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Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859 edition. |
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GENERAL PREFACE TO THE NEW TESTAMENT
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GENERAL PREFACE TO THE NEW TESTAMENT OF OUR LORD AND SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST. ==================== GOD, who diversely, and many ways, spoke in times past to the
fathers by the prophets; last of all, in these days hath spoken to us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things,
by whom also he made the world. (Hebrews i. 1, 2.) He hath spoken to our father in the Old Testament, He hath
spoken to us in the New. Moses was the mediator of the old alliance, and the prophets its ministers. The former gave
the law, the latter announced the Messias. The law itself led to the Messias, whom the prophets announced. But the law and
the prophets could bring nothing to perfection; they could neither give what they promised, nor realize what they represented;
they left man in expectation; they raised, but could not satisfy his hopes. Our Lord, Jesus Christ, appearing in the world, and a new alliance superseding
the old, the shadows have all vanished, the figures are accomplished, the prophecies realized, the law perfected; a new people
has taken the place of the old, and the days predicted by Jeremy have arrived: Behold the days shall come, and I will
make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Juda; not according to the covenant which I made with
their fathers ... But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel ... I will give my law in their
bowels, and I will write it in their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. (Jeremias xxxi. 31, 32,
33.) The old covenant, given on Mount Sinai, was limited to the house of Israel; the new covenant is general, and includes
all the children of men, without exception. The old was ratified by the blood of victims of goats and oxen; the new cemented
by the blood of the Son of God. The latter in the intention of the Sovereign Legislator was first, and to this very thing
we find in the Old Testament has some reference. The spirit of the old law was that of fear and servitude, whilst the spirit
of love and liberty is the soul of the new. The old was temporary and not designed to continue; the new is permanent and to
extend through all ages. The former only promised temporal and perishable goods, the latter such as are infinite and eternal. The Catholic Church, heir to the promises which God made to the Synagogue,
preserves with great care and respect the Books of the Old Testament, as her grand charter, as the titles of her possession
and election, as well as of the reprobation of her rival, the Synagogue. But she preserves with a still more sovereign attention
and veneration the Books of the New Testament, as the proof of her adoption, as the pledge of her happiness, as the declaration
of the will of her Father and Lord, as the genuine code of the life, miracles and doctrines of her God, and the rule she is
to follow in her actions and in her conduct.
Part II. Part III.
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