12. Of the
Heavenly Festivals, of Which Those on Earth are Typical.
Now in what manner, in those heavenly things of which
the shadow was present to the Jews on earth, those will celebrate
festivals who have first been trained by tutors and governors under the
true law, until the fulness of the time should come, namely, above,
when we shall be able to receive into ourselves the perfect measure of
the Son of God, this it is the work of that wisdom to make plain which
has been hidden in a mystery; and it also may show to our thought how
the laws about meats are symbols of those things which will there
nourish and strengthen our soul. But it is vain to think that one
desiring to work out in his fancy the great sea of such ideas, even if
he wished to show how local worship is still a pattern and shadow of
heavenly things, and that the sacrifices and the sheep are full of
meaning, that he should advance further than the Apostle, who seeks
indeed to lift our minds above earthly views of the law, but who does
not show us to any extent how these things are to be. Even if we
look at the festivals, of which passover is one, from the point of view
of the age to come, we have still to ask how it is that our passover is
now sacrificed, namely, Christ, and not only so, but is to be
sacrificed hereafter.