The Book of the Holy Rosary: General Introduction, § 3. The Testimony of the Types and Figures of the Old Testament to the Mysteries of the New
With this conclusion, then, in the way of an encouragement to acquiring a knowledge of the Sacred Scriptures, we may proceed to a brief word or two touching the value of the confirmatory evidence which the Scriptures of the Old Testament bear in their numerous types and figures to the truth of the Christian mysteries of the New Covenant. “It is these,” our Lord may still say to us, as formerly to the Jews, “that bear testimony of Me,” therefore, “search the Scriptures.”
“I would not have you ignorant,” says St Paul, “how our fathers passed through the cloud” (1 Cor. x. 1); and then enumerating many of the events recorded in the books of Moses, he says, “These things happened to them in a figure, and they are written for our instruction, on whom the ends of the world are come” (1 Cor. x. 11). Many other instances could be referred to in St Paul’s writings, in which he himself gives the figurative interpretation of the facts recorded in the Old Testament; but for brevity’s sake it will be sufficient to say here, that the study of the figurative sense of the Sacred Scriptures has always been held in the highest esteem in the Church, and its conditions are thus laid down by St Augustine. There are three things, according to this great doctor, to be observed in the Scriptures—First, the literal sense (dictum proprium); secondly, the figurative sense of its words (dictum figuratum); and lastly, the figurative or typical meaning of its facts (factum figuratum). It is the latter of these, the “figurative fact,” which constitutes the type or figure of the Old Testament. And before we proceed to our task of the exposition of the mysteries of the Rosary, in which these types and figures, or “figurative facts,” will be seen to play so very important a part, we may be reasonably permitted a brief remark, to point attention to their great value and importance as instructive and even entertaining witnesses on the Christian side.
In the first place, then, as so many figurative facts, they are precisely the very facts of the sacred narrative of which the apostle says, “Brethren, I would not have you ignorant of them.” For before we can attempt to appreciate the figure, we must, of necessity, first be in possession of an accurate knowledge of the fact; lest, as St Augustine says, were we to withdraw the foundation of the fact, we should be found, as it were, to seek to construct our building in the air. In this respect, then, whatever may hereafter become of the figurative interpretation, the student of the types and figures of the Old Testament at least makes sure of a certain amount of solid valuable knowledge, gathered from the contents of the sacred volume, consisting of the simple narrative of the facts; and this, by itself alone, will always more than repay the labour of acquiring. But when, in addition to the mere knowledge of the fact, the Christian reader comes into possession of the figurative interpretation, he, as it were, lights upon the discovery of some new and unlooked for jewel or prize. The inspired proverb has said, “Diligently prepare thy field, and afterwards thou shalt build thy house.” Where then can there be a more instructive study than the one in which we are perpetually finding new and unexpected proofs that God Himself, in the most wonderful way, has diligently beforehand prepared His own field in the shadows and figures of the ancient covenant, that He might afterwards build up with the better effect the new edifice of our own Christian redemption. The poor Hebrew student, for example, finds in them the simple matter of fact as this happens to be narrated, and alas! nothing whatever more than this. To him the wisdom of God, as it reveals itself to the inquiring Christian mind, in all the beauty and richness of figure, shadow, and parable, leading the understanding into the presence of truths, for which the way is seen to have been prepared, often in so surprising and even playful a manner, remains a simple profitless blank. Surely the Christian, then, is bound to bow his head in gratitude and admiration, in the presence of such winning and beautiful tokens of the wisdom which he thus perceives “to reach from end to end in its strength, and sweetly to dispose all things” (Wisd. viii. 1), that they may minister in their degree to the accomplishment of the Divine purpose of the redemption of man.
Beware, then, good Christian, to whom God has so abundantly, and without reserve, made over all the riches of His household, as to a dear son, lest the poor forlorn Hebrew be found to show that he has a greater veneration, and a deeper love for the bare letter of the sacred text, than thou, in thy degenerate thoughtlessness and disdain, art found to have for all the treasures of its letter and its spirit combined.