Figures And Futures

Non dubium autem est, omnia quae in patres aut per patres nostros gesta sunt, futuri formam in his quae gesta sunt praetulisse. Et idipsum ita esse, hic quoque psalmorum liber testis est. Namque cum in septuagesimo et septimo psalmo omnia ea quae in Aegypto atque in deserto et in caeteris deinceps locis gesta essent recenserentur, ea ipsa parabolica esse ita demonstrata sunt: Attendite populus meus in legem meam, inclinate aurem vestram in verba oris mei. Aperiam in parabolis os meum, loquar propositiones ab initio. Per id enim quod et parabolae et propositiones sunt, rerum futurarum effectibus comparantur. Apostolus quoque docet, ea ipsa quae gesta sunt, in praefigurationem gesta esse, dicens: Quia lex umbram habet futurorum bonorum, et omnia in praeformationem acciderunt his: scripta sunt autem propter nos, in quos fines saeculorum devenerunt. Gesta igitur ipsa in exemplum, et scripta in doctrinam sunt. Sanctus Hilarius Pictaviensis, Tractatus super Psalmos, Tractatus in Psalmum CXXXVI Source: Migne PL 9.777c-778a

But there is no doubt that everything done to or through our fathers were brought to pass as a figure of what is to come. And that this is the case, the book of the Psalms also bears witness. For when in the seventy seventh Psalm everything which was done in Egypt and in the desert is reviewed, they are revealed to be parabolic. 'Attend, my people, to my law, incline your ear to the words of my mouth. I shall open my mouth in parables, I shall speak propositions from the beginning.' 1 For through this, in parables and in propositions, the performance of future things is prepared. The Apostle also teaches that these things which happened were done as a prefiguration, saying, 'Because the law is a shadow of future goods,' 2 and 'Everything happened to them as a prefiguration, and they are written for our sake, upon whom the ends of the ages has come.' 3 Therefore the deeds were for example, and they were written for teaching. Saint Hilary of Poitiers, Homilies on the Psalms, from Psalm 136 1 Ps 77.1-2 2 Heb 10.1, Colos 2.17 3 1 Cor 10.11