is laid up for you in heaven, of which you have heard by the true speech of the gospel. Again: He has called us by the gospel to the partaking of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore it is called, both the word of salvation, and the power of God to save the faithful, and the kingdom of heaven. Now if the doctrine of the gospel be spiritual, and opens the entry to the possession of an incorruptible life: let us not think, that they to whom it was promised and declared, did pass over and neglect the care of their soul, and lie dully like beasts in seeking pleasures of the body. Neither let any man here object that the promises which are sealed in the law and the Prophets, concerning the gospel, were ordained for the new people. For within a little after that which he spoke of the Gospel promised in the law, he adds, that all the things that the law contains, are without doubt properly directed to them that are under the law. I grant indeed it is in another argument. But he was not so forgetful, that when he had once said that all the things which the law contains belong to the Jews, he did not remember what in a few verses before he had affirmed of the gospel promised in the law. Therefore the Apostle shows most plainly, that the old Testament chiefly tended to the life to come, when he says, that under it are contained the promises of the gospel.

By the same reason follows, both that it stood upon the free mercy of God, and also was confirmed by the means of Christ. For the very preaching of the gospel pronounces no other thing, but that sinners are justified by the fatherly kindness of God, without their own deserving: and the whole sum thereof is fulfilled in Christ. Who then dare make the Jews without Christ, with whom we hear that the covenant of the gospel was made, of which Christ is the only foundation? Who dare make them strangers from the benefit of free salvation, to whom we hear that the doctrine of the righteousness of faith was ministered? But, that we dispute not long of an evident matter, we have a notable sentence of the Lord. Abraham rejoiced that he might see my day, he saw it and was glad. And the same thing which Christ there testifies of Abraham, the Apostle shows that it was universal in the faithful people, when he says, that Christ abides, yesterday, this day, and forever. For he speaks not there only of the eternal godhead of Christ, but also of his power, which was continually opened to the faithful. Therefore both the blessed Virgin and Zacharias in their songs, do say, that the salvation revealed in Christ, is the performance of the promises, which God in old time had made to Abraham and the Patriarchs. If the Lord in giving his Christ, discharged his old oath, it cannot be said but that the end thereof was always in Christ, and everlasting life.

Indeed the Apostle does make the Israelites equal with us, not only in the grace of the covenant, but also in signification of Sacraments. For meaning by examples of punishments, with which the Scripture recites that they were corrected in the old time, to make the Corinthians afraid, that they should not run into the like offenses, he begins with this preface, that there is no cause why we should challenge any prerogative to ourselves, to deliver us from the vengeance of God which they sustained, for as much as the Lord did not only grant to them the same benefits, but he has gloriously set forth his grace among them with the same tokens: As if he should have said: If you trust that you be out of peril, because both Baptism with which you be marked, and the Supper which you daily receive, have excellent promises, and in the meantime despising the goodness of God, you are licentiously wanton: Know that the Jews also were not without such sacraments, against whom yet the Lord did most severely put his judgments in execution. They were baptized in passing over the Sea, and in the cloud with which they were defended from the burning heat of the sun. They say, that that same passage was a carnal Baptism, which after a certain proportion answers to our spiritual Baptism. But if that were allowed true, the Apostle's argument could not proceed, which means here to have this taken away from the Christians, that they think that they excel the Jews by the prerogative of Baptism. Neither is that which by and by after follows, subject to this cavilation: that they did eat the same spiritual meat that we eat, and drank the same spiritual drink, which he expounds to be Christ.

To overthrow this sentence of Paul, they object that which Christ says: Your fathers did eat Manna in the wilderness, and are dead: he that eats my flesh, shall not die forever. Which two places are very easily made to agree together. The Lord, because he then talked to hearers that sought only to be filled with food of their belly, but cared not for the meat of the soul, tempered his talk somewhat to their capacity, but specially he frames the comparison of Manna and of his body according to their sense. They required that he, to get himself some credit, would approve his power with doing some such miracle, as Moses did in the wilderness, when he obtained Manna from Heaven. But in Manna they conceived nothing but the remedy of carnal hunger, with which the people was then vexed: but they pierced not to that higher mystery which Paul has respect to: Christ therefore, to show how much greater a benefit they ought to look for at his hand, than that which they reported that Moses did bestow upon their fathers, frames this comparison: If it were a great miracle in your opinion, and worthy to be remembered, that the Lord by Moses ministered food from Heaven to his people, to sustain them for a small time, that they should not perish for hunger in the wilderness: gather hereby how much more excellent is the meat that gives immortality. We see why the Lord passed over that thing which was principal in Manna, and spoke only of the basest profit of it: even because the Jews as it were of purpose to reproach him, did cast Moses in his teeth, which succored the necessity of the people with remedy of Manna: he answered that he is the minister of a much higher grace, in comparison of which, the carnal feeding of the people, which alone they so much esteemed, ought of right to be nothing regarded. But Paul, because he knew that the Lord when he rained Manna from heaven, did not only pour it down for the feeding of their belly, but also did distribute it for a spiritual mystery, to be a figure of the spiritual quickening that is had in Christ, did not neglect that part that was most worthy of consideration. Therefore it certainly and clearly follows, that the same promises of eternal and heavenly life, which now the Lord vouchsafes to grant to us, were not only communicated to the Jews, but also sealed with very spiritual Sacraments. Of which matter Augustine disputes largely against Faustus the Manichee.

But if the readers had rather to have testimonies alleged to them out of the law and the Prophets, by which they may perceive that the spiritual covenant was common also to the fathers, as we hear by Christ and the Apostles: I will also follow that desire, and so much the more willingly, because by that means the adversaries shall be more surely convinced, so that they shall have afterward no way to dally. And I will begin at that proof, which although I know that the Anabaptists' pride will think very fond and in a manner to be laughed at, yet shall much avail with such readers as are willing to learn and have their sound wit. And I take it as a principle confessed, that there is such effectual force of life in the word of God, that whoever God vouchsafes to be partakers thereof, it quickens their souls. For this saying Peter has always been of force, that it is the incorruptible seed which abides forever, as he also gathers out of the words of Isaiah. Now since God in the old time bound the Jews to him with this holy bond, it is no doubt that he did also sever them into the hope of eternal life. For when I say they embraced the word, which should join them [reconstructed: together] to God, I take it for the manner of communicating it: not that general manner, which is poured abroad throughout the heaven and earth and all the creatures of the world, which although it does quicken all things, every one after the proportion of their nature, yet it does not deliver them from necessity of corruption: but I speak of this special manner, by which the souls of the godly are both lightened to the knowledge of God, and in a manner coupled to him. By this enlightening of the word, since Adam, Abel, Noah, Abraham, and the other fathers cleaved to God, I say that it is not doubtful that they had an entry into the immortal kingdom of God. For it was a sound partaking of God, which cannot be without the benefit of eternal life.

But if this seem somewhat entangled: go to, let us come to the very form of the covenant, which shall not only satisfy sober minds, but also shall sufficiently convince their ignorance that bend themselves to speak against it. For God did always thus covenant with his servants: I will be to you a God, and you shall be to me a people. In which words the Prophets themselves are accustomed to expound, that both life and salvation, and the whole sum of blessedness is comprehended. For David does not without cause often pronounce, that blessed is the people, whose God is the Lord: blessed is the nation, which he has chosen to be his inheritance: and that not for earthly felicities' sake, but because he delivers them from death, he preserves them forever, and continually shows them eternal mercy, whom he has taken to his people: as it is in the other Prophets, You are our God, we shall not die: The Lord is our king, our lawmaker, he shall save us. Blessed are you, O Israel, because you are saved in the Lord God. But, not to labor too much in a thing needless, this admonition is sound each where in the Prophets, that we shall want nothing toward all abundance of good things, and assurance of salvation, so that the Lord be our God. And rightly: For if his face so soon as it begins to shine, is a most present pledge of salvation, to what man shall he openly show himself for his God, but that he will also open to him his treasure of salvation? For he is our God with this condition, to dwell in the midst of us: as he testified by Moses. But such presence cannot be obtained, but that life must be also together had in possession with it. And although there were no more expressed, yet had they a promise of spiritual life plain enough in these words: I am your God. For he did not declare that he would be a God to their bodies alone, but principally to their souls. But souls, unless they be joined to God by righteousness, remain estranged from him in death. But on the other side, let that joining be present, it shall bring everlasting salvation with it.

Besides that, he did not only testify that he was to them their God, but he also promised that he would be so always: to the end that their hope not contented with present benefits, should be extended to eternity. And many sayings show, that the speaking in the future time meant so much, as where the faithful not only in present evils, but also for the time to come, do comfort themselves with this, that God will never fail them. Now as concerning the second part of the promise, he yet more plainly assured them of the blessing of God to be prolonged to them beyond the bounds of this life, in saying: I will be the God of your seed after you. For if he minded to declare his good will toward them being dead, in doing good to their posterity, much more would his favor not fail toward themselves. For God is not like to men, which do therefore carry their love to their friends' children, because their power is interrupted by death, so that they cannot employ their friendly doings upon them to whom they did bear good will. But God, whose bountifulness is not hindered by death, takes not away from the very dead the fruit of his mercy, which for their sakes he pours out into a thousand generations. Therefore the Lord's will was by a notable proof to set forth to them the greatness and flowing plenty of his goodness which they should feel after death, when he described it to be such as should flow over into all their posterity. And the truth of this promise the Lord did then seal, and as it were brought forth the fulfilling of it, when he named himself the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, long after their death. For, what? Had it not been a fond naming, if they had utterly perished? For then had it been all one, as if he had said, I am the God of them that are not. Therefore the Evangelists recount, that with this one argument the Sadducees were so driven to a strait, that they could not deny that Moses did testify the resurrection of the dead, for that they had learned by Moses, that all the saints were in his hand. Whereupon it was easy to gather, that they are not destroyed by death, whom he that is the judge of life and death had received into his safeguard, custody, and protection.

Now (which is the principal point whereupon this controversy hangs) let us look, whether the faithful themselves have not been so instructed by the Lord, that they perceived that they should have a better life elsewhere, and so neglecting this life, had an eye to the other. First the state of life that was enjoined them by God, was a continual exercise, whereby they might be put in mind, that they were the most miserable of all men, if their happiness were only in this life. Adam, most unhappy, even with only remembrance of the happiness that he had lost, did with painful labors hardly sustain his neediness, and that he should not be pressed with the curse of God, in the only labors of his hands, even there received he extreme sorrow of that which remained for him to be his comfort. Of his two sons, the one was taken away by the wicked slaughter of his brother: the other he had left alive, whose sight he worthily detested and abhorred. Abel cruelly murdered in the very flower of his age, became an example of the wretchedness of men. Noah, while the whole world carelessly lived in pleasure, spent a good part of his age with great weariness in building the Ark. That he escaped death came to pass by his greater troubles, than if he should have died a hundred deaths. For besides that the Ark was to him as a grave for 10 months, there is nothing more unpleasant than to be held so long in a manner drowned in dung of beasts. When he had passed over so great difficulties, he fell into new matter of grief, he saw himself scorned by his own son, and was compelled with his own mouth to curse him, whom by the great benefit of God he had received safe from the general flood.

Abraham indeed may be one alone to be compared with a hundred thousand, if we consider his faith, which is set forth to us for the best rule of believing, of whose kindred we must be accounted, that we may be the children of God. But what more absurdity is there than Abraham to be the father of all the faithful, and not to possess so much as the smallest corner among them? But he cannot be thrown down out of the number, no not from the most honorable degree, but that the whole church must be destroyed. Now as touching the experiences of his life: When he was first called by the commandment of God, he was plucked away from his country, his parents and his friends, in whom men think to be the chief sweetness of life: even as if God of determined purpose meant to spoil him of all the pleasures of life. As soon as he came into the land where he was commanded to dwell, he was driven out from there with famine. There he fled for succor, where to save himself, he was compelled to deliver out his wife to be abused, which we know not whether it were not more bitter to him than many deaths. When he was returned into the land of his own dwelling, he was driven out again from there with famine. What a felicity is this, to dwell in that land, wherein a man must so often be hungry, indeed die for famine if he does not run away? And therewith he was brought to that necessity with Abimelech, that he must needs redeem his life with the loss of his wife, while many years long he wandered uncertainly here and there, he was compelled by the continual brawlings of his servants to put away his nephew, whom he loved as his own son. Which departing without doubt he did no otherwise take, than if he had suffered the cutting of one of his limbs. A little after, he heard that he was carried away captive by his enemies. Wherever he went, he found neighbors outrageously barbarous, which would not suffer him so much as to drink water out of the wells that himself had dug with great labor. For he would not have redeemed the use of them at the hand of king Gerar, if he had not first been forbidden. Now when he came to old age, he saw the thing which is the most unpleasant and bitter that that age has, himself punished with having no children, till besides all hope he begot Ishmael, whose birth yet he paid dearly for, when he was wearied with the brawling of Sarah, as if he in maintaining the stubbornness of his bondwoman were himself the cause of the trouble of his household. At length Isaac was born, but with this condition that his first begotten Ishmael must, as forsaken, be cruelly cast out of doors. When only Isaac was left, in whom the wearied age of the simple good man might rest, within a little after he was commanded to kill him. What can man's wit devise more miserable, than the father to be made the butcher of his own son? If Isaac had died of any sickness, who would not have thought the old man most miserable, that had a son given him in mockery, for whom his grief of want of children should be doubled? If he had been slain by some stranger, the unhappiness of the thing would have much increased his misery. But this passes all examples of misery, to have him slain with his father's own hand. Finally, he was in all the whole course of his life so tossed and vexed, as if a man would in a table paint out an example of a miserable life, he could find none more fit, than this of Abraham. And let no man object that he was not altogether unhappy, for that he at length prosperously escaped from so many and so great tempests. For we cannot say that he lives a blessed life, which for a long space together painfully wears out infinite troubles, but him that without feeling of evils, quietly enjoys present good things.

Isaac, who was less troubled with evils, yet scarce ever took any taste of sweetness. He also felt the same vexations that do not suffer a man to be blessed on the earth. Famine chased him out of the land of Canaan; he had his wife violently plucked away from his bosom; his neighbors often troubled him, and by all means oppressed him, so that he was obliged to strive for his water; at home in his own house, he suffered much troublesomeness by his children's wives, he was grieved with disagreements of his sons, and could not remedy that so great a mischief, but by the banishment of him whom he had blessed. But as for Jacob, he is nothing else but a notable example of extreme infelicity. He passed his childhood most unquietly at home among the threatenings and terrors of his elder brother, to which at length he was compelled to give place. When he had fled from his parents and his native country, besides that it was a grievous thing to live in banishment, he was nothing more kindly or gently received of his uncle Laban. Then it sufficed not that he had served seven years a hard and cruel service, but that also he must be by guile defrauded of his wife. For another wife's sake he was driven into new service, where he was all the day parched with heat of the sun, and all the night lay waking and pained with frost and cold, as he himself complained. While he by the space of 20 years suffered so hard a life, he was daily vexed with new injuries of his father-in-law. Neither was he quiet in his own house, seeing it divided and in a manner scattered abroad with the hatred, brawling, and envy of his wives. When he was commanded to return into his country, he was compelled to watch an advantage to take his journey, much like a shameful running away; and yet could he not so escape the unjust dealing of his father-in-law, but was obliged to suffer his reproaches and rebukes in the midst of his journey. Then fell he into a much more cruel distress. For when he came near to his brother, he had so many deaths before his eyes as might be prepared by a cruel man and a bent enemy. So was he above measure tormented, and as it were drawn asunder, with terrible fears, so long as he looked for his brother's coming; when he came once in his sight, he fell down as half dead at his feet, until he found him more favorable than he dared have hoped. Besides that, at his first entry into the land, he lost Rachel his dearly beloved wife. Afterward he heard word that the son which he had by her, and whom therefore he loved above the rest, was torn with wild beasts; by whose death how great grief he conceived, he himself declared in this, that after long weeping he obstinately stopped up all ways whereby comfort might come to him, leaving himself nothing but to go down to his son wailing into the grave. In the meantime how great causes of grief, waiting, and weariness were the ravishment and deflowering of his daughter, and the boldness of his sons in avenging it, which not only made him to be abhorred in sight of all the inhabitants of that country, but also procured him most present peril of utter destruction? Then followed that horrible outrageous offense of Reuben his firstborn son, which was such as there could not chance a more grievous. For whereas the defiling of a man's wife is reckoned among the highest ill fortunes, what is to be said of it when that wickedness is committed by a man's own son? Within a little while after, his house is spotted with another unnatural adultery; so that so many shames might well break a heart that otherwise were most constant and unable to be vanquished with calamities. Near before the end of his life, while he sought to provide succor for the famine of himself and others, he was stricken with tidings of a new misfortune, understanding that another of his sons was kept in prison, for the recovering of whom he was compelled to leave to the rest Benjamin his only darling. Who can think that in such a heap of mischiefs he had any one moment given him safely to take breath in? And therefore he himself, the best witness of himself, affirmed to Pharaoh that his days were short and [reconstructed: evil] upon the earth. Now truly he that declares that he has passed his life by continual miseries, denies that he felt that prosperity which the Lord had promised him. Therefore either Jacob did unkindly and unthankfully weigh the grace of God, or he truly professed that he had been miserable upon the earth. If his affirmation were true, then it follows that he had not his hope fastened on earthly things.

If these holy fathers looked for (as undoubtedly they did) a blessed life at the hand of God, truly they both thought and saw it to be another manner of blessedness, than the blessedness of earthly life. Which thing the Apostle also shows excellently well: Abraham (says he) directed by faith in the land of promise as in a strange land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, partners with him of the same inheritance. For they looked for a city set upon a good foundation, the maker and builder of which is God. All these are dead in faith, not receiving the things promised, but looking at them from far off, and believing and confessing that they were guests and strangers upon the land. Whereby they declare that they sought for a country. And if they had been moved with desire of that land from where they came, they had power to return. But they sought for a better, that is the heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, inasmuch as he has prepared them a city. For they had been duller than blocks, to follow promises so earnestly of which there appeared no hope in earth, unless they had looked for the fulfilling of them elsewhere. But this he chiefly enforces, and that not without good reason, that they called this life a journey from home, even as Moses reports. For if they were strangers and foreigners in the land of Canaan, where is the Lord's promise whereby they were made heirs of it? He shows plainly therefore, that the Lord's promise, concerning the possession of it, had a further respect. Therefore they purchased not one foot in the land of Canaan, but for burial, whereby they testified, that they did not hope that they should receive the fruit of the promise till after death. And that is the cause why Jacob so much esteemed to be buried there, that he compelled his son Joseph to promise it him, and to swear to perform it: and why Joseph willed his bones, certain ages after, when they were long before fallen into powder, to be removed there.

Finally, it appears plainly, that in all the travails of this life they had always set before them the blessedness of the life to come. For to what purpose should Jacob have so much desired, and with so great danger sought the preeminence of the firstborn, which should procure him nothing but banishment, and in a manner to be cast off from being his child: but no good at all, unless he had respect to a higher blessing. And he declared, that he had this meaning by the words which he spoke among his last breathings: Lord, I will look for your salvation. What salvation could he have looked for, when he saw that he lay ready to give up the ghost, unless he had seen in death the beginning of a new life? But what do we dispute of the holy ones and children of God, when even he was not without a taste of such understanding, who otherwise was enemy to the truth? For what meant Balaam when he said: Let my soul die the death of the righteous, and let my last times be like theirs? But that he meant the same thing that David afterward uttered, that the death of the saints is precious in the sight of the Lord, but the death of the wicked, is very evil? If the furthest bound and end were in death, there could in it be noted no difference between the righteous and unrighteous, they differ one from the other by the diversity of the estates, that after death shall befall to them both.

We are not yet come beyond Moses: who (as these men say) had no other office, but to persuade the carnal people to worship God by the fruitfulness of the ground and plenty of all things. And yet (unless a man will flee the light that willingly offers itself) there is already a plain declaration of the spiritual covenant. But if we come down to the prophets, there with most full brightness both the life everlasting and the kingdom of Christ do utter themselves. And first of all David, who as he was before the others in time, so according to the order of God's distribution, he showed the heavenly mysteries in shadows more darkly than the rest, yet with what plainness and certainty does he direct all his sayings to that end? How he esteemed the earthly dwelling, this sentence testifies: I am here a foreigner and stranger, as all my fathers were. Every living man is vanity, every one walks about as a shadow. But now what is my expectation, Lord? even to you is my hope. Truly he that confessing that in the earth there is nothing sound or steadfast, keeps still a steadfastness of hope in God, considers his felicity laid up in another place. To such consideration is he accustomed to call all the faithful, so often as he means to comfort them truly. For in another place, after he had spoken of the shortness, and the transitory and vanishing image of man's life, he adds: but the mercy of the Lord is forever upon them that fear him. Similar to this is what is in the hundred and second Psalm. At the beginning Lord you did lay the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the works of your hands. They shall perish, but you abide: they shall grow old like a garment, and you shall change them as apparel, but you remain the same, and your years shall not fail: the sons of your servants shall dwell, and your posterity shall be established before you. If the godly do not cease for the decay of heaven and earth to be established before the Lord, it follows, that their salvation is joined with the eternity of God. But that hope can not stand at all, unless it rest upon the promise that is set forth in Isaiah: The heavens (says the Lord) shall vanish away like smoke, the earth shall be worn out like a garment, and the inhabitants of it shall perish like those things. But my salvation shall be forever, and my righteousness shall not fail: where everlastingness is given to righteousness and salvation, not in respect that they remain with God, but in respect that they are felt of men.

Neither may we otherwise take those things, that he commonly speaks of the prosperous success of the faithful, but to apply them to the open showing of the heavenly glory. As these sayings: The Lord keeps the souls of the righteous, he shall deliver them from the hand of the sinner. Light is arisen to the righteous, and joy to the upright in heart. The righteousness of the godly man abides forever: his horn shall be exalted in glory, the desire of the sinner shall perish. Again: but the righteous shall confess to your name, the upright shall dwell with your countenance. Again the righteous shall be in eternal remembrance. Again: The Lord shall redeem the souls of his servants. For the Lord oftentimes leaves his servants to the lust of the wicked, not only to be vexed, but also to be torn in pieces and destroyed: he suffers the good to lie languishing in darkness and filth, while the wicked do in a manner shine among the stars. And he does not so cheer them with the brightness of his countenance, that they enjoy long continuing gladness. Therefore even he also hides not, that if the faithful fasten their eyes upon the present state of things, they shall be struck with a sore temptation, as though there were no favor or reward of innocence with God. So much does wickedness for the most part prosper and flourish, while the company of the godly is oppressed with shame, poverty, contempt and all kinds of crosses. It wanted but little (says he) that my foot slipped not, and my steps fell not abroad, while the fortune of fools grieves me, and while I see the prosperity of the wicked. At length after rehearsal of it he concludes: I bent my thought, if I could understand these things. But it is torment to my spirit, till I enter into the sanctuary of the Lord, and understand the last end of them.

Let us therefore learn, yet by this confession of David, that the holy fathers under the old testament were not ignorant, how seldom or never God does in this world perform to his servants those things that he promises them, and that therefore they did lift up their minds to God's sanctuary, in which they had that laid up in store, which appears not in the shadow of this present life. That was, the last judgment of God, which when they could not see with eyes, they were content to understand by faith. Trusting upon which assurance, whatever happened in the world, yet they doubted not a time would once come, when the promises of God should be fulfilled. As these sayings do witness: I will behold the face of God in righteousness; I will be satisfied with your countenance. Again: I as a green olive tree in the house of the Lord. Again: The righteous shall flourish as a date tree, and shall spread in branches like the cedar of Lebanon, being planted in the house of the Lord, they shall flourish in the palaces of our God: they shall still bear fruit, they shall be fat and green in their old age. When he had said a little before: Now deep are your thoughts, O Lord, while the wicked do flourish, they bud out like an herb, that they may perish forever. Where is that fair show and beauty of the faithful, but when the face of this world shall be turned inward by disclosing of the kingdom of God? When they turned their eyes to that eternity, they despised the hardness enduring but a moment of present miseries, and boldly burst forth into these words: You shall not suffer forever the righteous to die, but you shall throw down the wicked headlong into the pit of destruction. Where is in this world the pit of eternal destruction that may swallow up the wicked? Among whose felicities, this is also reckoned in another place, that they close up the end of their life in a moment, without long languishing. Where is that so great steadfastness of the holy ones, whom David himself everywhere complains, not only to be shaken with trouble, but also to be oppressed, and utterly broken in pieces? Surely, he did set before his eyes, not what the altering course of the world bears, which is unstable and more unsteadfast than the ebbing and flowing of tides, but what the Lord will do, when he shall one day sit for the eternal settling of heaven and earth. As in another place he excellently well describes it: The foolish do stay upon their wealthiness, and are proud because of their great riches. And yet no man, though he flourishes in never so great dignity, can redeem his brother from death, no man can pay to God the price of his ransom, but whereas they see that both the wise do die, and that the wicked also and fools do perish and leave their riches to strangers, yet they think that their houses shall abide forever, and their dwellings to the end of ages, and they advance their names upon the earth, but man shall not continue in honor: he shall be like to the beasts that die. This imagination of theirs is the most extreme folly, which yet their posterity do greedily follow. They shall be placed like a flock in Hell, and death shall have rule over them. When the light arises, the upright shall have dominion over them, the beauty of them shall perish, Hell is their dwelling house. First this laughing to scorn of the foolish, for that they rest on the slippery and rolling good things of the world, does show that the wise must seek a far other felicity. But there he more evidently discloses the mystery of the resurrection, where after the destruction and extinguishment of them, he erects the kingdom of the godly. For what rising of light (I pray you) shall we call that, but the revealing of the new life which follows the end of this present life?

From there did spring up that consideration, which the faithful often used for a comfort of their miseries and remedy of patience: It is but a moment in the Lord's displeasure, and life in his mercy. How did they determine afflictions to end in a moment, who were in affliction for almost the whole of their lives? Where did they spy so long an enduring of God's kindness, of which they scarcely felt any little taste? If they had stuck fast upon the earth, they could have found no such thing, but because they looked upon heaven, they acknowledged that it is but a moment of time, while the Lord exercises his holy ones by the cross, but that his mercies, in which they are gathered together, do last the world's age. Again, they did foresee the eternal and never-ending destruction of the ungodly, who were as in a dream happy for one day. Whereupon came these sayings: The remembrance of the righteous shall be in blessing, but the name of the wicked shall rot. Precious is the death of the saints in the sight of the Lord, but the death of the wicked, most evil. Again in Samuel: The Lord shall keep the feet of the holy, and the wicked shall be put to silence in darkness. Which do declare that they well knew, that however the holy were diversely carried about, yet their last end is life and salvation: and that the prosperity of the wicked is a pleasant way, whereby they by little and little slide forward into the gulf of death. Therefore they called the death of such, the destruction of the uncircumcised, as of those from whom the hope of the resurrection was cut away. Therefore David could not devise a more grievous curse than this: Let them be blotted out of the book of life, and not be written with the righteous.

But above all other, notable is that saying of Job: I know that my redeemer lives, and in the last day I shall rise again out of the earth, and in my flesh I shall see God my savior: This hope is laid up in my bosom. Some that have a mind to make a show of their sharp wit, do cavil that this is not to be understood of the last resurrection, but of the first day that Job looked to have God more gentle to him, which although we grant them in part, yet shall we enforce them to confess whether they will or no, that Job could not have come to that largeness of hope, if he had rested his thought upon the earth. Therefore we must needs confess, that he lifted up his eyes to the immortality to come, who saw that his redeemer would be present with him even lying in his grave. For to those that think only of his present life, death is their uttermost desperation: which very death could not cut off Job's hope. Indeed though he kill me (said he) nevertheless I will still hope in him. And let no trifler here carp against me and say that these were the sayings but of a few, whereby is not proved that such doctrine was among the Jews. For I will by and by answer him, that these few did not in these sayings utter any secret wisdom, to which only certain excellent wits were severally and privately suffered to attain, but that as they were by the Holy Ghost appointed teachers of the people, so they openly published those mysteries of God that were to be universally learned, and ought to be the principles of the common religion among the people. Therefore when we hear the public oracles of the Holy Ghost, wherein he spoke of the spiritual life so clearly and plainly in the Church of the Jews, it were a point of intolerable stubbornness, to send them away only to the fleshly covenant, in which is mention made of nothing, but earth and earthly wealthiness.

If I come down to the latter Prophets, there we may freely walk as in our own field. For if it were not hard for us to get the upper hand in David, Job, and Samuel, here it shall be much more easy. For God kept this distribution and order in disposing the covenant of his mercy, that how much the nearer it drew on in process of time to the full performance thereof, with so much greater increases of revelation he did day by day more brightly show it. Therefore at the beginning when the first promise of salvation was made to Adam, there glistered out but as it were small sparks of it. After, having more added to it, a greater largeness of light began to be put forth: which from there forth broke out more and more, and displayed its brightness farther abroad, till at length all the clouds were driven away, and Christ the sun of righteousness fully lightened the whole world. We need not therefore fear that we fail of testimonies of the Prophets, if we seek them to prove our cause, but because I see that there will arise a huge deal of matter, whereupon I should be constrained of necessity to tarry longer than the proportion of my purpose may bear, for it would so grow to a work of a great volume, and also because I have already, by those things that I have said before, made plain the way, even for a reader of mean capacity, so as he may go forward without stumbling: therefore I will at this present abstain from long tediousness: which to do is no less necessary: but giving the readers warning beforehand, that they remember to open their own way with that key that we have first given them in their hand. That is, that so often as the Prophets speak of the blessedness of the faithful people, of which scarcely the least steps are seen in this present life, they may resort to this distinction: that the Prophets, the better to express the goodness of God, did as in a shadow express it to the people by temporal benefits, as by certain rough drawing of the portraiture thereof: but that the perfect image, that they have painted thereof, was such as might ravish men's minds out of the earth, and out of the elements of this world, and of the age that shall perish, and of necessity raise it up to the considering of the felicity of the life that is to come and spiritual.

We will be content with one example. When the Israelites being carried away to Babylon, saw their scattering abroad to be like to death, they could hardly be removed from this opinion that they thought that all was but fables that Ezekiel prophesied of their restitution: because they reckoned it even all one as if he had told them that rotten carcasses should be restored again to life. The Lord to show, that even that same difficulty could not stop him from bringing his benefit to effect, showed to the Prophet in a vision a field full of dry bones, to the which in a moment with the only power of his word he restored breath and liveliness. The vision in deed served to correct the incredulity at that present time: but in the mean season he did put the Jews in mind how far the power of the Lord extended beyond the account of the people, which so easily quickened with his only beck, bones already rotten and scattered abroad. Therefore you shall compare that with another saying of Isaiah. The dead shall rise, my carcass, they shall rise again. Awake you and rejoice that dwell in the dust, because the dew of the green field is your dew, and you shall pull down the land of the Giants into ruin. So my people, enter into your tents: shut your doors upon you: hide yourself a little while, till my displeasure pass over. For behold, the Lord shall go out of his place, to visit the iniquity of the dweller upon the earth against him, and the earth shall show forth her blood, and shall no longer hide her slain.

Although a man should do foolishly, that would go about to draw all to such a rule. For there be some places that without any covering do show the immortality to come, that is prepared for the faithful in the kingdom of God, of which sort we have recited some, and of like sort are the most part of the rest, specially these two, the one in Isaiah. As new heaven, and a new earth which I make to stand before me, so shall your seed stand, and there shall be month of month, and Sabbath of Sabbath: all flesh shall come to worship before my face, says the Lord. And they shall go out and see the dead carcasses of the men that have offended against me, that their worm shall not die, and their fire shall not be quenched. The other of Daniel. In that time shall rise up Michael the great prince, that stands for the sons of his people, and there shall come a time of distress, such as was not since nations first began to be, and then shall all your people be saved that shall be found written in your book. And of those that sleep in the dust of the earth, there shall awake some to eternal life, and some to everlasting shame.

Now as for proving the other two points that the fathers had Christ for pledge of their covenant, and that they reposed in him all their trust of blessing, I will not labor therein at all, because they have both less controversy and more plainness. Let us therefore boldly determine this, which by no engines of the devil may be removed, that the old Testament or covenant which the Lord made with his people Israel, was not limited within the compass of earthly things, but also contained the promise of the spiritual and eternal life: the expectation whereof must needs have been imprinted in all their minds that truly consented to the covenant. But let us put far away this mad and pernicious opinion, that either God did set forth in his promise to the Jews nothing else, or that the Jews sought nothing else but filling of their belly, delights of the flesh, flourishing wealth, outward power, fruitfulness of children, and whatever a natural man esteems. For at this day Christ promises no other kingdom of heaven to his, but where they shall rest with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And Peter affirmed, that the Jews of his time were heirs of the grace of the Gospel, for that they were the children of the Prophets, comprehended in the covenant, which the Lord had in the old time made with his people. And, that the same should not be witnessed with words only, the Lord also approved it by deed. For in the very moment that he rose again, he vouchsafed to have many of the holy men to rise again in company with him, and made them to be seen in the City: so giving an assured token, that whatever he did and suffered for the purchasing of eternal salvation, pertains no less to the faithful of the old testament, than to us. For as Peter testifies, they were also endowed with the same spirit of faith, whereby we are regenerated into life. Now, when we hear that the same spirit which is in us a certain spark of immortality, whereupon it is also in another place called the earnest of our inheritance, did likewise dwell in them, how dare we take from them the inheritance of life? Whereby it is so much the more marvel, that in the old time the Sadducees fell to such grossness of error, that they denied both the resurrection and also the substance of souls, both which points they saw sealed with so clear testimonies of Scripture. And no less to be marveled at, even at this day, were the folly of all that nation in looking for the earthly kingdom of Christ, if the Scriptures had not long before declared, that they should have that punishment for refusing the Gospel. For so it behooved, by the just judgment of God, to strike those minds with blindness, which in refusing the light of heaven being offered them, did willfully bring themselves into darkness. Therefore they read and continually turn over Moses, but they are stopped with a veil set between them and him, that they cannot see the light that shines in his countenance. And so shall it remain covered and hidden from them, till he be turned to Christ, from whom now they labor to lead and draw him away so much as in them lies.

From what has been said, it is now clear that all the people God adopted from the beginning of the world were bound to Him in covenant by the same law and the same teaching that remains in force among us today. But because it is no small matter to have this point well established, I will add a further discussion. The fathers shared the same inheritance with us and hoped for the same salvation through the grace of the same Mediator — yet their condition differed from ours within that fellowship. Although the testimonies we have gathered from the law and the prophets make it plain that there was never any other rule of religion and godliness in God's people, writers frequently say things about the difference between the old and new covenant that may leave readers of less sharp judgment uncertain. We will therefore rightly set aside a specific place to examine this matter more carefully. This has been made necessary not only by its inherent importance but also by the monstrous claims of Servetus and various deluded people among the Anabaptists, who regard the people of Israel as no better than a herd of swine — whom they absurdly imagine the Lord fattened up on this earth with no hope of heavenly immortality. To keep this deadly error away from godly minds, and to remove the doubts that commonly arise when the differences between the old and new covenant are mentioned, let us look at what they have in common and where they differ — and what covenant the Lord made with the Israelites before the coming of Christ, and what covenant He has made with us since Christ has been openly revealed.

Both points can be stated in a single sentence: the covenant of all the fathers differs from ours in nothing as to its substance and essential content — it is wholly one and the same — but the administration of it is different. Such brevity alone would be enough to confuse rather than clarify, so we must proceed with a fuller explanation if we are to do any good. In showing how the two are alike — or rather, how they are one — it would be unnecessary to repeat all the particulars already discussed, and it would be premature to mix in things still to be treated elsewhere. We must rest chiefly on three main points. First: the Jews were not appointed to aim at earthly wealth and happiness as their final goal — they were chosen by adoption to the hope of immortality, and the truth of that adoption was confirmed for them by the oracles, the law, and the prophets. Second: the covenant by which they were joined to the Lord rested not on any merit of theirs but on the mercy alone of the God who called them. Third: they both possessed and knew Christ the Mediator, through whom they were joined to God and made partakers of His promises. The second point has perhaps not yet been sufficiently established, and it will be treated fully in the proper place. There we will confirm with many clear testimonies from the prophets that whatever good the Lord did or promised to the people of Israel was entirely from His own pure goodness and tender favor. The third point has already been touched on clearly in various places, and the first has not been left entirely unaddressed either.

In setting out this first point, which most directly belongs to the present topic and on which the most controversy centers, we will apply the most careful attention. But we will also supply along the way, or at the appropriate place, anything that remains lacking in the explanation of the other points. The apostle removes all doubt when he says that God the Father long before had promised the Gospel through the prophets in the holy Scriptures, and afterward published it according to the appointed time. He also says that the righteousness of faith obtained through the Gospel itself has the testimony of the law and the prophets. For the Gospel does not anchor people's hearts in the joys of this present life — it lifts them to the hope of immortality. It does not fasten them to earthly pleasures — it proclaims to them a hope laid up in heaven and, in a sense, transports them there. As Paul defines it elsewhere: 'When you believed the Gospel, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the pledge of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession.' Again: 'We have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love toward the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven, of which you heard in the true message of the Gospel.' Again: 'He called us through the Gospel to obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.' The Gospel is therefore called the word of salvation, the power of God to save the faithful, and the kingdom of heaven. Now if the teaching of the Gospel is spiritual and opens the entry into the possession of an incorruptible life, let us not suppose that those to whom it was promised and proclaimed passed over the care of their souls and lay dully like animals in the pursuit of bodily pleasures. Nor should anyone object that the promises sealed in the law and the prophets concerning the Gospel were intended for the new people only. For shortly after speaking of the Gospel promised in the law, the apostle adds that everything the law contains is undoubtedly directed to those who are under the law. I grant this is a different argument. But Paul was not so forgetful that, having said all that the law contains belongs to the Jews, he would have forgotten what he had affirmed just a few verses earlier about the Gospel promised in the law. The apostle therefore shows most clearly that the old covenant was chiefly directed toward the life to come, when he says the promises of the Gospel are contained within it.

For the same reason it follows that the old covenant rested on the free mercy of God and was confirmed through Christ. For the very preaching of the Gospel declares nothing other than that sinners are justified by the fatherly kindness of God, without any deserving of their own — and the whole sum of the Gospel is fulfilled in Christ. Who then would dare make the Jews strangers to Christ, when we hear that the covenant of the Gospel was made with them, and that Christ is its only foundation? Who would dare exclude them from the benefit of free salvation, when we hear that the doctrine of the righteousness of faith was ministered to them? But rather than dispute at length about something so plain, we have the Lord's remarkable statement: 'Abraham rejoiced to see My day; he saw it and was glad.' What Christ testifies of Abraham, the apostle shows was common to all the faithful people when he says that Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He is not speaking there only of the eternal Godhead of Christ, but of His power, which was continually opened to the faithful. Therefore both the blessed Virgin and Zechariah in their songs declare that the salvation revealed in Christ is the fulfillment of the promises God had made to Abraham and the patriarchs in ancient times. If the Lord in giving His Christ discharged the oath He had sworn of old, it cannot be denied that the end and goal of that oath was always Christ and eternal life.

The apostle goes further and places the Israelites on equal footing with us not only in the grace of the covenant but also in the significance of the sacraments. He intends, by citing examples of the punishments with which the Israelites were corrected in ancient times, to warn the Corinthians not to fall into similar offenses. He begins with this foundation: we have no reason to think ourselves above the vengeance of God that fell on the Israelites, since the Lord granted them not only the same benefits but displayed His grace among them with the same outward signs. It is as though he said: if you feel safe because the baptism with which you were marked and the Supper you receive have excellent promises, while you despise God's goodness and live licentiously — know that the Jews also had such sacraments, yet the Lord still executed His judgments against them most severely. They were baptized when they passed through the sea and under the cloud that sheltered them from the burning sun. Some say that crossing was a physical baptism that corresponds in some proportion to our spiritual baptism. But if that were true, the apostle's argument would fail — his whole point is to take away from Christians any claim to surpass the Jews by virtue of baptism. Nor is what follows open to this objection: that the Israelites ate the same spiritual food that we eat, and drank the same spiritual drink — which he explains to be Christ.

To overthrow Paul's statement, some object what Christ says: 'Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness and are dead; whoever eats My flesh will never die.' These two passages are easily reconciled. The Lord was speaking to people who sought only to fill their stomachs and had no care for the food of the soul. He therefore adapted His speech somewhat to their level, and in particular He shaped the comparison between manna and His own body according to their way of thinking. They were demanding that He establish His credentials with a miracle like the one Moses performed in the wilderness when he obtained manna from heaven. But all they understood in the manna was a remedy for the physical hunger that was afflicting the people — they did not penetrate to the higher mystery Paul has in view. So Christ, to show how much greater a benefit they ought to expect from Him than what Moses gave their fathers, framed the comparison this way: if it seemed to you a great miracle worth remembering that through Moses the Lord provided food from heaven to sustain His people for a short time so they would not die of hunger in the wilderness — consider how much more excellent is the food that gives immortality. We see why the Lord passed over the most important aspect of the manna and spoke only of its lowest benefit. The Jews had cast Moses in His face as a reproach, pointing to how he had relieved the people's need with manna. Christ answered that He is the minister of a far higher grace, in comparison with which the physical feeding of the people — the only thing they valued — ought rightly to be counted as nothing. Paul, however, knew that when the Lord rained manna from heaven, He did not provide it merely to fill their stomachs but also distributed it as a spiritual mystery — a figure of the spiritual life found in Christ. So Paul did not pass over the part that was most worthy of attention. Therefore it follows clearly and certainly that the same promises of eternal and heavenly life that the Lord now grants to us were not only communicated to the Jews but were also sealed by truly spiritual sacraments. Augustine discusses this matter at length against Faustus the Manichee.

If readers would rather have testimonies from the law and the prophets showing that the spiritual covenant was common to the fathers — as we hear from Christ and the apostles — I will gladly supply them. I will do so all the more willingly because by that means the opponents will be more thoroughly convinced, leaving them no room to evade. I will begin with a proof that the Anabaptists in their pride will likely dismiss as foolish and laughable, but which will carry great weight with readers who are willing to learn and have sound judgment. I take as a settled principle that God's Word carries such life-giving power that whoever God grants a share in it receives life for their souls. This is why Peter's statement has always held true — that the Word is the incorruptible seed that abides forever, as he gathers from the words of Isaiah. Now since God in ancient times bound the Jews to Himself with this holy bond, there is no doubt that He also enrolled them in the hope of eternal life. When I say they embraced the Word that would join them to God, I am not speaking of the general working of God's Word that is poured out through heaven and earth and all creatures — which, though it quickens all things each according to its nature, does not deliver them from the necessity of decay. I am speaking of the special working by which the souls of the godly are both enlightened to the knowledge of God and in a sense joined to Him. Since Adam, Abel, Noah, Abraham, and the other fathers cleaved to God through this illumination of the Word, I say there is no doubt they had entry into the immortal kingdom of God. For this was a genuine communion with God — and genuine communion with God cannot exist apart from the blessing of eternal life.

If that seems too tangled, let us come to the very form of the covenant, which will satisfy sober minds and thoroughly refute the ignorance of those who resist. God has always covenanted with His servants in these words: 'I will be your God, and you will be My people.' The prophets themselves consistently explain that in those words are contained life, salvation, and the whole sum of blessedness. David does not without reason repeatedly declare: 'Blessed is the people whose God is the Lord; blessed is the nation He has chosen as His inheritance' — and not because of earthly happiness, but because He delivers from death, preserves forever, and shows enduring mercy to those He has taken as His people. As the other prophets say: 'You are our God; we shall not die. The Lord is our king, our lawgiver; He will save us. Blessed are you, O Israel, because you are saved in the Lord your God.' And not to labor unnecessarily: the sound teaching of the prophets everywhere is that we will lack nothing for full abundance of good things and assurance of salvation, provided the Lord is our God. Rightly so — for if His face, the moment it begins to shine, is an immediate pledge of salvation, to what person will He openly show Himself as God without also opening to him the treasure of salvation? For He is our God on this condition: that He dwells in our midst, as He declared through Moses. But such a presence cannot be obtained without life being part of the possession as well. Even if nothing more were stated, these words — 'I am your God' — contain a plain enough promise of spiritual life. For He did not declare that He would be a God to their bodies only, but chiefly to their souls. And souls that are not united to God through righteousness remain estranged from Him in death. But on the other side, when that union is present, it brings everlasting salvation with it.

Beyond this, He did not merely testify that He was their God — He also promised that He would be so forever, so that their hope would not stop at present blessings but extend to eternity. Many passages show that when the verb was in the future tense it carried this force — as when the faithful comforted themselves not only in present troubles but for the future as well, on the ground that God would never fail them. Regarding the second part of the promise: He made it even more plainly certain that God's blessing would extend to them beyond the limits of this life when He said: 'I will be the God of your descendants after you.' For if He intended to show His goodwill toward them after their death by blessing their offspring, He would certainly not withhold that favor from them personally. God is not like people, who love their friends' children because death has cut short their own ability to show kindness to those they cherished. God's generosity is not stopped by death — He does not withhold from the dead themselves the fruit of His mercy, which He pours out to a thousand generations for their sake. The Lord's will was therefore to give them, through a striking demonstration, a vision of the greatness and abundance of His goodness that they would experience after death — showing it to be so overflowing that it would pour out to all their descendants. And the Lord then sealed and, in a manner, brought forth the fulfillment of this promise when He named Himself the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob long after their death. For what sense would it make to name Himself their God if they had utterly perished? That would have been equivalent to saying, 'I am the God of those who are nothing.' This is why the Evangelists record that with this single argument the Sadducees were so cornered that they could not deny that Moses testified to the resurrection of the dead — for they had learned from Moses that all the saints were in God's hand. It was easy to conclude from this that those whom the judge of life and death had taken into His protection and care would not be destroyed by death.

Now — and this is the central point on which the controversy turns — let us consider whether the faithful themselves were so instructed by the Lord that they understood they would have a better life elsewhere, and therefore, looking toward that other life, did not cling to this one. First, the very conditions of life God assigned them were a continual exercise designed to remind them that they were the most miserable of all people if this life was all their happiness had to offer. Adam, already wretched from the mere memory of the happiness he had lost, barely sustained his need through painful labor. And lest he be crushed entirely under God's curse in those labors, he was given one remaining comfort — which itself became a source of deep sorrow. Of his two sons, one was killed by his brother's wicked violence; the other remained alive, but Adam rightly detested and was horrified by his sight. Abel, cruelly murdered in the very flower of his life, became an example of human wretchedness. Noah, while the whole world carelessly indulged itself in pleasure, spent a large portion of his life with great weariness building the ark. That he escaped death came at the cost of greater torment than dying a hundred deaths would have brought. For besides the ark serving as his tomb for ten months, there is nothing more unpleasant than being confined for so long surrounded by the filth of animals. After passing through such enormous difficulties, he met fresh grief — he saw himself mocked by his own son and was forced with his own mouth to curse the one whom God's great mercy had delivered safe through the flood.

Abraham alone might be worth more than a hundred thousand, if we consider his faith — which is held out to us as the supreme rule of believing and through whose line we must be counted to be children of God. But what could be more absurd than for Abraham to be the father of all the faithful while not possessing so much as the smallest corner of land among them? And yet he cannot be removed from that number, not even from the most honored rank, without the entire church being destroyed. Consider the experiences of his life. When God first called him, He pulled him away from his country, his parents, and his friends — the things in which people think the chief sweetness of life consists — as if God had deliberately set out to strip him of all life's pleasures. As soon as he arrived in the land where he was commanded to live, famine drove him out. He fled for help to a place where, in order to save himself, he was forced to surrender his wife to be dishonored — something which, we may well wonder, was perhaps more bitter to him than many deaths. When he returned to his own land, famine drove him out again. What kind of happiness is it to dwell in a land where one must so often go hungry, and where he must flee or face starvation? Then came the necessity with Abimelech: he was forced to ransom his life at the cost of his wife. Through the long years of wandering here and there in uncertainty, continual quarreling between his servants compelled him to send away his nephew, whom he loved as his own son. That parting he felt no differently than if he had suffered the amputation of one of his own limbs. Shortly after, he heard that this same nephew had been taken captive by enemies. Wherever he went, he encountered neighbors so savagely hostile that they would not allow him even to drink from wells he himself had dug with great labor — for he would not have had to buy the right to use them from king Gerar had he not first been forbidden. When old age came, he experienced what is most painful and bitter in that season of life: being punished with childlessness — until, beyond all hope, he fathered Ishmael. But even that birth he paid for dearly, enduring Sarah's constant quarreling, as though by supporting his servant's stubbornness he himself had caused the household's trouble. At last Isaac was born — but on the condition that his firstborn Ishmael must be cast out of the house like a castaway. When only Isaac remained — in whom this weary old man might finally rest — he was shortly afterward commanded to kill him. What greater misery can the human mind devise than a father being made the executioner of his own son? If Isaac had died of illness, who would not have thought the old man most pitiable — given a son in mockery, only to have his grief over childlessness doubled? If Isaac had been killed by a stranger, the cruelty of the circumstances would have greatly multiplied his misery. But to have him killed by his own father's hand surpasses every example of wretchedness. In short, throughout the whole course of his life Abraham was so tossed and tormented that if someone wanted to paint a portrait of a miserable life, they could find no better model. And let no one object that he was not truly unhappy because he eventually came safely through so many storms — for we cannot call a person's life blessed when it consists of painfully enduring endless troubles through a long stretch of years, but only when someone quietly enjoys present good things without suffering.

Isaac, who suffered fewer troubles than his father, still barely tasted any sweetness in life. He too experienced the same vexations that prevent a person from being blessed on earth. Famine drove him out of the land of Canaan; his wife was violently taken from his side; his neighbors repeatedly troubled and oppressed him, so that he was forced to fight for his water rights. At home, his sons' wives brought him constant grief; disputes between his sons wore him down; and he could find no remedy for so great a misery except by exiling the very son he had blessed. Jacob's life is nothing less than a striking example of extreme misery. He spent his childhood in unrest at home, threatened and terrified by his older brother, until at last he was forced to flee. Exiled from his parents and homeland — which was painful enough on its own — he found nothing kinder or gentler in his uncle Laban's household. And seven years of hard and cruel service was not enough — he was also cheated out of his promised wife by deception. For another wife's sake he was compelled to serve again, enduring scorching heat all day and cold and sleepless nights, as he himself complained. Through twenty years of this harsh life, he was daily tormented by fresh injuries from his father-in-law. Even his own home gave him no peace — it was divided and torn apart by the hatred, quarreling, and jealousy of his wives. When he was commanded to return to his homeland, he had to watch for an opportunity to slip away like someone fleeing in shame, and even then he could not escape his father-in-law's unjust treatment, enduring his rebukes and accusations in the middle of the journey. Then he fell into even greater distress. As he drew near to his brother, he saw before him as many deaths as a vengeful and bitter enemy might inflict. He was wrung with agonizing fear through the long waiting for his brother's arrival, and when the moment finally came he fell at his feet as if half dead — until he found his brother more favorable than he had dared to hope. Added to all this, at his very first entry into the land he lost his dearly beloved wife Rachel. Then came word that the son he had by her — the son he loved above all the rest — had been torn apart by wild beasts. How deep his grief was he made plain when, after weeping at length, he stubbornly closed himself to all consolation, resolving only to go down mourning to his son in the grave. And in the meantime, what cause for grief, dread, and weary distress was the rape and dishonoring of his daughter, and the violent revenge his sons took — which not only made him hated in the eyes of all the inhabitants of the land but exposed him to immediate danger of total destruction. Then followed the horrible and outrageous offense of Reuben, his firstborn — a wickedness worse than any that could befall a man. For if the violation of a man's wife is counted among the heaviest misfortunes, what is to be said when such wickedness is done by one's own son? Shortly after, his house was stained with another unnatural adultery — so many disgraces as could well have broken even the most steadfast and sorrow-hardened heart. Near the end of his life, while seeking relief from famine for himself and others, he was struck with fresh misfortune: one of his sons was imprisoned, and to recover him he was compelled to give up his only remaining darling, Benjamin. Who could think that amid such an avalanche of calamities he had a single moment to breathe freely? He himself, his own best witness, told Pharaoh that his days on earth had been few and evil. Now one who declares he has spent his life in continual misery is denying that he experienced the prosperity the Lord had promised him. Therefore either Jacob ungratefully failed to appreciate God's grace, or he honestly declared that he had been miserable on earth. If what he said was true, it follows that his hope was not fixed on earthly things.

If these holy fathers looked for a blessed life at the hand of God — as they certainly did — then they both thought and saw that it was a different kind of blessedness than the blessedness of earthly life. The apostle also shows this superbly: 'By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country — he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth.' By saying this, they showed that they were seeking a country of their own. If they had been longing for the land they had left, they could have returned. Instead, they were longing for a better country — a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, because He has prepared a city for them. They would have been duller than blocks of wood to pursue God's promises so earnestly, with no earthly hope of seeing them fulfilled, unless they had been looking for fulfillment elsewhere. And the apostle especially presses the point — not without reason — that they called this life a journey away from home, as Moses himself records. For if they were strangers and foreigners in the land of Canaan, where does the Lord's promise of making them heirs of it stand? He makes plain, therefore, that the Lord's promise concerning possession of that land had a meaning beyond the earthly. They purchased not one foot of land in Canaan except for burial — by which they testified that they did not expect to receive the fruit of the promise until after death. This is why Jacob so earnestly desired to be buried there that he made his son Joseph promise and swear to do so, and why Joseph, many generations later, when his bones had long since turned to dust, directed that they be carried there.

In short, it is clear throughout all the struggles of their lives that they had always set before them the blessedness of the life to come. Why else would Jacob have so greatly desired the rights of the firstborn, and risked so much to obtain them, when those rights brought him nothing but exile and near-total estrangement from his family — nothing but harm — unless he was looking to a higher blessing? And he showed this was exactly his meaning in the words he spoke with his dying breath: 'I look for Your salvation, Lord.' What salvation could he have been looking for, lying at the point of death, unless he had seen in death the beginning of a new life? But why do we dispute about the holy ones and children of God, when even someone hostile to the truth showed a taste of this understanding? What did Balaam mean when he said: 'Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my end be like his'? He meant the same thing David later expressed: that the death of the saints is precious in the Lord's sight, while the death of the wicked is very evil. If death were the final boundary for all, there could be no difference noted between the righteous and the wicked — they differ from each other precisely because of the different conditions that await them both after death.

We have not yet moved past Moses — whom these opponents claim had no other task than to persuade an earthly-minded people to worship God by promises of fertile soil and material abundance. And yet — unless someone deliberately averts his eyes from the light that offers itself plainly — a clear expression of the spiritual covenant is already present in Moses. When we come down to the prophets, eternal life and the kingdom of Christ shine out with the fullest brightness. David came first in time, and according to God's ordering, he expressed the heavenly mysteries more dimly in shadows than those who came after him. Yet with what clarity and certainty does he direct all his utterances to that end? His view of earthly dwelling is expressed in this saying: 'I am a foreigner and stranger here, as all my fathers were. Every person is vanity; every one walks about like a shadow. But now, Lord, what do I wait for? My hope is in You.' One who confesses that nothing in the earth is sound or lasting, yet maintains a firm hope in God, is storing up his happiness somewhere else. David regularly calls all the faithful to this kind of consideration whenever he means to offer them true comfort. In another place, after speaking of the brevity and fleeting, vanishing nature of human life, he adds: 'But the mercy of the Lord is everlasting upon those who fear Him.' Similar is Psalm 102: 'In the beginning, Lord, You laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands. They will perish, but You abide; they will all wear out like a garment. You will change them like clothing, and they will pass away, but You remain the same, and Your years will not end. The children of Your servants will dwell securely, and their offspring will be established before You.' If the godly are to remain established before the Lord even after the decay of heaven and earth, it follows that their salvation is joined to the eternity of God. But that hope cannot stand at all unless it rests on the promise set forth in Isaiah: 'The heavens will vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment, and its inhabitants will die like flies. But My salvation will be forever, and My righteousness will not be broken' — where everlastingness is given to righteousness and salvation not merely in the sense that they remain with God, but in the sense that they will be experienced by people.

The things David regularly says about the prosperous outcome awaiting the faithful must be understood as pointing to the open display of heavenly glory. Consider these sayings: 'The Lord guards the souls of the righteous; He will deliver them from the hand of the wicked. Light dawns for the righteous, and joy for the upright in heart. The righteousness of the godly endures forever; his horn will be exalted in honor, while the desire of the wicked will perish.' Again: 'The righteous will give thanks to Your name, and the upright will dwell in Your presence.' Again: 'The righteous will be remembered forever.' Again: 'The Lord redeems the souls of His servants.' For the Lord often leaves His servants at the mercy of the wicked — not merely to be troubled, but to be torn apart and destroyed. He allows the good to languish in darkness and misery while the wicked seem to shine like stars. He does not so brighten them with the light of His face that they enjoy unbroken and lasting gladness. David himself does not conceal that if the faithful fix their eyes on the present state of things, they are struck by a severe temptation — as though innocence received no favor or reward from God. Wickedness so often prospers and flourishes, while the company of the godly is crushed with shame, poverty, contempt, and every kind of trial. 'My feet had nearly slipped,' he says, 'my steps had almost stumbled, when the prosperity of the wicked troubled me.' After rehearsing these things at length, he concludes: 'I tried to understand this, but it was painful to me — until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I understood their final end.'

From this confession of David let us learn that the holy fathers under the old covenant were not ignorant of how rarely — or never — God fulfills His promises to His servants in this world. They therefore lifted their minds to God's sanctuary, where what does not appear in the shadow of this present life was stored up for them. That was God's final judgment, which they could not see with their eyes but were content to understand by faith. Trusting in that assurance, they did not doubt that a time would come when God's promises would be fulfilled — whatever happened in the world in the meantime. This is what such sayings as these attest: 'I will behold God's face in righteousness; I will be satisfied when I see Your likeness.' Again: 'I am like a green olive tree in the house of God.' Again: 'The righteous will flourish like a palm tree and grow tall like a cedar of Lebanon, planted in the house of the Lord; they will flourish in the courts of our God. They will still bear fruit in old age; they will stay fresh and green.' David had just said: 'How deep are Your thoughts, O Lord, while the wicked spring up like grass, and all evildoers flourish — that they may be destroyed forever.' Where is the beauty and flourishing of the faithful to be found, except when the face of this world is overturned by the revealing of God's kingdom? When they turned their eyes toward that eternity, they despised the brief and fleeting hardship of present miseries and boldly declared: 'You will not allow the righteous to perish forever, but You will cast the wicked headlong into the pit of destruction.' Where is this pit of eternal destruction in the present world? Among the blessings counted for the wicked elsewhere is that they end their lives in a moment, without long lingering illness. Where is the great steadfastness of the saints, whom David himself complains throughout are not merely troubled but crushed and utterly broken? Clearly, David was not looking at the changing and unstable course of this world — more shifting than the tides — but at what the Lord will do when He sits in final judgment over heaven and earth. In another place he describes it excellently: 'Fools trust in their wealth and boast of their great riches. Yet no man can redeem the life of another or give to God his ransom price. Though they see that the wise die, that the foolish and the brutish alike perish and leave their wealth to others, their heart is still that their houses will last forever, that their dwellings will endure to all generations. Man in his pomp will not remain; he is like the beasts that perish. This is the path of those who have foolish confidence — yet their followers approve of their boasts. Like sheep they are appointed for Sheol; death shall be their shepherd. But when the morning comes, the upright will rule over them, and their beauty will fade; Sheol will be their dwelling.' This mockery of fools who rest on the slipping and rolling goods of this world shows that the wise must seek a far different happiness. And David more plainly uncovers the mystery of the resurrection where, after describing the destruction of the wicked, he sets the godly up to reign. For what else can we call that rising of light but the revealing of the new life that follows the end of this present one?

From this arose the comfort the faithful often used in their sufferings and as a remedy for patience: 'His anger is but for a moment, and His favor is for a lifetime.' How could they declare that afflictions would end in a moment when they spent nearly their whole lives in affliction? Where did they find such lasting experience of God's kindness when they had scarcely tasted the smallest trace of it? Had they fixed their eyes on the earth, they could have found no such thing. But because they looked toward heaven, they recognized that the Lord's exercise of His holy ones through the cross lasts only a moment, while His mercies — in which they are gathered up — endure for ages. They also foresaw the eternal and endless destruction of the ungodly, who were happy for a single day as in a dream. Hence these sayings: 'The memory of the righteous will be blessed, but the name of the wicked will rot.' 'Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints, but the death of the wicked is very evil.' And in Samuel: 'The Lord will guard the feet of His holy ones, but the wicked will be silenced in darkness.' These show that the faithful clearly understood: however much the saints were tossed about in this world, their final end is life and salvation, while the prosperity of the wicked is a pleasant road along which they gradually slide into the chasm of death. Therefore they called the death of the wicked the destruction of the uncircumcised — of those from whom the hope of resurrection had been cut away. So David could devise no more terrible curse than this: 'Let them be blotted out from the book of life, and not be written with the righteous.'

Above all others, remarkable is Job's declaration: 'I know that my Redeemer lives, and on the last day I will rise out of the earth, and in my flesh I will see God my Savior. This hope is laid up in my heart.' Some who enjoy displaying their cleverness object that this should not be understood as referring to the final resurrection, but to the day when Job hoped God would be more favorable to him. Even if we partially grant this, we will still compel them to admit, willing or not, that Job could not have reached such breadth of hope if his thoughts had rested on this earth. We must therefore acknowledge that he lifted his eyes to the immortality to come — for he saw that his Redeemer would be present with him even lying in the grave. To those whose hope is fixed only on this life, death is the final despair. But death could not cut off Job's hope: 'Though He slay me,' he said, 'yet I will hope in Him.' And let no one trivially object that these were only the words of a few individuals, which do not prove that such teaching was common among the Jews. I will answer at once: these few were not uttering some secret wisdom accessible only to specially gifted minds. As teachers of the people appointed by the Holy Spirit, they publicly proclaimed the mysteries of God that were meant to be universally learned and to serve as the basic principles of the common religion. Therefore, when we hear the public oracles of the Holy Spirit — in which He spoke of spiritual life so clearly and plainly in the church of the Jews — it is intolerable stubbornness to restrict them to a merely earthly covenant, in which nothing is mentioned but the earth and earthly prosperity.

When I come to the later prophets, we may walk freely, as on our own ground. If it was not difficult to prevail in the testimony of David, Job, and Samuel, here it will be far easier still. For God kept this pattern and order in unfolding the covenant of His mercy: the closer it drew in time to its full fulfillment, the more clearly He revealed it day by day with ever greater increases of light. In the beginning, when the first promise of salvation was made to Adam, only small sparks of it glimmered out. As more was added, a greater spread of light began to shine forth, breaking out more and more widely, until at last all the clouds were driven away and Christ the Sun of Righteousness fully illumined the whole world. We have no need to fear a shortage of prophetic testimony for our case. But since I can see that an enormous amount of material would arise, forcing me to linger far longer than my intended scope can bear — it would grow into a large volume on its own — and since I have already, by what I have said, opened a clear enough path even for readers of average ability, I will spare them the tedium of a lengthy discussion. Let the readers simply remember to open their own way with the key already placed in their hands: whenever the prophets speak of the blessedness of the faithful people — blessedness of which scarcely the faintest trace is seen in this present life — they should apply this principle: the prophets, to better express God's goodness, painted it for the people in the shadow of temporal blessings, like a rough sketch of the full portrait. But the complete image they painted was one designed to lift people's minds above the earth and above the elements of this perishing world, and necessarily raise them to the contemplation of the happiness of the spiritual and eternal life to come.

One example will be enough. When the Israelites were carried away to Babylon, their exile seemed like death to them. They could hardly shake the belief that Ezekiel's prophecy about their restoration was nothing but a fable, because they thought it was the same as claiming that rotting corpses would be brought back to life. To show that even this difficulty could not stop Him from carrying out His purpose, the Lord showed the prophet a vision of a field full of dry bones. In an instant, by the power of His word alone, He restored breath and life to them. The vision served to correct their unbelief at that time. But it also reminded the Jews how far the Lord's power reached beyond what the people could imagine -- He who so easily brought life to scattered, rotting bones with just a nod. Therefore compare that with another passage from Isaiah. The dead shall rise; my body, they shall rise again. Awake and rejoice, you who dwell in the dust, because the dew of the green field is your dew, and you shall bring down the land of the giants into ruin. So my people, enter into your tents. Shut your doors behind you. Hide yourself a little while, until my anger passes over. For behold, the Lord shall come out from His place to punish the wickedness of those who dwell on the earth, and the earth shall reveal her blood and shall no longer hide her slain.

However, it would be foolish to try to force every passage into one single interpretation. For some passages openly reveal, without any covering, the immortality that is prepared for the faithful in God's kingdom. We have already quoted some of these, and most of the rest are similar -- especially these two. The first is from Isaiah. As the new heaven and the new earth which I make shall stand before Me, so shall your descendants stand. There shall be month after month, and Sabbath after Sabbath. All flesh shall come to worship before My face, says the Lord. And they shall go out and see the dead bodies of the men who have rebelled against Me, whose worm shall not die and whose fire shall not be quenched. The second is from Daniel. At that time Michael, the great prince who stands guard over the sons of your people, shall rise up. There shall come a time of distress such as has not occurred since nations first began to exist. Then all your people who are found written in the book shall be saved. And of those who sleep in the dust of the earth, some shall awake to eternal life, and some to everlasting shame.

Now as for proving the other two points -- that the fathers had Christ as the guarantee of their covenant, and that they placed all their hope of blessing in Him -- I will not labor over these at all, since they are both less controversial and more clearly stated. Let us therefore boldly establish what no scheme of the devil can overturn: that the Old Testament, the covenant the Lord made with His people Israel, was not limited to earthly things but also contained the promise of spiritual and eternal life. The expectation of this must have been stamped on the minds of all who truly embraced the covenant. But let us completely reject this foolish and destructive idea -- that God set before the Jews nothing other than earthly promises, or that the Jews sought nothing more than a full stomach, physical pleasures, flourishing wealth, outward power, many children, and whatever else appeals to the natural person. For even today Christ promises no other kingdom of heaven to His people than one where they shall rest with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And Peter declared that the Jews of his time were heirs of the grace of the Gospel because they were children of the prophets, included in the covenant that the Lord had made with His people in ancient times. And so that this would not be witnessed by words only, the Lord also confirmed it by action. For at the very moment He rose again, He granted many of the saints the honor of rising with Him and being seen in the city. This was a sure sign that everything He did and suffered to obtain eternal salvation belongs no less to the faithful of the Old Testament than to us. For as Peter testifies, they were also given the same Spirit of faith by which we are regenerated into life. Now, since we know that the same Spirit who is in us a certain spark of immortality -- and is therefore also called the down payment of our inheritance -- likewise dwelt in them, how dare we deny them the inheritance of life? This makes it all the more astonishing that in ancient times the Sadducees fell into such a crude error as to deny both the resurrection and the existence of souls, even though both truths were sealed by such clear testimonies of Scripture. And equally astonishing at this present day would be the folly of that whole nation in looking for an earthly kingdom of Christ, if the Scriptures had not long before declared that this would be their punishment for rejecting the Gospel. For it was fitting, by the just judgment of God, that those minds should be struck with blindness who refused the light of heaven when it was offered to them and willfully brought themselves into darkness. Therefore they read Moses and continually study him, but a veil is placed between them and him so that they cannot see the light that shines in his face. And so his face shall remain covered and hidden from them until he is turned to Christ -- the very one from whom they now try to separate him as much as they can.