Concerning Faith of Things Not Seen

 1. There are those who think that the Christian religion is what we should smile at rather than hold fast, for this reason, that, in it, not what may

 2. But, say they, those things which are in the mind, in that we can by the mind itself discern them, we have no need to know through the eyes of the

 3. But you say, that you therefore believe your friend, whose heart you cannot see, because you have proved him in your trials, and have come to know

 4. If this faith be taken away from human affairs, who but must observe how great disorder in them, and how fearful confusion must follow? For who wil

 5. But you will say, the good will of a friend towards me, although I cannot see it, yet can I trace it out by many proofs but you, what things you w

 

 6. If this Queen ye see not, now rich also with royal progeny. If she see not that fulfilled which she heard to have been promised, she, unto whom it

 7. “Give heed unto me,” the Church says unto you give heed unto me, whom ye see, although to see ye be unwilling. For the faithful, who were in those

 

 8. But as the wills of friends, which are not seen, are believed through tokens which are seen thus the Church, which is now seen, is, of all things

 9. If they suspect this, let them examine carefully the copies of our enemies the Jews. There let them read those things of which we have made mention

 10. Although, even if there went before no testimonies concerning Christ and the Church, whom ought it not to move unto belief, that the Divine bright

 11. But you, beloved, who possess this faith, or who have begun now newly to have it, let it be nourished and increase in you. For as things temporal

 

8. But as the wills of friends, which are not seen, are believed through tokens which are seen; thus the Church, which is now seen, is, of all things which are not seen, but which are shown forth in those writings wherein itself also is foretold, an index of the past, and a herald of the future. Because both things past, which cannot now be seen, and things present which cannot be seen all of them, at the time at which they were foretold, no one of these could then be seen. Therefore, since they have begun to come to pass as they were foretold, from those things which have come to pass unto those which are coming to pass, those things which were foretold concerning Christ and the Church have run on in an ordered series: unto which series these pertain concerning the day of Judgment, concerning the resurrection of the dead, concerning the eternal damnation of the ungodly with the devil, and concerning the eternal recompense of the godly with Christ, things which, foretold in like manner, are yet to come. Why therefore should we not believe the first and the last things which we see not, when we have, as witnesses of both, the things between, which we see, and in the books of the Prophets either hear or read both the first things, and the things between, and the last things, foretold before they came to pass? Unless haply unbelieving men judge those things to have been written by Christians, in order that those things which they already believed might have greater weight of authority, if they should be thought to have been promised before they came.

CAPUT V.

8. Praesentium exhibitio astruit fidem praeteritorum et futurorum. Sed quemadmodum voluntates amicorum quae non videntur, creduntur per indicia quae videntur; sic Ecclesia quae nunc videtur, omnium quae non videntur, sed in eis litteris ubi et ipsa est praedicta monstrantur, et index est praeteritorum, et praenuntia futurorum. Quia et praeterita quae jam non possunt videri, et praesentia quae nec possunt videri omnia , cum praenuntiarentur, nihil horum poterat tunc videri. Cum ergo fieri praedicta coeperunt, ex illis quae facta sunt usque ad ista quae fiunt, de Christo et Ecclesia quae praedicta sunt ordinata serie cucurrerunt: ad quam seriem pertinent de die judicii, de resurrectione mortuorum, de impiorum aeterna damnatione cum diabolo, et de piorum aeterna remuneratione cum Christo, quae similiter praedicta ventura sunt. Cur ergo res primas et novissimas quas non videmus non credamus, cum testes utrarumque res medias quas videmus habeamus, atque in propheticis libris et primas et medias et novissimas vel audiamus praenuntiatas antequam fierent, vel legamus? Nisi forte arbitrantur homines infideles a Christianis illa esse conscripta, ut ista quae jam credebant majus haberent pondus auctoritatis, si antequam venirent, putarentur esse promissa.