THE SIX AGES OF THE WORLD (1)

(S. IVO OF CHARTRES)

[This is from the first sermon on Baptism, preached before a Diocesan Synod. Vol. ii. page 259.]

Whence from the beginning of the world, the Sacraments of Christ and of the Church were celebrated, by which both the people of those times were nourished, and the method of our Redemption prefigured. For in the first age, Adam was on the sixth day formed from the earth his mother, without an earthly father; in the likeness of God: and in the last age of the world, by Christ born of an earthly mother, without an earthly father, man was re-formed to the same image of God. To carry on the similitude, in the same age, from the side of Adam, who was the figure of Christ That was to come, Eve was formed; and, by the blood that flowed, together with the water of sanctification from the side of Christ, the Church was made. In the second age of the world, in the eight souls delivered from the deluge by the ark, the same Church is prefigured, which, in the hope of the eighth day, that is of the Resurrection, by the waters of Baptism and not without the help of the salutary wood, is freed from the deluge of abounding temptation. Then in the third age, the people of God, freed from Egyptian slavery, pass the Red Sea; the waves yield, struck by the rod of Moses; a way is opened to the people of God; the enemy follows behind and is overwhelmed; and here again is another figure of the sanctification of Baptism, consecrated by the word of salvation. For, both the sea is red, and Baptism is red, as hallowed by the Blood of Christ. The enemies that followed behind perished, because past sins are blotted out by Baptism. Next, in the fourth age, the kingdom of David flourished in that earthly Jerusalem, prefiguring the kingdom of Christ and of the Church: for of his seed the same Christ was born, Who spiritually reigning in His Church, shall in due time gloriously crown her for her obedience. Thence it is that they who are to be bap­tized on Easter Eve, are in the fourth week of Lent, which ministers to us the arms of continence, and on the fourth day of that week, carried to church to be catechised and exorcised; then to hear and to be in­structed how they are to fight against spiritual wicked­ness. Nevertheless, their Baptism is deferred till the Paschal Saturday, the Church intending this, - that they who are called to the struggle of the present life, should be baptized in the hope of future tranquillity... Then, after the time of the kings of Israel, when the fifth age was beginning, on account of the perversity of the aforesaid people, it was given over into captivity to the king of Babylon, and was carried away to that city; and they who had voluntarily been slaves to confusion, were made involuntary servants to the king of Babylon, which by interpretation is confusion. But, after seventy years, the same people returned to Jerusalem, Cyrus, the Lord's anointed, so ordering it, as first Isaiah and then Jeremiah had predicted. Which all pertains to the state of the Church, which after the many tribulations of the present world, (carried on by the revolution of seven days,) those tribulations which it has suffered or shall suffer under the King of the spiritual Babylon, shall return to the heavenly Jerusalem to enjoy the Vision of Peace, and never more to be in bondage to confusion. Whence saith the Apostle, The creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of Him Who hath subjected the same in hope, because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the sons of God. And lastly, in the sixth age, Christ was born of a Virgin; as on the sixth day the first-made man was formed from the virgin earth. Thus Christ is the end of the law and the Truth, fulfilling all things which had gone before in the types of Sacraments.

(1) This division of the world's history into six ages, is common to all the mediaeval, and borrowed by them from earlier, writers. Thus S. Augustine: “ But when the sixth day shall have ended, then will come the rest, and the saints and the righteous servants of GOD shall keep Sabbath.” So also S. Athanasius: “In the sixth age the world shall come to its end; and in the seventh, the Lord shall descend to judgment; and in the eighth, the good shall go to their everlasting reward, and the wicked to everlasting punishment.” Thus also S. Augustine: “By the seventh day which hath no evening, is set forth to us that everlasting rest, where there is no night.” There is a hymn of Venerable Bede's founded on this idea, in which he parallelises the six days' work of the Creator, with the six ages of the world; and then proceeds to speak of the glory of the seventh day in which the righteous shall enter on reward, and of the eighth, which is typical of their everlasting happiness. For, as the old creation was finished in seven days, so that new heaven and new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness, may fitly be set forth by the first number over seven, namely, by eight. And musicians did not fail to observe as S. Ivo does here, that the octave is only, as it were, the antitype of the key-note.

(Neale, p.96-98)