e them masters of all the world, and foretold the time of
His coming.

The world having grown old in these carnal errors, Jesus Christ came at
the time foretold, but not with the expected glory; and thus men did not
think it was He. After His death, Saint Paul[248] came to teach men that
all these things had happened in allegory; that the kingdom of God did
not consist in the flesh, but in the spirit; that the enemies of men
were not the Babylonians, but the passions; that God delighted not in
temples made with hands, but in a pure and contrite heart; that the
circumcision of the body was unprofitable, but that of the heart was
needed; that Moses had not given them the bread from heaven, etc.[249]

But God, not having desired to reveal these things to this people who
were unworthy of them, and having nevertheless desired to foretell them,
in order that they might be believed, foretold the time clearly, and
expressed the things sometimes clearly, but very often in figures, in
order that those who loved symbols might consider them, and those who
loved what was symbolised might see it therein.

All that tends not to charity is figurative.

The sole aim of the Scripture is charity.

All which tends not to the sole end is the type of it. For since there
is only one end, all which does not lead to it in express terms is
figurative.

God thus varies that sole precept of charity to satisfy our curiosity,
which seeks for variety, by that variety which still leads us to the one
thing needful. For one thing alone is needful,[250] and we love variety;
and God satisfies both by these varieties, which lead to the one thing
needful.

The Jews have so much loved the shadows, and have so strictly expected
them, that they have misunderstood the reality, when it came in the time
and manner foretold.

The Rabbis take the breasts of the Spouse[251] for types, and all that
does not express the only end they have, namely, temporal good.

And Christians take even the Eucharist as a type of the glory at which
they aim.

670

The Jews, who have been called to subdue nations and kings, have been
the slaves of sin; and the Christians, whose calling has been to be
servants and subjects, are free children.[252]

671

_A formal point._--When Saint Peter and the Apostles deliberated about
abolishing circumcision, where it was a question of acting against the
law of God, they did not heed the prophets, but simply the reception of