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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.
The memory of the Deluge being so fresh among men, while Noah was still
alive, God made promises to Abraham, and, while Shem was still living, sent
Moses, etc....
645. Types.--God, willing to deprive His own of perishable blessings,
created the Jewish people in order to show that this was not owing to lack
of power.
646. The Synagogue did not perish, because it was a type. But, because it
was only a type, it fell into servitude. The type existed till the truth
came, in order that the Church should be always visible, either in the sign
which promised it, or in substance.
647. That the law was figurative.
648. Two errors: 1. To take everything literally. 2. To take everything
spiritually.
649. To speak against too greatly figurative language.
650. There are some types clear and demonstrative, but others which seem
somewhat far-fetched, and which convince only those who are already
persuaded. These are like the Apocalyptics. But the difference is that they
have none which are certain, so that nothing is so unjust as to claim that
theirs are as well founded as some of ours; for they have none so
demonstrative as some of ours. The comparison is unfair. We must not put on
the same level and confound things, because they seem to agree in one point,
while they are so different in another. The clearness in divine things
requires us to revere the obscurities in
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