20. That the Church which before had
been barren should have more children from among the Gentiles than what
the synagogue had had before.
In Isaiah: “Rejoice, thou barren, that
barest not; and break forth and cry, thou that travailest not:
because many more are the children of the desolate one than of her who
hath an husband. For the Lord hath said, Enlarge the place of thy
tabernacle, and of thy curtains, and fasten them: spare not, make
long thy measures, and strengthen thy stakes: stretch forth yet to thy
right hand and to thy left hand; and thy seed shall possess the
nations, and shall inhabit the deserted cities. Fear not; because
thou shalt overcome: nor be afraid because thou art cursed; for
thou shalt forget thy eternal confusion.”
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Thus also to Abraham, when his
former son was born of a bond-woman, Sarah remained long barren; and
late in old age bare her son Isaac, of promise, who was the type of
Christ. Thus also Jacob received two wives: the elder Leah,
with weak eyes, a type of the
synagogue; the younger the beautiful
Rachel, a type of the Church, who also remained long barren, and
afterwards brought forth Joseph, who also was himself a type of
Christ. And in the first of Kings it is said that Elkanah had two
wives: Peninnah, with her sons; and Hannah, barren, from whom is
born Samuel, not according to the order of generation, but according to
the mercy and promise of God, when she had prayed in the temple; and
Samuel being born, was a type of Christ. Also in the first book
of Kings: “The barren hath borne seven and she that had
many children has grown weak.”
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But the seven children are the
seven churches. Whence also Paul wrote to seven churches; and the
Apocalypse sets forth seven churches, that the number seven may be
preserved; as the seven days in which God made the world; as the seven
angels who stand and go in and out before the face of God, as Raphael
the angel says in Tobit; and the sevenfold lamp in the tabernacle of
witness; and the seven eyes of God, which keep watch over the world;
and the stone with seven eyes, as Zechariah says; and the seven
spirits; and the seven candlesticks in the Apocalypse; and the seven
pillars upon which Wisdom hath builded her house in
Solomon.
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Isa. liv.
1–4
.
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1 Sam. ii. 5
. [Compare Treatise xi. p.
503,
supra
.]