1.  Proof by Scripture itself.

2.  Proof by the Rabbis.  Moses Maimonides says that it has two aspects, and that the prophets have prophesied Jesus Christ only.

3.  Proof by the Kabbala.[234]

4.  Proof by the mystical interpretation which the Rabbis themselves give to Scripture.

5.  Proof by the principles of the Rabbis, that there are two meanings; that there are two advents of the Messiah, a glorious and an humiliating one, according to their desert; that the prophets have prophesied of the Messiah only—­the Law is not eternal, but must change at the coming of the Messiah—­that then they shall no more remember the Red Sea; that the Jews and the Gentiles shall be mingled.

[6.  Proof by the key which Jesus Christ and the Apostles give us.]

642

Isaiah, li.  The Red Sea an image of the Redemption. Ut sciatis quod filius hominis habet potestatem remittendi peccata, tibi dico:  Surge.[235] God, wishing to show that He could form a people holy with an invisible holiness, and fill them with an eternal glory, made visible things.  As nature is an image of grace, He has done in the bounties of nature what He would do in those of grace, in order that we might judge that He could make the invisible, since He made the visible excellently.

Therefore He saved this people from the deluge; He has raised them up from Abraham, redeemed them from their enemies, and set them at rest.

The object of God was not to save them from the deluge, and raise up a whole people from Abraham, only in order to bring them into a rich land.

And even grace is only the type of glory, for it is not the ultimate end.  It has been symbolised by the law, and itself symbolises [glory].  But it is the type of it, and the origin or cause.

The ordinary life of men is like that of the saints.  They all seek their satisfaction, and differ only in the object in which they place it; they call those their enemies who hinder them, etc.  God has then shown the power which He has of giving invisible blessings, by that which He has shown Himself to have over things visible.

643

Types.—­God, wishing to form for Himself an holy people, whom He should separate from all other nations, whom He should deliver from their enemies, and should put into a place of rest, has promised to do so, and has foretold by His prophets the time and the manner of His coming.  And yet, to confirm the hope of His elect, He has made them see in it an image through all time, without leaving them devoid of assurances of His power and of His will to save them.  For, at the creation of man, Adam was the witness, and guardian of the promise of a Saviour, who should be born of woman, when men were still so near the creation that they could not have forgotten their creation and their fall.  When those who had seen Adam were no longer in the world, God sent Noah whom He saved, and drowned the whole earth by a miracle which sufficiently indicated the power which He had to save the world, and the will which He had to do so, and to raise up from the seed of woman Him whom He had promised.  This miracle was enough to confirm the hope of men.