CHAPTER 13
i8S
THE PROOF OF THE GOSPEL
P.k. IV.
CHAPTER
That even token He was made Man, He remained in the Nature that cannot suffer, or be harmed, or embodied.
And since this is so, there is no need to be disturbed (i68)in mind on hearing of the Birth, human Body, Sufferings and Death of the immaterial and unembodied Word of God, For just as the rays of the sun's hght undergo no suffering, though they fill all things, and touch dead and unclean bodies, much less could the unembodied
Power of God suffer in its essence, or be harmed, or ever become / worse than itself, when it touches a body without being really embodied.^ For what of this ?
Did He not ever and (b) everywhere reach through the matter of the elements and of bodies themselves, as being the creative Word of God, and imprint the words of His own wisdom upon them, impressing life on the lifeless, form on that which is formless and shapeless by nature, stamping His own beauty and unembodied ideas on the qualities of matter, moving things by their own nature lifeless and immovable, earth, air, fire, in a wise and harmonious motion, ordering all things out of disorder, increasing and perfecting them, (c) pervading all things with the divine power of reason, extending through all places and touching all, but yet receiving hurt from naught, nor defiled in His own nature And the same is true of His relation to men (as well as nature).
Of old He appeared to a few easily numbered, only the prophets who are recorded and the just men, now to one, now to another, but finally to us all, to the (tl) evil and unholy, to the Greeks as well as the Hebrews, He has offered Himself as Benefactor and Saviour through the sur[)assing goodness and love of the I'^ather, N\'ho i.> M:ut. ix. all-gfjod, distinctly announcing it thus:
"They that arc
; Matt, whole have no need of a |)hysician, but thoy thai are sick :
''''
I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."
Vea, the .Saviour of all cried unto all, saying :
^"Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, * In such statements of tlie relation of tlie Logos to the luininn body of Clirist, Kuscliius, if pressed, would lie found to he te.icliing Docetism.
Ch.
13.
DIVINE AND HUMAN
He called and healed ungrudgand I will lefiesh you. ingly through the human organism which He had assumed,
Hke a musician showing his skill by means of a lyre, and exhibited Himself as an exami)le of a life wholly wise, virtuous, and good, unto the souls diseased in human bodies, just as the most clever physicians heal men with ( 169) remedies akin to and resembling them.
For, now, He taught them truth.s not shared by others, but laid down as laws by Him or by the Father in far distant periods of time for the ancient and pre-Mosaic Hebrew men of God.
And now He cared as kindly for their bodies as for their souls, allowing them to see with eyes of physical sight the things done by Hirn in the fiesh, and giving His teaching to their physical ears again with a tongue of flesh.
He fulfilled all things by the Humanity that He had taken, (Ij) for those who only in that way were able to appreciate His Divinity.
In all this, then, for the advantage and profit of us all the all-loving Word of God nu'nistered to His Father's Counsels, remaining Himself immaterial and unembodied, as He was before with the Father, not changing His essence, not dissolved from His own nature, not bound with the bonds of the flesh, not falling from divinity, and neither losing the characteristic power of the Word, nor (c) hindered from being in the other parts of the Universe, while He passed His life where His earthly vessel was.
For it is the fact that during the time in which He lived as a man, He continued to fill all things, and was with the Father, and was in Him too, and had care of all things collectively even then, of things in heaven and on earth, not being like ourselves debarred from ubiquity, nor hindered from divine action by His human nature.
But He shared His own gifts with man, and received nothing from mortality in return . He supplied something of His (<1) divine power to mortaks, not taking anything in return for His association with mortals.
He was, therefore, not defiled by being born of a human body, being apart from body, neither did He suffer in His essence from the mortal, being untouched by suffering.
As when a lyre is struck, or its strings torn asunder, if so it chance, it is unlikely that he who played it suffers, so we could not say truly that, when some wise man is punished in his body, that the wisdom in him, or the soul in his body, is struck or burned.
I90
THE PROOF OF THE GOSPEL
Bk. IV.
(170) Much less is it reasonable to say that the nature or power of the A\'ord received any hurt from the sufferings of the body.
For it was granted in our illustration of light that the rays of the sun sent down to earth from heaven are not defiled by touching all the mud and filth and garbage.
^Ve are not even debarred from saying that these things are illuminated by the rays of light.
Whereas it is impossible to say that the sun is defiled or rendered muddy (b) by contact with these materials.
And these things could not be said to be foreign to one another.
Whereas the immaterial and unembodied ^^'ord of God, having His life and reason and everything we have said in Himself, if He touch aught with divine and unembodied power, the thing touched must necessarily live and exist with the light of reason.
Thus therefore, also, whatever body He touches, that body is made holy and illuminated at once, and all disease and weakness and all such things depart.
Its emptiness is exchanged for the fullness of the AVord.
And (c) this was why a dead body, though but a small part of it came in contact with the power of the Word, was raised up to life, and death fled from life, and darkness was dissolved by light, the corruptible put on incorruption, and the mortal immortality.
CHAl'Ti;i< H That n'lieic'ing Hiinianily lie afjorded to us all the Hope of Eternal Good.
(tl) Now it was actually the case that the whole Humanity was absorbed by the Divinity, and moreover the AN'ord of God was God as He had previously been man, and He deified humanity with Himself,^ being the firstfruits of our '
(Tvvairo9(6'j), lo deify together.
Cf.
(-ici;.
Xyss.
For a full discussion of the doclrinc of Deification, see \V.
Inj;e, Chrislian Myslicisni, Appeiuiix C, yp.
356-36S.
Me quotes Clement, S/n'/ii.
10.
63, and Ilippiilytus, Fhilos. x.
34, "Thou hasl become God," and notes tliat llarnack says:
".\ftcr Thcophilus.
Ircn;rus, Hippolylus, and Uri.^en, the idea of deification is found in all the Fathers of the ancient Cliurch, and that in a primary position.'
Tiie
Ch.
15.
THE NAME CHRIST
hope, since He thought actual manhood worthy of eternal li!e with Him, and of fellowship in the blessed Godhead, and afforded to us all equally this mighty proof of an immortality and kingdom with Him.
CHAPTER lo ]\'/ial the Advent of Christ is meant to shac forth, and that (171) He is called God and Lord and High Priest of the God of the Universe by the Hebrew Prophets.
This then was the object of His coming to men, to bring back (1j) that which had of old wandered away from the knowledge of the Father to its own way, and to crown that which was thouLiht worthy of being made in His own image as a relation and a friend with the joy of His own life, and to show that the humanity was beloved by and belonged to the Father, since for its sake the Word of God Himself consented -to become man.
And now to speak briefly, the doctrine connected with our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, in its wonderful dispensation, shall be supported from the Hebrew prophecies, as presently their evidence will (c) shew : the new Scriptures shall prove the old, and the Gospels set their seal on the prophetic evidence.
But if this is so, it is now time to discuss His Name, why He is called Jesus and Christ, and saluted beforehand by name by so many prophecies.
And first, let us intjuire the meaning of the name Christ, before we begin a detailed collection of the prophetic passages connected with the present question I thinkit convenient to consider first the name "Christ," and to distinguish the conception it (d) conveys, so that we may be well acquainted with all the questions usually associated with the subject. words of Athanasins are tlie most famous statement of the doctrine
" He became man that we might be deified."
Inge suggests that tlie Falheri chiefly meant that man becomes "imperishable"
{Ibid.
13).
See also Intr. to DioitysiKs the Arcopagite in the present series of translations.
THE PROOF OF THE GOSPEL
Bk. IVAnother writer,' you will remember, whose ideas spring from modern times and our own day, has said that Aloses was the first of all lawgivers to appoint that those who were to act as priests to God must be anointed with prepared myrrh, since he thought that their bodies ought to smell sweet and have a good odour : for as everything illsmelling is dear to vile and impure powers, so contrariwise the sweet-smelling is dear to the powers that love good.
And he therefore made the law as well that the jiriests should use every day in the Temple i)repared incense,
(172) that sweet smells might abound.
So that while the air was mingled willi it, and dispersed evil smells, a kind of divine effluence might mingle with those who prayed.
And that for the same reason fragrant anointing oil was made by the perfumer's art, for all to use who were going to take the leading place in the State on public occasions, and that Moses first gave the name of " Christ " to those thus anointed.
And that this chrism was not only conferred on chief priests, but afterwards on prophets and kings, (I') who alone were allowed to be anointed with the sacred unguent.
This account seems, no doubt, very obvious, but it is far removed from the actual intention of the divine and sublime prophet.
For we may be sure that that wonderful man, and truly great Hierophant, knowing that the whole of earthy and material being was distinguished in its (.[ualities alone, in no sense honoured one form above another, for he knew that all things were the product of one matter, never stable, having no firmness in its nature, which is (c) ever in flux, and hastening to its own destruction.
He, therefore, made no choice of bodies for their sweetness, nor preferred the pleasure of the senses for its own sake.
For this would be the condition of a soul fallen to the ground and under the power of bodily pleasure.
There are, we know, many men effeminate in body, and in other ways vicious and lustful, who make use of superfluous unguents and a variety of things, but carry souls full of every horrible and offensive stench, while on the other hand the men of God, breathing out virtue, send forth a (d) fragrance that comes from purity, justice, and all holiness '
I .Till unaMe to idcntifv this writer.
Ch.
15.
ANOINTED
far better than the scents of earth, and hold the smell of material bodies of no account.
And the prophet, well understanding this, had none of these ideas that have been suggested about unguents or incense, but presented the images of greater and divine things, so far as he could, in an outward way to those who could learn the divine in that way only and no other.
And that is exactly what the divine oracle is reported to have expressed, when it said : " See thou make (all) things accordExod. xxv. ing to the type shewn in the Mount." ^ Therefore, when com40pleting the symbols of the other things, which it is usual to call types, it appointed the anointing with the unguent. i^73) The account of it loftily and mysteriously expressed as it is, so far as I can explain it, had this meaning, that the only good and only truly sweet and noble, the cause of all life, and the gift bestowed on all in their being and their well-being, that this One Being was believed by the Hebrew reason to be the first cause of all, nnd Itself the highest and the All-Ruling and the AU-Oeating God.
It is thus the power of this Being, the all-strong, the allgood, the source of all beauty in the highest unbegotten Godhead, the Divine Spirit (which by the use of a proper and natural analogy)it calls the (Oil of God), and therefore it calls one who partakes of it Christ and Anointed.
Do not think of oil as pity in this connection, nor as (b) sympathy for the unfortunate, but as that which the fruit of the tree affords, something unmixed with any damp matter, nourisher of light, healer of toilers, disperser of weariness, that which makes those who use it of a cheerful countenance, streaming with rays like light, making bright and shining the face of him who uses it, as holy Scripture says :
" That he may rejoice my face with oil."
Ps. ciii. 15
Therefore the prophetic word by this analogy referring to the highest power of God, the King of kings and Lord of (c) lord.s, calls Him the Christ and the Anointed, Who is the first and only one to be anointed with this oil in its fullness, and is the sharer of the Father's divine fragrance communicable to none other, and is God the Word sole-begotten of Him, and is declared to be God of God by His communion
S. omi's " all."
* Pari? MS. and Donatus add oiKtiiu koI irpocr<pve7 avuPaXuv irapaielyftari fKaioy Sfov.
Migne omits.
THE PROOF OF THE GOSPEL
Bk. IV. with the Unbegotten that begat Him, both the First and the Greater, ^^'herefore in the Psalms the oracle says thus to this same Being anointed of the Father :
(il) " 7. Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever :
A sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom :
8. Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated injustice : ^ Wherefore God, thy God, Hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above Ts. xliv.
7. thy fellows."
But the nature of the oil of olive is one, whereas the nature of the unguent shews a union of many in one.
And so the original and unbegotten power of Almighty God, insofar as it is conceived of as simple, uncompounded, and unmingled with any other essence, is metaphorically compared with the simple essence of the olive oil.
But insofar as it is inclusive of many ideas in the same, /. e. the {174^ creative or kingly, the conceptions of providence, judgment, and countless others, such power as inclusive of many good qualities is more suitably likened to the unguent, which the holy Scriptures teach us that the true and only High Priest of Ciod uses.
And Moses himself having first been thought worthy to view the divine (realities) in secret, and the mysteries concerning the first and only Anointed High Priest of God, which were celebrated before him in His Thcophanies, is (1>) ordered to establish figures and symbols on earth of what he had seen with his mind in visions, so that they who were worthy might have the symbols to occupy them, previously to the full vision of the truth.
And when afterwards he set apart from all men on earth one man who was fit to act as priest to God Himst^lf, he from the first called him Christ, transferring the name from its spiritual meaning, and shewed that He was greater than
(c) the rest of mankind by the sweet-smelling unction, clearly and emphatically proclaiming that the whole nature of the begotten, much more human nature, lacks the power of the I'nbegotlen, and craves the fragrance of the better.
Put it is allowed to no man to reach the Highest and the First tiiis pri/c is given to tlie ( )nly-begottcn and tlie 1-irstborn
Ch.
15.
DAVIDS CHRISTS
only.
For those after Him there is only one way of grasping good, through the mediation of a second principle.^
So the symbol of Moses was of the Holy Spirit.
"And there i Cor. xii. are diversities of gifts, but the same spirit "
: of which Spirit 4he thought that prophets and kings before all others ought (d) to be ambitious to pnrtake, as being consecrated to God not for themselves only, but for all the people.
But now let us inquire somewhat more exactly about the symbols of Moses being symbols of the more divine (realities), and about the possibility of those who were endued with the Holy Spirit without the unction of earth being called Christs.
David in i's. civ. when touching the stories of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the very men \vho were his godly ancestor?, who lived before Moses' day, calls them Christs, for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, in whicli they shared, and fur that alone.
And when he tells how they were hospitably (175) received by foreigners, and how they found God was their Saviour when plots were laid against them, following Moses' account, he names them prophets also and Christs, although
Moses had then not yet appeared among men, nor was his law about the prepared unguent laid down.
Hear what the Psalm says " 5. Remember the wonderful works, that he hath done, I's. civ.
His wonders and the judgments of his mouth 6. Ye seed of .\braham, his servants, \e children of Jacob, his chosen, 7. The Lord himself is your God, (^) His wonders are in all the world.
8. He remembered his covenant for ever The law which he gave to a thousand generations, g. Which he commanded to Abraham, And the oath which he sware unto Isaac, 10. And established it to Jacob for a law, And to Israel for an everlasting covenant.
1 1.
Saying ' To you I will give the land of Canaan, The lot of your inheritance.'— 13. And they went from one nation to another.
From one kingdom to another people.
14. He suffered no man to do them wrong, And reproved kings for their sake :
* Sia fioi'Tjs T^s Toil BfvTfpov ftfTovaias.
• N'erse 12 oniilted.
THE PROOF OF THE GOSPEL
Bk. IV.
15.
' Touch not my Christs, (c) And do my prophets no harm.' "
So David wrote.
And Moses informs us what kings He reproved, saying :
Gen. xii.
"And Ood afflicted Pharaoh with great plagues'
17because of Sarra, Abraham's wife."
And again he writes about tiie King of Gerar :
Gen. XX. J.
"And God came to Abimelech in a dream by night, and said, Behold thou diest for the woman thou hast taken ; for she is the wife of Abraham." ^ Of whom he says further on :
(d) " .And now give back the woman to her iiusband, for Gen. XX. 7.
\^q jg ^ prophet, and will pray for you."
You see from these instances how David, or rather the Holy Spirit Who spoke through him, called the godly men of old and the prophets Christs, though they were not anointed with the earthly unguent.
For how could they have been, since it was in after years that Moses commanded the unction of the High Priest ?
Now listen to Isaiah prophesying in the clearest words thus about Christ, as one to be sent by God to men as their
Redeemer and Saviour, and coming to preach forgiveness to those in bondage of spirit, and recovery of sight to the blind.
For here again the prophet teaches that the Christ has been anointed not with a prepared unguent, l)ut with the spiritual and divine anointing of His Father's Divinity, con- (176) ferred not by man but by the Father.
He says then in the person of Christ :
Isa.
Ixi.
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me.
He has sent me to preach glad tidings to the poor, to proclaim liberty to the captives, to heal the broken in heart, ^ and recovery of sight to the blind."
Let this point then be regarded as certain, that Isaiah, e(iually with David, prophesies that He that should come to mankind to preach liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind would not be anointed with a prepared unguent, but with an anointing of the power of His Father (1)) Unbegotten and Perfect.
-And according to the manner of '
S. adds " and evil."
* .S. rends, " avr^ St iartv (ruvifiKriw'ia avS^iJ " ^" and slic is wedded \o a lnis1)nn<l) " for " oi'Ttj Sf ^v roi< 'Adpatifi."
' LXX :
1 hese clauses arc invorled.
Ch.
15.
r'AVIDS LORD
prophecy the prophet speaks of the future as 1 ast, and as one predicting about himself.
So far, then, we have learned that they who are called "Christs" in the highest sense of the term are anointed by God, not by men, and with the Holy Spirit, not with a prepared unguent.
It is now time to see how the teaching of the Hebrews shews that the true Christ of God pos.sesses a divine nature higher than humanity.
Hear, therefore, David again, where he says that he knows an Eternal Priest of God, and calls (c) Him his own Lord, and confesses tiiat He shares the throne of God Most High in the 109th Psalm, in which he says as follows " The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, | till I make thine enemies the footstool of thy I 2. The Lord shall send the rod of power for thee out of Zion, feet.
I and thou shall rule in the midst of thine, enemies.
| 3. With thee is dominion in the day of thy power, | I begat thee from my womb before the Morning Star, I in the brightness of thy saints. j 4. The Lord sware and will not repent, ; Thou art a priest for ever, after the order of Melchizedek."
| Ps. cix.
And note that David in this passage, being king of the(d) whole Hebrew race, and in addition to his kin:;dom adorned with the Holy Spirit, recognized that the Pjeirg of Whom he speaks Who was revealed to him in the spirit, was so great and surpassingly glorious, that he called Him his own Lord.
For he said "The Lord said to my Lord.'"
Yea: for he knows Him as eternal High Priest, and Priest of the Most High God, and throned beside Almighty God, and His Offspring.
Now it was impossible for Jewish priests to be consecrated to the service of God without anointing, wherefore it was usual to call them Christs.
The Christ, then, mentioned in the Psalm will also be a priest.
For how (177) could He have been witnessed to as priest unless He had previously been anointed ?
And it is also said that He is made a priest forever.
Now this would transcend human nature.
For it is not in man to last for ever,^ since our race is mortal and frail.
Therefore the Priest of God, spoken of in this passage. Who by the confirmation of an oath received a perpetual and limitless priesthood from God, was
• ' otaiuii^fiv.
THE PROOF OF THE GOSPEL
Bk. IV- (b) greater than man.
"For the Lord .s\vare,"he said, "and will not repent, Thou art a priest after the order of Melchizedek."
For as Moses relates that this Melchizedek was priest of the Most High God, not anointed with a prepared unguent, since he was priest of the Most High God long before the Listitution of the Law, and far above Ilel). vii.
I. the famous Abraham in virtue—for he says, "And Melchizedek, King of Salem, Priest of the Most High God, (c) blessed Abraham."
" And without any contradiction," says the apostle, " the less is blessed by the greater."
As therefore, Melchizedek, whoever he was, is introduced as one who acts as priest to the Most High God, without having been anointed with a prepared unguent, He that is prophesied of by David as of the order of Melchizedek, is also spoken of as a great Being surpassing everyone in nature, as being Priest of the suiireme God, and sharing the throne of His unbegotten power, and as the Lord of the prophet : and He is not simply "priest," but "eternal priest of the Father."
And the divine apostle also says, examining the implications of these passages :
(il^ " 17. Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew to tlie heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath:
18. That of two immutable Ilcb. vi. things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we 17might have a strong consolation."
And again :
"21.
I'or those priests were made without an oath: but this with an oath by him that said unto him : 'The Ileh. vii.
Lord sware and will not repent. Thou art a priest for 21. ever after the order of Melchizedek.' "
And:
" 23. They truly were many priests, because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death.
24.
But this man because he continueth ever hath an unchangeable jiriesthood.
25.
Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto (lod by him, seeing he ever livcth to make intercession for them."
In. this a divine Power is represented as being in existing things, and underlying things that are only grasped by the mind. Which aixording to the Hebrew oracles is Priest t.o the (17S) (iod of the I'niverse, and is established in the office of priest
Ch. 15.
THE PATTERN OF THE MOUNT
hood to the Most High, not by earthy and human unguent, but by holy and divine virtue and jiower.
The Object of the Psalmist's i)rophecy therefore is presented distinctly as an eternal Priest, and Son of the Most High God, as begotten by the Most High God, and sharing the throne of His kingdom.
And the Christ foretold by Isaiah has been shewn not to have been begotten by man but by the Father, and to have been anointed by the Divine Sprrit, and to (b) have been sent to deliver men from captivity.
This Being, then, it was that Moses had seen by the help of the Divine Spirit, when he established figures and symbols of Him, as suitable for men, anointing and hallowing the priest selected from among men with prepared unguents as yet, and not with the Holy Spirit, and calling him Christ and anointed, as a representation of the true.
And who could give better evidence of this than Moses himself?
In his own writings (c) he distinctly says that the (jod and Lord Who answered him bade him establish a more material worship on earth according to the spiritual and heavenly vision that had been shewn him, which should R)rm an image of the spiritual and immaterial worship.
And so he is said to have sketched a kind of copy of the order of the angels of heaven and the powers divine, since the oracle said to him, "Thou shalt make all things according to the pattern shewed thee in the Mount."'
So then he introduces the High Priest, as he did all the other elements, and anointed him with earth- (j) born unguents, working out a Christ and a High Priest of shadow and symbol, a copy of the Heavenly Christ and High Priest.
Thus I think I have clearly proved that the essential Christ was not man, but Son of God, honoured with a seat on the right hand of His Father's Godhead, far greater not only than human and mortal nature, but greater also than every spiritual e.\i>tence among things begotten.
Hut moreover, according to what was previously said, the same David in Ps. xliv., using as inscription the words "Concerning the beloved, and those to be changed,'^ '
<TKioypa(p?t'Tai, c(. aKiaypa()ia, VV,. 730 b, "So c.
'" Twv a.K\oitc6r)<Toft.*V(DV ; cf.
I'.l'.. ^^^ d, rail flfoiroirjTou a\\oix<Tcai : of changes wrought on matter by tlic ideas
; and (jifford's note.
S. gives heading— ei'j tI> t*Aoj, xnrtp ruv aWotinOfiffofntyaiy. rois viois K6p( (is avv((jiv.
<fhh\ vwfp rov ayaTrrjrov.
THE PROOF OF THE GOSPEL
Bk. IV. speaks of one and the same Being as God and King and Christ, writing thus (179) "
I. My heart has uttered a good matter :
I declare my Ps. xliv.
I. works to the King : My tongue is the pen of a ready writer, 2. Thou art more beautiful than the sons of men."
To which he adds :
" 6. Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever, a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom :
7. Thou hast loved righteousness and hated inicjuity, wherefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows."
Now look a little more carefully, and see how in the inscription of the Psalm he prefaces that the subject is "con- (b)cerning the beloved," adding the words
"for instruction" to prepare the hearers for what he is about to say.
He shews also the reason of the Incarnation of the Word,^ with the words :
Inscrip- "For the end, for the changed, with a view to undertion. standing, for the beloved."'
And whom could you better regard as " those to be changed,'' for whom the Psalm is spoken, than those who are going to be changed from their former life and conversation, to be transformed and altered by Him ^^'hom the (c) prophecy concerns ?
And this was the beloved of God, on whose behalf the Psalm's preface advises us to have understanding with regard to the proj^hecy.
And if you were at a loss about the Person of this Beloved One, with whom the prophecy in the Psalm is concerned, the word that faces you at the very beginning will inform you, which says
: " My heart hath produced a good word."
It may surely be said that by this is meant the Word that was in the beginning with God, Whom the great Evangelist John shewed fi)rth as (d) God, saying: "In the beginning was the Word, and the lohn i.
Word was with God, and the Word was God."
And the words, " My heart hath produced a good word,"' if it be spoken in the person of the Supreme God and Father, would suggest the Only-begotten Wt)rd of ( lod. as being the Son of the Father, not by projection, nmb\ division, or scission, or '
Ti» airiof rrj! otKDfonias toC ,\<i-).m'.
», < ikc.\ .nl)ly miglil iiuaii ^i^lply " ihe rcasmi <>f the anangcnu lU of his matter.
Ch.
15.
THE GOOD WORD
diminution, or any conceivable mode of bodily birth ; for such ideas are blasphemous, and very remote from the ineffable generation.
And we must understand this according to our pievious interpretation : as when it was said that He was born from the womb of God before the Morning Star, and we understood it figuratively, so we must understand this similar statement only in a spiritual sense.
For in the words "My heart has produced a good word," the(iSo) Holy Spirit inspires this saying also as purely spiritual.
To which it seems right for me to add what I am accustomed to quote in every question that is debated about His Godhead, that reverent saying
" Who shall declare his generation ? " even if the holy Scriptures are wont in our human and earthly language to speak of His Birth, and use the word " womb."
For such expressions are connected with mental imagery alone, and are accordingly subject to the laws of metaphor.
And so the words, "My heart hast produced a good word," (1») may be explained as referring to the constitution and coming into being ^ of the primal ^Vord, since it would not be right to suppose any heart, save one that we can understand to be spiritual, to exist in the case of the Supreme God.
One might also say that the Psalmist referred to " the Word that was in the beginning with God," a Word rightly named "good" as being the offspring of a Father All Ciood.
And if we read a little further on in the Psalm we shall find that the subject of the prophecy, this very " beloved of God," is anointed, once more not as by Moses, nor as by any human being, but by the Most High and Supreme (lod and (c)
Father Himself.
As he says further on, " Wherefore (kid, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows."
And by what name else could one call Him that is here acknowledged to have been anointed by the Supreme God Himself, but Christ ?
So we have here in this passage two names of the subject of the prophecy, Christ and the Beloved, the author of this anoint- ('•) ing being one and the same : and it shews the reason why * ovffiaxris : cf. P.E. 314 h, 541 a, t^j tov Sfvrtpov alriov avaraaton Tf (cal oxxTiuifffuis.
" It is literally tlie act wliich gives tJ» flvai rt Koi riiv oiialay.'' Cf.
I'hil. Jiul. 332. M.— {Gifford.) VOL.
THE PROOF OF THE GOSPEL
Bk. IV.
He is said to be anointed with the oil of gladness, which will be plain to you, when we proceed a little further, and still more if you take into account the whole intention of the passage.
For the Psalm addresses the subject of the prophecy, Christ the Beloved of God, in the words quoted a little before, in which it was said :
" Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever : a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy Kingdom.
Thou hast loved righteousness and hated injustice : therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed (iSi) thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows."
See, then, if these words are not addressed directly to God : He says, " For thou, 6 0£d?,'' instead of w 0ee.
" Thy throne is for ever and ever, and a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy Kingdom."
And then, "Thou, O God, hast loved righteousness and hated injustice ; therefore God, even Thy God, hath anointed thee," and established Thee as Christ above all.
The Hebrew shews it even more clearly, which Aquila most accurately translating has rendered thus "Thy throne, God, is for ever and still, a sceptre of right- (b) eousness is the sceptre of thy Kingdom.
Thou hast loved justice and hated impiety : wherefore God, thy Ciod, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness apart from thy fellows."
Instead therefore of " God, thy God " the actual Hebrew is, "O God, tliy God."
So that the whole verse runs :
" Thou hast, O (Jod, loved justice and hated impiety": therefore in return, O God, the highest and greater God,^ A\'ho is also thy God"— so that the Anointer, being the Supreme God, is far above the Anointed, He being God in a different sense.
And this would be clear to any one who knew Hebrew.
(c) For in the place of the first name, where .\quila has " Thy throne, O God," clearly replacing o ©eo's by Wte, the Hebrew has Elohim.
.\nd also for "Therefore, O (iod, he has anointed thee" the Hebrew has Elohim, which Aquila shewed by the vocative <T) Wee.
Instead of the nominative case of the noun, which would be "Therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee^-" the Hebrew with extreme accuracy has l>Ioach, which is the (d) vocative case of IClohim, meaning "() (iotl," wiicreas the ' We have here one of the " Ariaii " p.iss.igcs in the Dtmoitslralio, "Majoicm et minorcni Deitatem stalnit.
Vide p.
191, ul>i ^kti^ova.
©tiv tJii' irc(T*f)a nominal."
(Paris Edition.)
Ch. 16.
THE CHRIST ANOINTED
nominative Elohim means "God."
So that the interpretation wliich says "Tlierefore, O God, thy God hath anointed,"' is accurate.
And so the oracle in this passage is clearly addressing God, and says that He has been anointed with the oil of gladness beyond any of those who have ever borne the same name as He.
Therefore in these words you have it clearly stated that God was anointed and became the Christ, not with prepared unguent nor at the hands of man, but in a way different from other men.
And this is He Who was the Beloved of the Father, and Mis Offspring, and the eternal Priest, and the Being called theSharer of the Father's
Throne.
And Who else could He be but the Firstborn Word of (jod. He that in the beginning was God with God, (1S2) reckoned as God through all the inspired Scri[)lures, as my argument as it proceeds further will abundantly prove?
Now after this preliminary study of the coming into being and the appellation of the Christ, it remains for us to take up our previous subject, and consider in what a number of prophetic predictions the Christ was foretold by name.
CHAPTER IG From Psalm ii.
In which Scriptures the Christ is foretold by Naive as plotted agaittst by Kings and Riders, Nations and Peoples, being begotten of God Himself, and called the Son of Man, receiving the Inheritance of the Nations and of the Ends of the Earth from II is Father.
[Passages quoted, Ps. ii. i, 2, 7, 8 ] In these words the Holy Spirit very clearly addresses (d) Christ, and calls Him the Son of God, as has been said before, and at the same time indicates that there will be a plot against Him, and foretells the calling of the Gentiles as brought about through Him.
And all this the course of events has 'shewn to be exactly fulfilled by the actual
THE PROOF OF THE GOSPEL
Bk. IV. facts in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
For even now nations, rulers, peoples and kings have not yet ceased their combined attack on Him and His teaching.
And if the Jews prefer to refer these predictions to some time yet to come, they ought to agree that their expected Christ will again be plotted against, according to the present (183) oracle: "The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ."
Which they would never grant, inasmuch as they expect the coming Christ to be a great Ruler, and an eternal King, and their Ransomer.
But supposing their Christ should indeed come and suffer the same as He Who has already come, why ought we to believe or disbelieve in theirs rather than ours?
And if they cannot give an answer to this, but proceed (h) to refer the oracle to David or some one of the Jewish kings of his stock, even then we can shew, that neither David nor any other celebrated Hebrew is recorded to have been proclaimed as Son of God by the oracle, nor as begotten of (iod, as was the subject of the prophecy in the Psalm, nor to have ruled over nations, kings, rulers and people while involved in plots.
Wherefore if none of them (c) is found so to have done, whereas all this agrees in actual fact in His case, both in His patience long ago, and in the attack made on Him to-day as the Christ of God by kings and rulers, nations and peoples, what hinders Him from being the subject of the prophecy in the words which said, "The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ"?
And what follows in the Psalm would agree with Him alone, where it says: "The Lord said to me, I hou art my Son.
To-day have I begotten thee.
Desire of mc, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and (tl)the utmost parts of the earth for thy possession.'
For surely only in Him has this part of the prophecy receiveil an indubitable fulfilment, since the voice of His disci|>lcs has gone forth into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.
And the passage distinctly names Christ, saying as in His own person, that He is the Son of God, when it says:
"The Lortl said unto mc, Thou art my Son.
Today I have begotten thee.
With which you may
Ch. i6.
THE GREAT HlGH-rRIEST
compare the words in the Proverbs, also spoken in His own Person :
" Pefore the mountains were established, Tiov. viii. before all the hills he brings me forth."
And also the 25. address by the Father to Him in Psalm cix.
"I begat (1S4) thee from my womb before the Morning Star."
UnderTs. cix.
3. stand then how the holy Scriptures prophesy that one and the same Being, Christ by name, Who is also Son of (iod, is to be plotted against by men, to receive the nations for His inheritance, and to rule over the ends of the earth, shewing His dispensation among men by two proofs
: the one being the attacks upon Him, and the other the subjection of the nations to Him.
Psalm xix.
Christ named, tecetving all His Requests from His Father.
"5. The Lord fulfil all thy requests.
| 6. Now I know(i,) | and will hear him from his holy heaven. that the Lord has saved His Christ, "
| Since it is now my object to shew in how many places the Christ is mentioned by name in the prophecies, I naturally set before you those which plainly foretell the Christ.
And all this Psalm voices a prayer as spoken by holy men to the Person of Christ.
For since for our sakes (c) and on our behalf He received insult when He had become man, we are taught to join our prayers with His as He prays and supplicates the Father on our behalf, aa one who repels attacks against us both visible and invisible.
And so we speak to Him as such in the Psalm.
"i. The Lord hear thee in the day of affliction | , the name of the God of Jacob shield thee.
| 2.
^Lay he send thee help from his holy (place) | , and strengthen thee from Zion.
| And then, since it is fitting for Him, as being our great High Priest, to offer the spiritual .sacrifices of praise and(«l) words to God on our behalf, and since as a priest He offered both Himself, and the Humanity which He assumed on earth as a whole burnt-ofifering for us, to God and the Father, we therefore say to Him :
'* 4. May he remember all thy sacrifice, ] and fatten thy burnt sacrifice.
2o6
THE PROOF OF THE GOSPEL
Bk. IV.
And since all that He plans is saving and useful to the world, we rightly call on Him :
"5. The Lord give thee thy heart's desire," saying :
"And fulfil all thy mind."'
And afterwards remembering His Resurrection from the dead, we say (1S5) "6. We will exult in thy salvation."
For what else could the salvation of Christ be, but His Resurrection from the dead, by which also He raises all the fallen ?
Next we say :
" 8 b. And we will triumph in the name of our God and the Lord fulfil all thy requests."
And to crown all we are taught to say "7. Now I know that the Lord has saved his Christ."
As if we had not known it before, we understand His Salvation in perceiving the power of His Resurrection.
Psalm xxvii.
Clirist named as Jiaviiig the Father as His Lord and Shield.
(h) "8. The Lord is the strength of his people, | and is the shield of salvation of his Christ."
The Psalm we are considering also is referred to Christ, including the prayer of Christ which He prayed at the time of His Passion, and therefore in the opening of the I'salpi He says :
I. To thee, O Lord, have I cried : My God, | be not silent before me, ^ Lest I be like unto them that go down into the pit.
| "
| (c) And at the end He prophesies His Resurrection, saying "6.
])lesscd be the Lord, for He hath hearkened to the voice of my prayer.
| 7. The Lord is my helper and my defender; | my heart hoped in him, and I was helped :
| and my flesh has revived, | and I will gladly give him praise:
To which the divine and i)ro{)hetic Spirit adds :
"8. The Lord is the strength of his people, and the | ] of liis Christ."
Teaching us that all the wonders of Christ written in llic shield * S. repeals fi^l iroTt irapa(Tia!vl)<Tris
^ir' i/xol.
Ch. i6.
THE LORD'S DAY
holy Scriptures, done for man's salvation, whether teachings (d) or writings, or the mysteries of His Resurrection now referred to, were all done by the will and power of the Father defending His own Christ as with a shield in all His marvellous and saving words and works.
Psalm Ixxxiv.
Christ described by Name as God the Overseer,^ and the One Day of His Resurrection, and the One House of God, His Church.
"9.
Behold, O God, our defender, | and look upon(i8G) the face of thy Christ.
| 10.
For one day in thy courts is better than a thousand.
| I have chosen to abase myself in the house of my God, rather than to dwell | ."
They who know the Christ of God to be the Word, the A\'isdom, the True Light and the Life, and then realize that He became man, are struck by the miracle of His \\"\\\, so that they exclaim :
" And we saw him, in the tabernacles of sinners | and he had no form nor beauty.
Isa. liii.
But his form was ignoble, and inferior to that of the sons of men.
He was a man in suffering, and (b) knowing the bearing of affliction, because he turned away his face, he was dishonoured."
They rightly call cm God to look ui)on the Face of the Christ, dishonoured and insulted for our sake, and to be merciful to us for His sake.
"For He bore our sins, and on our behalf is pained."
Thus they beseech, altogether desiring and expressing in their prayer the desire to see the face of the glory of Christ, and to behold the day of His light.
And this was the day of His Resurrection from the dead, which they say, as being the one and only truly Holy Day and the Lord's Day,^ is better than any number (c) of days as we ordinarily understand them, and better than the days set apart by the Mosaic Law for Feasts, New Moons and Sabbaths, which the Apostle teaches are the shadow of days and not days in reality.
And this Lord's Day of our Saviour is alone said to shew its light not in * The "one day" of the Psalm is referred to the Christian Sunday: the Kuptax)\ rifitpa : cf. Justin Martyr, ^/>o/.
Ixvii.
2o8
THE PROOF OF THE GOSPEL
Bk. IV. every place but only in the courts of the Lord.
And these must mean the Churches of Christ throughout the world, which are courts of the one House of God, in which he (d) who knows these things loves and chooses to be abased, l)rizing far more the time spent in them than that spent in the tabernacles of sinners.
Unless we are to understand that everyone who chooses the synagogues of the Jews, which deny the Christ of God, or those of godless sectaries and other unbelieving heathen, professes them to be better than the Churches of Christ.
Psalm Ixxxviii.
Christ named as made of None Account, and suffering shamefully, and His People reviled by the Enemy in Exchange for Him.
(187) " 39. But thou hast cast off and made of no account, | thou hast rejected thy Christ, | 40. and overthrown the covenant of thy servant.
| Thou hast desecrated " his sanctuary even to the ground.
| And the context.
To which he adds :
"51. Remember, Lord, the reproach of thy servants, I which I have borne ^ in my bosom, even (the reproach) of many nations, | 52. wherewith thine enemies, O Lord, have reviled, ] wherewitli they have reviled those who suffer in exchange for thy Cluist."Christ is here clearly mentioned by name, and the circumstances attending His Passion predicted.
If I had time (b) I could shew by examining the whole Psalm that what is expressed can only apply to our Lord and Saviour, and no one else.
But when Christ is named the second time here it refers to some one else than Him, in exchange for whom He is the one taken, and the Church is plainly nuant, and indeed those who are called Christ's enemies have reviled it, and even now revile it.
Yea, every one opposed to Christ's teaching is wont to revile us about the Sufferings of our Saviour, which He underwent for us, and especially about His Cross and Passion.
S. has. o'u viriaxov.
: cv vnt(T\oi',
Ch. i6.
LANTERN AND LIGHT
Psalm cxxxi.
Christ named as rising from (lie Seed of David, called (he (c) Horn of David, bringing to Shame the Jews His Enemies, restoring the Sanctuary of the Father.
"11. The Lord sware to David the truth, and lie will never set him at naught, '
| of the fruit of thy body I will set upon thy seat."
And lower down, '* 17. There will I lift up the horn of David, | I have prepared a lantern for my Christ:
| 18.
As for his enemies I will clothe them with shame, | but upon himself shall blossom my holiness.
| "
Now here the Lord swears about one of the seed of David, W Whom He calls His seed and horn.
And again addressing Christ by name. He says that He has prepared a lantern for Him, which seems to refer to the prophetic word, which shewed the coming of Christ before, Who alone, like the light of the sun, has now risen on all men through the whole world.
And David Himself was prepared as a lantern for the Christ, taking the place of a lantern in comparison with the perfect light of the sun.
And then He says : "I will lift up the horn," shewing the place where He means Christ to be born.
For when David is praying that he may behold before in spirit the place of Christ's birth, and saying:
(1S8) "3.
I will not go into the tabernacle of my house, | I will not climb to the couch of my bed.
| 4.
I will not give sleep to my eyes, nor slumber to my eyelids, | nor rest to my temples, | 5. until I find a place for the Lord, a tabernacle for the God of Jacob.
| "
—the Holy Spirit reveals the place as Bethlehem.
Therefore he proceeds "6. iJehold we heard of it in Ephratha | (that is, Bethlehem), and we found it in the fields of the wood.
7. We will go 2 into his tabernacle, | | we will worship (b) " in the place, where his feet stood.
| '
: ttvrijv. :
: ai/rhy.
: ei(re\(v<TOfiat .
. TrpocTKvvi\(ioixfv.
: u(T(\iva6fi.fdu,— irpooKuvilffOfifv.
2IO
THE PROOF OF THE GOSPEL
Bk. IV.
And suitably after this revelation He adds :
"There will I lift up the horn of David,
have prepared a lantern for my Christ."
(c) Maybe also the Body a.ssumed by Christ at Bethlehem may be meant, since the Divine Power inhabiting it through His body as through an earthen vessel, '^ like a lamp, shot forth to all men the rays of the Divine Light of the Word.
From Amos.
Christ announced by Name by God, and made known to All Men as liberating the Jewish Race.
[Passage quoted, Amos. iv.
12— v.
2.] God now proclaiming the Christ by name the seventh time is said to "strengthen the thunder" and "to create the wind,'" the proclamation of the Gospel being called thunder from its being heard by all men, and similarly the spirit that Christ breathed on His apostles is meant ; and also the Saviour's sojourn among men has clearly fulfilled the prophecy in which God is said to make "morning" and " mist " together, mortiing for those that receive salvation, but for the Jews that disbelieve in Him the contrary.
On (1S9) whom also Scripture foretells an extreme curse, adding a lamentation for the Jewish, race, which actually overtook them immediately after their impiety against our Lord and • Saviour Jesus Christ.
For of a truth from that day to this the House of Israel has fallen, and the visiononce shewn by God and the rejection have been brought to pass, concerning the falling of their house in Jerusalem, and against their whole state, that it should not be possible for any one to lift them up, who will never more be lifted up.
(b) "There is," he .says, "therefore no one to lift her up."
For since they did not accept the Christ of God when He en me, perforce He left them and turned to all the Gentiles, telling the cause of his turning, when He said with tears, as if almost apologizing :
"Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killeth the prophets, and stoncst them which are sent unto her, how often ^ '
Si' rcnpaKH'iiv (TKfvous.
Cf.
2 Cor. iv.
-' opo$ ill Mii^^iic finin Paris text, (.'i.nisforcl ami Diiulorf read opaffu followini; Dun.iins' rendciing, and tlio Oxford Codex, i" W.H.
: iroad-ds.
: iroX\o/cis.
W.ll. omit ?^>j}juoj.
Ch. lO.
SNARES OF THE JEWS
would I have gathered thy children together, even as a bird gathcreth her nestlings under her wings, and ye (c) would not: behold, your house is left unto you Matt.xxiii. desolate."
37.
From Habakkuk.
Christ is named as preserved by His Father and saving His Oicn Chrisls.
"Thou wentest forth for the safety of thy i)eo[)le to save thy Christs :
Thou hast brought' death on the Ilab. iii. heads of transgressors."
'3Aquila : "Thou wentest forth for the safety of thy people, for the safety of thy people with thy Christ."
As Aquila renders by the singular instead of the plural, saying (<1) that the Supreme God has made salvation for the people "with Christ,"'
I have rightly set down the passage, which clearly supports my position.
But there would be according to the Septuagint version more persons who are called Christs from Him and for the sake of Whom it is said :
"Touch not my Christs, and do my prophets no harm,"
I's. cv.
15. who believed on Him, and were thought worthy of the holy anointing of regeneration in Christ, and who were able to say with the holy apostle :
" We are become lleb. iii. partakers of Christ."
MFrom the Lamentations of Jeremiah.
(190) Christ is named as plotted against by the Jc7cs, and made knmvn to the Gentiles.
" 20. The breath of our countenance, the Lord Christ was taken in their destructions, of whom we said. In Lam. iv. his shadow we shall live among the Gentiles."
20.
The inspired jirophets of God, knowing the future by the Holy Spirit, foretold that they themselves would live, and tliat their words would work among the Gentiles as the words of living men, but not in Israel.
They said (l>) again that the Christ (Whom they named) as being He from Whom the prophetic spirit was supplied to them, would be taken in their snares.
The snares of whom ?
Plainly of the Jews who plotted against Him.
And notice here that the prophecy says that the Christ will be taken, 1 LXX : fia\us.
THE PROOF OF THE GOSPEL
Bk. IV. which 'would not correspond with the second Coming of Christ, which the prophecies predict will be glorious and bring in the Divine Kingdom.
Wherefore it seems that (c) the Jews are wrong in taking the sayings about His second
Appearance, as if they were about His first Coming, which the sense will in no way allow.
Since it is impossible to regard Him as at one and the same time glorious and without glory, honoured and kingly, and then without form or beauty, but dishonoured more than the sons of men ; and again, as the Saviour and Redeemer of Israel, while plotted against by them, and led as a sheep to the (d) slaughter, delivered to death by their sins.
The prophecies about the Christ should be divided, as our investigation of the facts shews, into two classes : the first which are the more human and gloomy will be agreed to have been fulfilled at His first Coming, the second the more glorious and divine even now await His second Coming for their fulfilment.
And a clear proof of the former is the actual progress of the knowledge of God through Him in all nations, which many prophetic voices foretell in various strains, like the one before us, in which it is said :
" Of whom we said, In his shadow we will live among the Gentiles."
/j(.j\ From the ist Book of Kings [i Samuel].
Chtist is named as exalted by the Lord and Father.
"The Lord has ascended to the heavens and has I Kings thundered : he will judge the extremities of the earth, "•,'°~.. and he gives strength to our kings, and will exalt the I Sam.
II.
, f
• /-'I • ..
)i jQ horn of his Christ.
The words mean the return of Christ (Who is named) or of God to heaven, and His Teaching heard like thunder by all, and Holy Scripture foretells His future Judgment (I) of all afterwards.
And after this it is said that the Lord will give strength to our kings.
And these would be the apostles of Christ, of Whom it is written in Ps.
Ixvii.
"The Lord will give a word to the preachers of the Gospel with much power."
Here, also, he mentions Christ by nnme, humanly known as our Saviour, ^^'hose horn he says shall he exalted, meaning His invisible Power and Kingdom.
For it is usual for Scripture to call a kingdom a "horn."
Ch.
1 6.
A FAITHFUL PRIEST
It is found also in Ps.
Ixxxviii.
" And in my Name shall (c) his horn be exalted."
FrOm the ist Book of Kings [i SamuelJ.
Christ is named as receiving a jaithfid House from His Father, that is the Church, and as a Faithful High Priest for All Time leading His Church.
"Behold, the days come when I will destroy thy i Sam. seed, and the seed of thy fathers house.
And thou »'
S'shalt not have an old man in thy house for ever."
The oracle speaks these words to Eli, but adds these (<1) others "And I will raise up to myself a faithful priest, who shall do all that is in my heart and in my soul ; and I will build him a sure house, and he shall dwell before my Christ for ever"
(v. 35).
The divine Word after threatening doom and rejection on those who do not worship in the right way, promises that He will raise up another priest of another tribe, who He also says will come before His Christ, or " will walk in the person of my anointed," as Aquila has translated it, or as Symmachus, "will continue before his Christ."
And who could this be ?
Surely every one who is enrolled in holiness in the priesthood of the Christ of Cod, to Whom the Supreme God promises that He will build the House of(i9-) His Church, as a wise Architect and Builder, n(jt meaning any house but the Church established in Christ's Name throughout the whole world, wherein every one who is consecrated priest of the Christ of God is said in the spiritual worship to offer things acceptable and well-pleasing to (iod : the sacrifices of the blood of bulls and goats offered in the old religion of types, being admitted by the prophecy of Isaiah to be hateful to God.
('j) Such are the many instances of the jjredirtion of the Christ by name ; but, as in most cases, the Sufferings of Christ are conjoined to His Name, we must return to what was said before about His Divinity, which I have showed previously to be touched on in the 45th Psalm, entitled FOR THE BELOVED, where Scripture, after first describing Him as King, proceeds to say other things about the Divinity of Christ
THE PROOF OF THE GOSPEL
Bk. IV.
(c) "Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever : a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom : Thou Ps. xlv. 6. hast loved righteousness, and hated injustice
: therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows."'
For, as I have already sliewn, these words clearly imply that the God referred to is one and the same Being, Who loved righteousness and hated iniquity ; and that because of this He was anointed by another greater God, His Father,^ with a better and more excellent unction than that foreshadowed
(d) by the types, which is called "the oil of gladness."
And what else could He be properly named but Christ, ^V^ho is anointed with this oil, not by man but by God Most High?
The same Person, therefore, is shewn to be called God, as indeed I have already shewn in the proper places.
And we should here again remember Isaiah, who said :
" The Spirit of the Lord is upon nie, for whose sake he hath anointed me.
He has sent me to preach the gospel to the poor, to heal the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and sight to the blind."
And we have already sliewn that the priests from among men, who in long distant times were consecrated to the ('93) service of God, were anointed with a prepared unguent.
But he that is spoken of in the prophecy is said to have been anointed with the Divine Spirit.
And this passage in its entirety was referred to Jesus the only true Christ of (iod. Who one day took the i)rophecy in the Jewish synagogue, and after reading the selected portion, said that what He had read was fulfilled in Himself.
For it is written, that having read it "And closing the book, and giving it to the minister, ('') he sat down.
And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened upon him, 2\. And he began to say unto them.
This day is this Scripture Luke 20 S(/ fulfilled in your ears."
With all this we should again compare the records of Moses, who when he established his own brother as High Priest, according to the pattern that had been shewn to him, agreeably to the oracle which said to him:
"Thou ' An .\ri.Tn phrase.
Ch. i6.
THE REAL PRIEST
shall make all things according to the pattern shewn to thee in the Meant," plainly shews that he had perceived (c) with the eyes of the mind and by the Divine Spirit the great High Priest of the Universe, the true Christ of God, Whose image he represented together with the rest of the material and figurative worship, and honoured the person named with the name of the real Christ.
And this has the support of the inspired apostle, who I Id), viii. says when treating of the law of Moses :
" Who serve under 5the example and shadow of heavenly things."
And again : (j) "For the law having a shadow of good things to come." Ileb. x. i.
And again : "16. Let no man, therefore, judge you in meat *-"'• "
'/• or in drink, or in respect of a holy day, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days, 17. which are a shadow of things to come."
For if the enactments relating to the difference ^ of foods, and the holy days and the Sabbath, like shadowy things, preserved a copy of other things, that were mystically true, you will say not without reason that the High Priest also represented the symbol of another High Priest, and that he was called Christ, iis the pattern of that other, the only real Christ : and so far was he from being the real one, that the real Christ hears from the Supreme God :
" Sit thou on my right hand, until I make thine enemies the footstool of thy feet.'
And:
"Be thou ruler in the midst of thine enem-es."'
And :
" The Lord sware, and will not repent.
Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek."
By which ('94) He was revealed clearly as eternal Priest, existing as Offspring and Son of God before the Morning Star and before the whole creation.
And the Christ of Moses, like one who has acted the character in a drama for a short time, retires as one reckoned among mortals, and hands on the reality to the only true and real.
While the real Christ needing not the Mosaic unction, nor prepared oil, nor earthly material, yet has filled the world with His goodness and His name, establishing the race of Christians, named (b) after Him, among all nations.
But Moses'
Christ, not that he was ever plainly so called among men, except through the writings of Moses— he, I say, some time long ' a5ia4>Or)(af.
Billiiis, Obs.
Sac. i.
2S, replaces l)y hia<popus, which ihe sense requires.