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BUT to return to the explanation of the knowledge from which our
discourse took its rise. Thus, as we said above, practical knowledge is
distributed among many subjects and interests, but theoretical is divided
into two parts, i.e., the historical interpretation and the spiritual
sense. Whence also Solomon when he had summed up the manifold grace of the
Church, added: "for all who are with her are clothed with double
garments." But of spiritual knowledge there are three kinds,
tropological, allegorical, anagogical, of which we read as follows in
Proverbs: "But do you describe these things to yourself in three ways
according to the largeness of your heart." And so the history embraces
the knowledge of things past and visible, as it is repeated in this way by
the Apostle: "For it is written that Abraham had two sons, the one by a
bondwoman, the other by a free: but he who was of the bondwoman was born
after the flesh, but he who was of the free was by promise." But to the
allegory belongs what follows, for what actually happened is said to have
prefigured the form of some mystery "For these," says he, "are the two
covenants the one from Mount Sinai, which gendereth into bondage, which is
Agar. For Sinai is a mountain in Arabia, which is compared to Jerusalem
which now is, and is in bondage with her children." But the anagogical
sense rises from spiritual mysteries even to still more sublime and sacred
secrets of heaven, and is subjoined by the Apostle in these words: "But
Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us. For it is
written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not, break forth and cry, thou
that travailest not, for many are the children of the desolate more than of
her that hath an husband." The tropological sense is the moral
explanation which has to do with improvement of life and practical
teaching, as if we were to understand by these two covenants practical and
theoretical instruction, or at any rate as if we were to want to take
Jerusalem or Sion as the soul of man, according to this: "Praise the Lord,
O Jerusalem: praise thy God, O Sion." And so these four previously
mentioned figures coalesce, if we desire, in one subject, so that one and
the same Jerusalem can be taken in four senses: historically as the city of
the Jews; allegorically as Church of Christ, anagogically as the heavenly
city of God "which is the mother of us all," tropologically, as the soul of
man, which is frequently subject to praise or blame from the Lord under
this title. Of these four kinds of interpretation the blessed Apostle
speaks as follows: "But now, brethren, if I come to you speaking with
tongues what shall I profit you unless I speak to you either by revelation
or by knowledge or by prophecy or by doctrine?" For "revelation" belongs
to allegory whereby what is concealed under the historical narrative is
revealed in its spiritual sense and interpretation, as for instance if we
tried to expound how "all our fathers were under the cloud and were all
baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea," and how they "all ate the
same spiritual meat and drank the same spiritual drink from the rock that
followed them. But the rock was Christ." And this explanation where
there is a comparison of the figure of the body and blood of Christ which
we receive daily, contains the allegorical sense. But the knowledge, which
is in the same way mentioned by the Apostle, is tropological, as by it we
can by a careful study see of all things that have to do with practical
discernment whether they are useful and good, as in this case, when we are
told to judge of our own selves "whether it is fitting for a woman to pray
to God with her head uncovered." And this system, as has been said,
contains the moral meaning. So "prophecy" which the Apostle puts in the
third place, alludes to the anagogical sense by which the words are applied
to things future and invisible, as here: "But we would not have you
ignorant, brethren, concerning those that sleep: that ye be not sorry as
others also who have no hope. For if we believe that Christ died and rose
again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him. For
this we say to you by the word of God, that we which are alive at the
coming of the Lord shall not prevent those that sleep in Christ, for the
Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the
archangel and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise
first." In which kind of exhortation the figure of anagoge is brought
forward. But "doctrine" unfolds the simple course of historical exposition,
under which is contained no more secret sense, but what is declared by the
very words: as in this passage: "For I delivered unto you first of all what
I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the
Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again on the third
day, and that he was seen of Cephas;" and: "God sent His Son, made of a
woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law;" or
this: "Hear, O Israel, the Lord the God is one Lord."
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