Summa summae S. Thomae, Tomus III

[Resp. Affirmative.

Proof. 1° from the present state of the Jews. For that covenant has been abrogated whose conditions are no longer observed by God, and could by no means be observed by the Jews, even if they wished. But so it is. Therefore.

Proof. of the first part of the minor. By the covenant which he had entered into with the Israelite people, God had bound himself to protect that nation and to govern it with a special providence, giving it laws, appointing ministers for it, heaping temporal goods upon it : on this condition, that the people faithfully carry out the law, or repent of the violated law, Deuter., XXVIII et XXX. Moreover, for eighteen centuries and more God has plainly abandoned the affairs of this people; nor has he ever renewed the miracles by which he was once wont to turn their hearts to himself ; he has not sent them even one prophet; according to the prophecy of Daniel related above, he permitted the overthrow of the city and the temple, the abolition of the ancient worship, the destruction of the whole nation, nor did he revive the spirits of the Jews with any consolation, nor leave them any hope of restoration. And yet the Jews are not seen to have given themselves over to idolatry, but retain the dogma of one God, whom they adore according to their powers ; they have not consigned the precepts of the Mosaic law to oblivion, but even keep its most minute observances.

Nay more, far from God having deserted the conditions of the covenant entered into with the Israelite people on Mount Sinai, he has rather visited the Jews as enemies, for nearly a thousand years and more, and has signified in manifold ways that their race is hateful to him and their offerings ungrateful; they lead an ignoble life, expelled from their fatherland, without a prince, without a fixed seat, made a reproach to all nations. In proof of this certain signs of divine indignation must opportunely be recalled to memory. 1° While the temple of Jerusalem still stood, some forty years before it was overthrown, specters were seen in it and prodigious things happened, as the Jewish doctors themselves relate, and Josephus and Tacitus narrate that a voice was heard from the priests at the feast of Pentecost resounding in the Holy of holies and crying out clearly : « Let us depart, let us depart. » — 2° Nor should that marvelous fact related by Josephus be omitted, namely that a certain man, named Jesus, went about the city for years crying aloud : « Woe to Jerusalem! woe, woe to the city! », who finally exclaimed : « Woe also to me ! » and, immediately struck by a stone hurled by the enemy, expired. — 3° Who does not know how mournful was the lot of the Jews during the siege of Jerusalem, in which eleven hundred thousand perished, and again under the Roman emperor Hadrian six hundred thousand were slain? — 4° Let that event bear still nobler witness of the divine indignation against that nation which all Christian and pagan historians report to have happened in the times of Julian the Apostate, and to which the Jews themselves consent, namely that when Julian had decided to restore the temple of the Jews, so as to demonstrate by patent fact that the divine oracles were lies, an immense flame burst forth from the foundations and consumed the work begun and the workmen together with it.

From these things, others being passed over, it is expressly shown that the conditions of the old covenant entered into with the Israelite people are no longer observed by God.

Proof. of the second part of the minor. The Jews cannot observe this covenant, even if they would. For, by the Mosaic law, sacrifices could not be offered to God except first in the tabernacle, and afterwards in the temple of Jerusalem, by priests taken from the house of Aaron, the rest of the tribe of Levi being assigned to the sacred ministry; which supposes the distinction of tribes and families. Three times a year the Jews were bound to go up to Jerusalem, that they might celebrate in the temple the feasts of Pascha, Pentecost and Tabernacles. Besides, the Israelite nation could not be called the people of God except while, politically constituted, it possessed the land of Chanaan as its own. But since the city of Jerusalem was captured and subverted, the temple has been demolished, the distinction of tribes forgotten, the Aaronic priesthood vanished away, and the Jews, exiles everywhere on earth, cannot carry out the ceremonial precepts according to the law. Therefore the old covenant can no longer be observed by them.

It is perhaps objected that the Jews were in an equal condition at the time of the Babylonian captivity, and yet that covenant was not abolished.

Resp. no parity can be established between the two conditions. 1° The Babylonian captivity had been foretold, not as the political overthrow of the constitution of the Jewish people, but as a punishment, whose duration God had limited to seventy years, after which that nation was to be restored to its former state. 2° In Babylon the Jews had their own judges, who administered justice to them according to the Mosaic law, and in Jerusalem a great part of the people had remained, which possessed this city as its own. 3° During the captivity, the prophets added courage to the Jews; Jeremias promised them liberation after the appointed time, and the restoration of the temple, XXX, 18, and Isaias before him had designated by his own name Cyrus, the future liberator. But the present state of the Jews leaves them no hope; nay rather it is the desolation decreed and predicted by Daniel, IX, 26. Scattered everywhere, strangers everywhere, they are without a fatherland, without a temple, without a priesthood, without sacrifice, without law, witnesses of the ancient promises, but excluded from their fulfillment, which however God uses to demonstrate their fulfillment, as Augustine observes, book III contra duas epist. Pelagian., c. 4, n. 9 : « The Jews, according to the prophecies which they read, are dispersed through every land everywhere, so that even from their codices Christian testimony may not be wanting to the truth. »

Proof. 2° from the advent of the promised Messias, that he truly came is proved in the tract. de Incarnatione, dissert. I, art. 2 et 3.]

THE CHURCH

Second part

ON THE CHURCH INSTITUTED BY CHRIST