CHAPTER 17

2i6

THE PROOF OF THE GOSPEL

Bk. IVafter the Exodus from Egypt purified with certain lustrations and sacrifices of blood was anointed with prepared oil, Moses anointing him.

But the Christ, archetypal, and (c) real from the beginning, and for infinite ages whole through the whole, and Himself ever like Himself in all ways, and changing not at all, was ever anointed by the Supreme God, with His unbegotten Divinity, both before His sojourn among men, and after it likewise, not by man or by any material substance existing among men.

And as we are examining His Name, the seal of all we have said may be found in the oracle of Solomon the wisest of the wise, where he says in the Song of Songs :

Cant. i. 2.

" Thy name is as ointment poured forth."

Yea, he being supplied with divine wisdom, and thought worthy of more (d) mystic revelations about Christ and His Church, and speaking of Him as Heavenly Bridegroom, and her as Bride, ^speaks as if to Him, and says, "Thy name, O Bridegroom, is ointment," and not simply ointment, but " ointment poured forth."

And what name could be more suggestive of ointment poured forth than the Name of Christ ?

For there could be no Christ, and no Name of Christ, unless ointment had been poured forth.

And in what has gone before I have shewn of what nature the ointment was (195) with which Christ was anointed.

So now that we have completed our examination of the Name Christ, let us proceed to consider the Name of Jesus.

CHAPTER

(1)) Thai the Name of Jesus 7cas also houourcd ainotig the Ancient Friends of God.

MosE.s was also the first to use the Name Jesus, when he changed the name of his successor and altered it to Jesus.

For it is written : "These are the names of the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land, and Moses called Nauses, Num. xiii. the son of Nave, Jesus, and sent them.'"

And notice how '7tlie prophet, who was deeply versed in the significance of

Ch.

17.

JOSHUA

names, and had gone to the roots of the philosophy of the changed names of the inspired men in his record, and the (c) reasons why their names were changed, introduces Abraham as receiving as a reward of virtue from God a complete change of name from that of his father, the meaning of which it is now the time to explain at length.

And so, also, in naming Sara Sarra, and Isaac called before his birth " the laugh," and Jacob given as a reward of his struggle the name of Israel, and in exhibiting in many other cases connected with the power and significance of names superhuman insight in his inspired wisdom and knowledge, (d) when no one of those before him had ever used the name Jesus, he first of all, impelled by the Holy Spirit, gives the name of Jesus to him whom he is about to constitute the successor of his rule over the people, changing the other name he had used before.

He did not consider the name of his forefather given him when he was born sufficient (for his parents called him Nauses).

But being the prophet of God he changed the name received by birth, and called the man Jesus at the bidding of the Holy Spirit that he might lead the whole people after his own death, (with the knowledge that) when the law laid down by Closes some day should be changed and have an end, and should pass away like Moses himself, that no one else (196) but Jesus the Christ of God would lead that other polity, which would be better than the former.

And so Moses, the most wonderful of all the prophets, understanding by the Holy Spirit both the names of our Saviour, Jesus Christ, honoured the choicest of all his rulers by bestowing them as kingly crowns, naming worthily the two leaders and rulers of the people the high priest and his own successor, (b) Christ and Jesus, calling Aaron Christ, and Nauses Jesus, as his successor after his death.

In this manner, then, the writings of Mcises himself are adorned with the names of our Saviour Jesus Christ.

There is a lacuna in the text. vol.

2i8

THE PROOF OF THE GOSPEL

Bk. IV.

From Exodus.

(c) How Jesus, the Successor of Moses, called the Angel, and about to be the Leader of the People, is said to bear the Name of Christ.

"20. And behold, I send my angel before thy face, that he may keep thee in the way, that he may bring thee into the land which I have prepared for thee.

Take heed to thyself and hearken unto him and dis- ^ , ... obey him not : for he will not give way to thee, for Exod xxm.

• u- » 2Q my name is upon him.

"With my Name, who teach you these things," says the Lord Himself, is he inscribed, who is to lead the people into (d) the land of promise.

And if He was Jesus and none other, it is plain how He says that His name is set on Him.

Nor is it strange that he calls him Angel, since it is said of John also, who was but a man :

" Behold, I send my angel before thy face, who shall prepare thy way before thee."

From Zechariah.

(197) That Jesus, the Son of Josedek the High Pn'est, 7cas a Figure and Type of Our Saviour, Who turned to God the Slavery that of Old ruled the Souls of Men [Passages quoted, Zech. iii.

1-6, 9; vi. 9-13 ] In this passage too the prophet-high-pricst called Jesus presents, I think, a very clear picture and plain symbol of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, being honoured by bearing His Name, and made the leader of the return of the people from the Babylonian captivity.

Since, also, our Saviour Jesus Christ is said by the Prophet Isaiah to have been sent to preach liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to comfort all that mourn, Isa.

Ixi.

I. and to give to all that mourn in Zion glory for dust, the (19S) ointment of gladness.

You have, therefore, her two groat High Priests, first the C'hrist in Moses, and secoml the lesus of whom I am speaking, both bearing in themselves the signs of the truth concerning our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

But Aaron, the " (Christ "' in Moses' writings, having freed tlie people from sIa\ory in ICgypt, and led them in

Ch.

17.

THE LAMB OF GOD

freedom and with all carefulness in their journey from Egypt, seems to present a picture of the real Lord, Who has redeemed us, who are of all nations, from Egyptian idolatry

; while the Jesus in the prophet, the High Priest who was (b) at the head of the return from Babylon to Jerusalem, also presents a figure of Jesus our Saviour, Whom we have as a great High Priest, that has passed through the heavens, through Whom also we ourselves, redeemed as it were in this present life from Babylon, that is from confusion and slavery, are taught to hasten to the heavenly city, the true Jerusalem.

Jesus too, since he bore in himself the image of the (c) true, was naturally clad in filthy garments, and the devil is said to stand at his right hand and to oppose him, since also Jesus, truly our Saviour and Lord, descending into our state of slavery took away our sins, and washed away the stains of humanity, and underwent the shame of the Passion, through His love for us.

Wherefore, Isaiah says :

" He bears our sins, and is pained for us, and we Tsa. liii.

4. thought him to be in labour, and smitten, and aftlicted : (d) He was wounded for our sins, and weakened for our iniquities."

And John the Baptist also, seeing the Lord, said " Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins Jolin i. 29. of the world."

Paul also, writing in the same way about Him, says :

" Him that knew no sin made sin for us, that 2 Cor. v. we might become the righteousness of (Jod in Him," and ^'• "Christ has ransomed us from the curse of the law, being ('al. iii. 13. made a curse for us."

All these things the inspired prophet referred to when he said, "And Jesus was clad in filthy garments."

But He put them from Him by His Ascen-(i99) sion into the heavens, and the return from our condition of slavery to His own glory, and He is crowned with the diadem of His Father's I)ivinity, and is girt with the bright robe of His Father's light, and is glorified with the divine Mitre,' and the other high priestly adornments.

Nor is it difficult to explain the part about the devil, who even now is opposed to the teaching of Christ, and to His Church established throughout the whole world, and has ever been opposed to our .Saviour, and marched '

KiZdpti.

THE PROOF OF THE GOSPEL

Bk. IV.

(b) against Him before, when He came to save us from our slavery to himself.

He tempted Him also the first time, and the second time again, when by the Passion he arranged a plot against Him.

But in all battles He triumphed over the devil, and all the unseen enemies and foes led by him, and made us who were slaves His own people, and built of us, as of living stones, the house of God, and the state of holiness, so that He exactly agrees with the oracle, which says :

Zech. vi.

" Behold a man, whose name is the Branch.

And 12, 13. he shall spring up from below, and shall build the (c) house of the Lord.

And he shall receive virtue, and shall sit and rule upon his throne."

Note, therefore, with care, in what manner in speaking mystically of the Jesus of days of old, who bears the image of the true, he says :

" Behold a man, whose name is the Branch."

And a little later, it is said to Jesus himself then present, as if concerning some one else who was the (tl) Branch :

" Hear, Jesus, the High Priest, thou and thy neighbour, for the men are diviners.

Behold, I bring my servant the Branch."

If, then, the speecli related to some one yet to come, who was more truly called the liranch than he that bore the name then, he must have been only an image of him that was yet to come, as he is not only called Jesus in figure, but the Branch as well, if this was said to him when present :

" Behold a man, whose name is the Branch."

He was, therefore, naturally because he was the image thought worthy of the name of the Saviour, as well as of the Branch : for the name of Jesus translated into Greek (200) means "Salvation of God."

For in Hebrew "Isoua" is "salvation," and the son of Nave is called by the Hebrews Joshua, Joshua being "Salvation ot Jah,"that is. Salvation of God.

It follows that wherever the Salvation of God is named in the Greek versions, you are to understand that nothing but Jesus is meant.

Having now brought to this point what I had to say concerning the Name of our Saviour, I will take u]) the argument from another starting point, and pass on to the more important prophetic proofs about Him.

BOOK V

INTRODUCTION

Two ways of considering our Saviour Jesus Christ have (202) been illustrated in the previous book of the Proof of the Gospel : the first takes us above nature and beyond it : on its road we defined Him to be the Only-begotten Son of(l)) God, or the Word \\'ho is of the essence of God, the secondary cause of the Universe, or a spiritual substance, and the first bf)rn nature of God all-perfect. His holy and perfect Power before things created, or the siiiritual image of the Unbegottcn nature.

The second was akin and more familiar to ourselves ; on its road we defined Christ as the Word of God, proclaiming in human nature the holiness of the Father, according as He appeared in human form long before to those with Abraham, that famous ruler of the men of God, and was predicted to (c) appear again among men by human birth, and with flesh like ours, and to suffer the extremest shame.

This being so, the argument will proceed in its natural order, if I proceed to display the prophetic evidence about Him, if, that is to say, we make our chief aim to discover what was essential in the jiromises made, and justify the Divinity ascribed to Him in the Gospels from the ancient prophetic evidence.

And it will be necessary (d) first to discuss the nature of proi)hetic inspiration

^ among the Hebrews, from whom we learned beforehand what they proclaimed.

Greeks and Barbarians alike testify to the existence of oracles and oracular responses in all parts of the earth, and they say that they were revealed by the foresight of the Creator for the use and profit of men, so that there need be no essential difference between Hebrew prophecy (203)

' d(o\y\i\iia.

THE PROOF OF THE GOSPEL

Bk. V. and the oracles of the other nations.

For as the Supreme God gave oracles to the Hebrews through their prophets, and suggested what was to their advantage, so also He gave them to the other nations through their local oracles.

For He was not only the God of the Jews, but of the rest of mankind as well ; and He cared not more for these than those, but His Providence was over all alike, just as He has given the sun ungrudgingly for all, and not for the Hebrews only, and the supj^ly of needs according to the seasons, and a like bodily constitution for all, and one (li) mode of birth, and one kind of rational soul.

And, thus, they say he provided ungrudgingly for all men the science of foretelling the future, to some by prophets, to some by oracles, to some by the flight of birds, or by inspecting entrails, or by dreams, or omens contained in word or sound, or by some other sign.^ For these they say were bestowed on all men by the Providence of God, so that the prophets of the Hebrews should not seem to have an advantage over the rest of the world.

Mine will meet it in this manner.

If any argument could prove that the gods, or divine powers, or good diumc^ns really presided over the oracles named, or over the omens from birds, or any of those referred to, I should have to yield to what was stated, that the Supreme Ciod had given these things as well as the Hebrew prophecy to those who used them, for their good.

But if by complete demonstration, and by the '

5ia irpo(p7iTa>v avSpwv, rois 8e 5ia Xf"?"''''')/'''^''!

'''ots 5e 5ia opviOvv TTTTjfffws, ^ Sia duTiKTjs f) Oioveipoirofi.iriias, )') 5ia K\ri56vwv, *) iraA^wi'.— T/ie Pracparatio,]ioo\is IV., V. and VI., is; occupieil with the worthlessness of the Greek oracles on the t;rounds here summarized.

Jevons explains divination from the entrails of a sacrifice, or from the flight of liird'i as an attempt to discover the inwartl disposition of a deity, who hahiiually manifests himself in animal fi>rm.

Onciromancy is not illicit in tiie O. T.

For an account of Arlemidorus. who wrote exhaustively on dreams, ciira A. D. iSo, >^cc Dill, Koiiian Si'iii-fv /)•<»/// yVr;'<» io Man Its Aun/iiis, pp. j\f>7 sq.

Divination, "Sia K\i)Z6vaiv" was the interpretation of a word accidentally said as an expression of the Divine Will. l?y divination, " 5io iraA.ucii'''

^sounds), omens taken from the rustling of the leaves from the Coracle of Dodonaand such-like are meant.

[//.D./k, arts.

: Divination, Dreams, Magic, Soothsaying.

See Dill. c/.

(//. 44 5 1^^ I".

Higg, 77ie ("//-/, /'•, /;?>/:

//; the Konunt Etnf>iie, 74-81.]

ORACLES

confessions of the Greeks themselves already given, that (il) they were ckemons, and not good ones but the source of all harm and vice, how can they be the prophets of God?

And my argument in The Preparation for the Gospel lias convicted them of worthlessness, from the human sacrifices connected with their rites from ancient days in every place and city and country, from their deceiving their questioners through ignorance of the future, through the many falsehoods in which they have been convicted, sometimes direclly, sometimes through the ambiguity of the oracles given, by which they have been proved over and over again to have involved their suppliants in a host of evils.

And they have been before shewn to be a vile and unclean crowd from their delight in the low and lustful odes sung about them, the hymns, and recitals of myths, the improper (204 and harmful stories, which they were convicted of having stamped as the truth, though they knew that they told against them.

And the final proof of their weak nature is shewn by their extinction and ceasing to give responses as of old : an extinction which can only be dated from the appearance of our Saviour Jesus Christ.

For from the time when the word of Gospel teaching began to pervade all nations, from C^) that time the oracles began to fail, and the deaths of daemons are recorded.

All these reasons and many others like them were used then in that part of The Preparation of the Gospel, which is concerned in proving the wickedness of the daemons.

And if they are so wicked, what possible ground can there be for thinking that the oracles of the daemons are prophecies of the Supreme God, or for comparing their position with that of God's prophets

; of what sort (c) were the predictions they gave to their questioners, those even which seemed to have some foundation ?

Were they not about low and common men, boxers for instance, and such people, whom they ordered to be honoured with sacrifices?

What was their position about human sacrifice?

For this question is the touchstone of the whole matter.

\\'hat evil thing could surpass in absurdity the idea that the Gods, the very Saviours of men, and the good daemons, could command their suppliants and holy inquirers to slaughter their dearest, as if they were mere animals, actually (d) thirsting for human blood more than any wild beasts, and

THE PROOF OF THE GOSPEL

Bk. V could be convicted of being neither more nor less than drinkers of blood, cannibals, and friends of destruction.

Or let him speak who will, if he has anything holy or worthy of the name of virtue to tell about them, any prophecies or predictions affecting mankind as a whole, any laws or enactments for the State, laying down general rules for human life, any philosophical doctrines and instruction provided by the gods for the lovers of philosophy.

But it would be impossible to say that any such advantage ever accrued to human life from the famous oracles.

{205) For if this had been tlie case, men having their laws laid down for them by the gods would not have used different and irreconcileable systems of law.

For if the gods existed and were good they must surely have inspired the same enactments : they must have inspired pure and most just legal systems : and where would have been the need of Solon or Draco or any of the other Greek or barbarian legislators, if the gods were present and gave all necessary commands through the oracles ?

And if it should be said (Ij) that they alone are meant, who established laws for each separate race of men, I should ask who that god was, and what was his character, who, for instance, ordered the Scythians to devour human beings, or laid down laws to others that they should lie with their mothers and daughters, or enacted as a good thing that they should throw their aged people to the dogs, or allowed men to marry their sisters and to defile one another.

But why should I enumerate the lawless stories of Greeks and Barbarians, in order to prove that they were not gods, but (c) vicious and evil dc'emons, these famous oracle-mongers of theirs, driving the thrice-wretcheel race of men to incredible depths of unnatural crime, whereas the famous Greek gods and oracles are not proved to have brought any advantage or profit whatever for their souls' health to those who sought their aid ?

And if it was open to them to use their own gods for teachers, why did the Greeks ever leave what did them good at home and make for foreign lands, as if they wanted to enjoy the merchandise of learning from some- (H) where else ? ^ ' An interestini; example of Ihc ancient iilc.i of "cujus (flci) regio, ejus rcligio."

Cf. "Go, serve other goils.

INSTIGATORS OF EVIL

And if it had been the gods or the good di^mons, who gave the answers, somttimes shewing their own power by foreknowledge or in some other unexpected way, sometimes teaching irnc wisdom by the infallible truth of their instruction, what could have prevented the sons of the I)hilosophers being instructed by them, and why did various schools of philosophy ^ arise from the deep oppositions of those who procured conceptions of teaching, one from one source, one from another?

And even if the multitude had given them no heed, yet surely religious and godly men would have procured infallible truth from the gift of the gods.

Who, then, were they?

Whoever (206) you say they were, those who take the other view will expose them as deceivers.

But it seems probable that the oracles were given by daemons, and were genuine up to the point of discovering a thief, or the loss of property, and things of that kind, which it was not unlikely that beings who passed their time in the air should have knowledge of : but they were never responsible for a good and wise philosophic saying, or for a state, or for a law laid down by right reason

; nay, more, (b) if I may speak quite frankly, one ought to consider them all instigators of evil ; for when they listened either to the odes and hymns and recitals of men, or to the secret rites of the mysteries, retailing their own adulteries and unnatural crimes, their marriage of mothers and lawless union with sisters, and the many contests of the gods, enmities and wars of gods against gods, not one of them has ever, so far (c) as I know, been angry at what was said, as if it were only suitable for lustful, and not for pure, minds to think and say such things.

.And why need I enlarge, when from one most significant example I can crowd into one view their cruelty, inhumanity and real viciousness?

I refer to the human sacrifices.

Surely to delight not only in the slaughter of irrational beasts, but also in the destruction of men, overshot the highest limit of cruelty.

^ The varieties of Greek ]ihilosophy in the early Empire were a frequent object of attack by the Apologists.

In the XlVth Book of the Pracparatio, Y.. has dealt with tlie contradictions of (ireek pjiilosophers, showing how the systems opposed to Christianity were criticized by the best Greek thinkers hemsclves.

In the .XVth he attacked the Stoics, Peripatetics and all classes of materialists.

THE PROOF OF THE GOSPEL

Bk. V.

For, as I said in the Preparatioti, my evidence is drawn (d) from the Greek philosophers and writers themselves, who conclusively prove that the evil daemons perverted the human race by their involved intrigues, now by oracles, now by omens from birds, or signs or sacrifices or things of the kind.

Wherefore it is altogether to be denied that the oracles came from the Supreme God.

And so it is not allowable to class them with the Hebrew Prophets, whose first Hierophant and divine teacher was Moses.

See, what (207) a wealth of good he brought to human life.

First he produced a sacred writing of evangelical and true doctrines about God the Maker and Creator of all things, and about the secondary Cause of the rational and spiritual essences after Him, and about the creation of the world and of man

; and then he moved the obedient spirits of good men to ambition, by outlining like figures of virtue the stories of (b) the holy and godly Hebrews of long ago ; he began the teaching of a legislation divine and suitable to the light they then had, and introduced a godly worship, and revealed predictions of all that was to take place in after years, as I hope presently to shew.

Such was Moses.

And following his steps the prophets who succeeded him foretold some things incidentally to intjuirers if anything was asked relating to their daily life ; but their prophecy in its main purpose (c) was concerned with great issues.^ For they did not reckon it worthy of their divine duty to deal with those who sought oracles about daily matters or that actual time, or about slight and trivial things, but the illumination of the Holy Spirit in them including in its vast scope the whole race of mankind, promised no prediction about any particular man who was sick, nor about this present life so open to accidents and sufferings, nor about any one dead, nor, in a word, about ordinary and common

(tj) things, which when present make the soul no better, and when absent cause it no harm or loss.

And, as I .said, when their predictions referred to such things, it was not in the line of their main meaning, but as accompanying a greater conception.

And the causes which were at the root of their pro|)hetic inspiration involved a greater scheme than the things instanced.

* iiiX iJi(yli\ois.

GOSPEL OF MOSES

If, then, one were to explore carefully the whole circuit of the writings of Moses and his successors, one would find it included exhortation and teaching of duty to the God of the Universe, \\'ho is the Creator of all things, and the knowledge and divine teaching relating to the highest secondary Cause, and prohibition of all polytheistic error, (208) and then the memorial of the godly men of old days who began the said religion, and predictions and proclamations of those who would live in after days, as they themselves had lived, through the ajipearance and presence of God among men, I mean of the secf)ndary Lord and God after the Supreme Father, Who Himself would become the Teacher of the same religion, and be revealed as Saviour (b) of the life of men, through Whom they foretold that the ideals of the ancient godly Hebrews would be handed on to all nations.

This was the Gospel that Moses foretold, as well as the sons of the other prophets, who all spake as with one mouth.

And this was the reason of the descent of the Holy Spirit to men, to teach men the knowledge of God, and the loftiest theology of the Father and the Son. to train them in every form of true religion, to give a record of those who lived well long ago, and those who afterwards fell away from the religion of their forefathers, and to exhibit the case against them at great length: and then (c) to prophesy the coming of the Saviour and Teacher of the whole race of mankind, and to herald the sharing of the religion of the ancient Hebrews by all nations.

These were the unanimous proclamations of the prophets of old days inscribed on tables^ and in sacred books : yea, these very things, which we see even now after long ages in process of fulfilment ; they all in the power of the Holy (d) Spirit with one voice foretold would come to all men a light of true religion, purity of mind and body, a complete purging of the heart, which having first gained themselves by discipline, they urged upon the obedient, prohibiting their converts from every lustful action, and teaching them not to imitate the lawless ways of polytheistic error, and to avoid with one consent all intercourse with daemons, the popular human sacrifices of days gone by, and the base and secret tales about the gods.

Against these they warned '

(TTTiKais.

THE PROOF OF THE GOSPEL

Bk. V. them and counselled them to set their hearts only on God (209) the Creator of all things, Who is as it were the Overseer and Judge of all human doings, and to remember the future

Coming among men of the Christ of God, the Saviour of the whole human race, established to be the Teacher of the true religion to Greeks and Barbarians alike.

This was the vast difference between those who were possessed by the Holy Spirit and those who pretended to prophesy under the influence of daemons.

Then, too, the evil daemon, being akin to darkness, (b) involved the soul in darkness and mist by its visitation, and stretched out him who was under its power ^ like a corpse, divorced from his natural faculties of reason, not following his own words or actions, completely insensible and demented, in accordance with which perhaps they may have called such a condition " Manteia," as being a form of " Mania," - whereas the truly divine Spirit, Which is of the nature of light, or rather light itself, brings at once a new and bright daylight to every soul on whom It comes, (c) revealing it as far more clear and thoughtful than ever it was before, so that it is sober and wide awake, and above all can understand and interpret prophecies.

A\ herefore we seem rightly and truly to call such men prophets, because the Holy Spirit gives them a sure knowledge and light on the present, as well as a true and accurate knowledge of the future.

See, then, if it is not a far better and truer argument, which says that the Holy Spirit visits souls purified and prepared with rational and clear minds to (d) receive the divine, than that of those who shut up the ^ rhv vtt' avTov ola veKp6v (Dindorf).

Gaisford reads to? vno<pr\rov ola v(Kp6v.

This is a description of llie well-known phenomena of the hypnotic state of the spiritualistic medium or subject

: cf. T.

J. Hudson, The Laiv of Psycliii riiciiomoui (London, 1905), p. 47

: " .Ml the facts of hypnotism shew that the more quiescent the objective faculties become, or, in other words, the more jicrfectly the functions of the brain are suspended, the more exalted are the manil"cstation> of the subjective mind .

. the nearer the body approaches the condition of death, the stronger become the demonstrations of the power of the soul."

Cf.

Jastrow, The Subconscious (London, 1906), especially c. iv. "The dissociated consciousness," and li.

Sidis. The Psvcholo^ of Su^ji;csfion (New \'ork, 1903), p. 90:

" Sugjjestibility varies as the amount of disajjgregalion, antl inversely as the unilicalion of consciousness."

* fkavTfla and (xavia.