CHAPTER 3
THE PROOF OF THE GOSPEL
Bk. V. cassia from his garments," and the other words besides, which speak as of a princess leaving her father's house, and being wedded to Him who has been foreshewn to be Christ and King and God, and calUng Him her Lord, (b) might be referred to the Church of the nations, forsaking ancestral demonic error, and purified and brought into the communion of the divine Word, if time allowed them to have their true interpretation.
(c) CHAPTER
(d) That the same Prophet also plainly confesses Two Lords in Ps. cix.: the One, the First and Highest God; the Other, Whom He calls His Own Lord, and that He was begotten by God before the Foundation of the World, and He knmas the Second God, and that He is the High Priest Eternal of the Father, shares the Throne of the God of the Universe, holding the same Faith as We about Christ.
[Passage quoted, Ps. cix.
1-5.] / The Lord upon thy right hand!
The Psalmist here calls " Lord," our Lord and Saviour, the Word of God, " firstborn of every creature," the Wisdom before the ages, the Beginning of the Ways of God, the Firstborn and Onlybegotten Offspring of the Father, Him ^Vho is honoured with the Name of Christ, teaching that He both shares the seat (220) and is the Son of the Almighty God and Universal Lord, and tlie Eternal High Priest of the Father.
First, then, understand that here this Second Being, the Offspring of God, is addressed.
And since prophecy is believed by us to be spoken by the Spirit of (lod, see if it is not the case that the Holy Spirit in the prophet names as His own Lord
(h) a Second Being after the Lord of the Universe, for he say.s "The Lord said to my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand.'
The Hebrews named the First Person Lord, as being universally the Lord of all, by the uns[)eakable Name expressed in the four letters.
They did not call the Second Person Lord in a like sense, but only used the word as a special title.
Naturally, then, our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ Himself,
Ch. 3.
OX GOD'S RIGHT HAND
tlie Son of God, when He inquired ol" the Pharisees, ''What think ye of Christ?
Wliose son is he?" on their saying, (c) "The son of David," asked, "How th'en can David in spirit call hfm Lord, saying. The Lord said to my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand"? practically interpreting the text as not only calling Him the Lord of David, but the Lord also of the Spirit in the prophet.^ Ami if the prophetic Spirit, which we believe to be the Holy Spirit, confesses Him to be Lord, Who He teaches shares the Father's Throne, and not generally but as " His own Lord," how incomparably more certain is it that the rational powers, (d) who come after the Holy Spirit, must say the same, and the whole visible creation, embodied and unembodied, of which of course the only Sharer of the Father's Throne would be marked out as Lord, by \Vhose agency all things came into being, as the holy apostle says :
" In him all things were Col. i. 16 created, of things in heaven, and things in earth, visible and invisible."
For He alone would have the authority of likeness to the Father,- as being the only Person shewn to be throned with Him.
It is therefore plain that it would be wrong to allot to any among begotten beings the sitting at the right hand of the Almighty's rule and kingdom, except to Him alone ^^'hom I have shewn in many ways, by what I have laid before you, to be God.
Understand then, that the Highest and (221) Almighty Lord bestows on one and the same being the words, "Sit thou on my right hand," and also, "Before the morning-star I have begotten thee," and He delivers with an oath of confirmation the honour unshakeable and immutable of the continuous priesthood for ever and ever, "The Lord swore and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever."
And who could be supposed— leaving human beings out of account — even of those of the nature of ^ This passage is one of the chief instances in which Uonatus, the Latin tr.ins)ator, completely altered the sense of the Cireck. in order to bring Euseliius into line with orthodoxy.
Billins in a fiery note points out that "David in Spiritu " cannot imply that the Holy Spirit was calling His son Lord (quo ncc falsius nee absurdius cogitari potest).
To say that the Father is Lord of the Son, and the Son the Lord of the Spirit, Billius says, destroys all the value of Eusebius as an exponent of Trinitarian doctrine.
For similar statements of the relations of the Person of the Trinity, see F. E.
325 a and Gifford's note.
''"^ Kveos.
* TTJs Toil riar^ij Auotwfffu'S «X*'*'
THE PROOF OF THE GOSPEL
Bk. V angels, to have been begotten of God, and made a priest for ever, but He alone Who also said in the former pro- (b) phecy, "The Lord created me as the beginning of the way for his works, before the ages he established me, in the beginning before the mountains were established, before all the hills he begets me."
Give your careful attention to understanding the relations of the present Psalm to the words quoted in the previous passage ; in this one the Most High God establishes to share His own throne the Second
Lord, who is our Lord, saying, " Sit thou on my right hand," while in the preceding one the Scripture said that (c) His throne would remain for ever and ever, calling Him at the same time God when it says, "Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever." i\gain, in the passage before us, it says, " The Lord shall send the rod of thy power out of Sion," and in the other, " The sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom " ; and once more this passage says, " Sit thou on my right hand, until I make thine enemies the footstool of thy feet, and thou shalt rule in the midst of thine enemies," and the former one, "Thy arrows are sharp, O mighty onc,^ in the heart of the (d) king's enemies."
So that what is said about His enemies in both is in agreement.
Who, then, seeing with his eyes in the midst of cities, villages and countries throughout the world the Churches of our Saviour, the peoples ruled by Him, and the vast multitudes of those sanctified by Him encircled on all sides by enemies and foes of the teaching of Christ, some visible among men, some invisible and beyond the power of sight, would not wonder at this oracle addressed to the person of the subject of the prophecy, which says, " Rule in the (222) midst of thine enemies "?
And while in the previous passage we read, " Anointed with the oil of gladness above thy fellows"— it being the Hebrew custom to anoint priests — the i)assage before us now pronounces Him priest in clearer terms, adding more teaching about Him, by which we learn that He unlike all previous ])riests is the Eternal T'riest, an idea which cannot be associated with mere (b) humanity.
He says that He is made a priest after the order of Melchizedek, in contradistinction to the ordinance of '
CiU'OTt willi (iaisford from Paris MS.
MiLTOc lias Zvrard.
Ch. 3-
LIKE MELCHIZEDEK
the Mosaic priesthood, held either by Aaron or any of his descendants, none of whom were priests until they had been anointed with a prepared ointment, and so became, as by type and symbol, a kind of shadowy and symbolical Christ.
He was one of course that because of his mortality could not extend his priesthood long, and moreover was only consecrated for Jewish ])eople, not for the other nations.
He did not enter on his priestly duty under an oath of God, but was only honoured by the judgment of(c) men, so that it was sometimes the case that something unworthy of God's service was found in them, as is recorded of Eli.
And moreover besides all this, that ancient priest of the Mosaic order could only be selected from the tribe of Levi.
It was obligatory without exception that he should be of the family descending from Aaron, and do service to God in outward worship with the sacrifices and blood of irrational animals.
But he that is named Melchizedek, which in Greek is translated " king of righteousness," who (d) was king of Salem, which would mean "king of peace," Ilcb. vii. without father, without mother, without line of descent, not 3having, according to the account, " beginning of years, nor end of life," had no characteristics shared by the Aaronic priesthood, l^'or he was not chosen by men, he was not anointed with prepared oil, he was not of the tribe of those who had not yet been born ; and stmngest of all, he was not even circumcised in his flesh, and yet he blesses Abraham, as if he were far better than he ; he did not act as priest to the Most High God with sacrifices and libations, nor did he minister at the Temple in Jerusalem.
How (22^) could he ? it did not yet exist.
And he was such of course because there was going to be no similarity between our Saviour Christ and Aaron, for He was neither to be designated priest after a period when He was not priest, nor was He to become priest, but be it.
For we should notice carefully in the words, "Thou art a priest for ever," He does not say, "Thou shalt be what thou wert not before," any more than, "Thou wert that before, which thou art not now"—but by Him Who said, " I am that I am," it is said, " Thou art, and remainest, a priest for ever."
Since, then, Christ neither entered on His priesthood in time, nor sprang from the priestly tribe, nor was anointed (L) with prepared and outward oil, nor will ever reach the
THE PROOF OF THE GOSPEL
Bk. V. end of His priesthood, nor will be established only for the Jews but for all nations, for all these reasons He is rightly said to have forsaken the priesthood after Aaron's type, and to be a priest after the order of Melchizedek.
And the fulfilment of the oracle is truly wondrous, to one who recognizes how our Saviour Jesus the Christ of God even now performs through His ministers even to-day (c) sacrifices after the manner of Melchizedek's.
For just as he, who was priest of the Gentiles, is not represented as offering outward sacrifices, but as blessing Abraham only with wine and bread, in exactly the same way our Lord and Saviour Himself first, and then all His priests among all nations, perform the spiritual sacrifice according to the customs of the Church, and with wine and bread darkly express the mysteries of His I'ody and saving Blood.
This (d) by the Holy Spirit Melchizedek foresaw, and used the figures of what was to come, as the Scripture of Moses witnesses, when it says :
" And Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine : and he was priest of the Most High God, Gen. xiv. and he blessed Abraham."
^^And thus it followed that only to Him with the addition of an oath : jr , ^jj "The Lord God sware, and will not repent, Thou 21. art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek."
Hear, too, what the apostle al.so says about this neb.vi.17.
"17- ^^ herein God willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of the kingdom^ the immutability of his counsel mediated it by an oath:
18. That by two (224) immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong encouragement, who have fled for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before us."
And he adds :
"el>. vii.
" 23. And they indeed have been made priests many ^^' in number, because that by death they were hindered from contiiiuing.
24. l^ut he, because he abideth,'hath an unchangeable priesthood.
2^. Wherein he is able to save to the uttermost them that come unto (1)) God by him. seeing he ever liveth to make intercession '
W.IF.: fiTj.yyf^ia'!K- : jSacriAe/av.
- W.
;\<lil ns Tor oid'i'a.
Ch. 3.
OBEDIENT TO DEATH
for them.
26. For such an high priest became us, who is holy, guileless, undefiled, separated from sinners, and made higher than the heavens."
And he adds "i. Now in the things which we are saying theiieb. v chief point is this : We have such an high priest, who isat down on the right hand of^ the Majesty in the heavens, 2. a minister of the h(ily things, and of the true tabernacle, which God has pitched, and not man."
So says the apostle.
'I'he Psalm too, continuing, shews in veiled phrase even the Passion of the Subject of the prophecy, saying:
''He Ps. cxxiii. shall drink of the brook in the way, therefore shall he 4lift up his head."
And another Psalm shews "the brook "(c) to mean the time of temptations :
" Our soul hath passed through the brook, yea, our soul has passed through the deep waters."
He drinks, then, in the brook, it says, that cup, evidently, of which He darkly spoke at the time of His Passion, when He said:
"Father, if it be possible, kt this cup pass from me."
And also, " If it Mati.xxvi. be not possible for it to pass from me, except I drink it, 42thy will be done."
It was, then, by drinking this cup that He lifted up His head, as the apostle also says, for when he was ''Obedient (d) to the Father - unto death, even the death of the cross, I'hil. ii.
8. therefore," he says, "Ciod hath highly exalted him," raisl'^pl»- •• ^ping Him from the dead, and setting Him at His right hand,-' far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name which is named, not only in this world, but in that which is to come.
And He hath put all things in subjection under his feet, according to the promise made to Him, which He expresses through the Psalmist, saying, " Sit thou on my right hand, until I make thine enemies the footstool of thy feet.
Be thou ruler in the midst of thine enemies."
It is plain to all that to-day the power of our Saviour and the word of His teaching rule over all them that have believed in Him, in the midst of His enemies and foes.
* W. H. add rov 0p6vov.
* \V. II. omit t<^ irarpi.
•* W. II. add iv Tols iirovpavioiS.
THE PROOF OF THE GOSPEL
Bk. V.
(3,3) CHAPTER
(b) That Isaiah also the Greatest of the Proplicts clearly knew Him la be God in God, agreeing in His M'ords with Us Who glorify the Father in the Son, and the Son in the Father.
[Passage quoted, Isa. xlv.
12-13.] In these words God the Creator of the Universe first foretells by the prophet a King and Saviour who will come to build up a holy constitution, and ransom all men who (c) are enslaved by the errors of di^mons.
.Vnd next in order the prophetic Spirit darkly tells of the subjection of the different nations, which shall be subject to the One of Whom he prophesies, and how they will worship Him as God, how they will pray in His name, because of the greater God dwelling in Him, that is to say the Most High Father and God of the Universe.
And this is how it is expressed.
" 14. Thus saith the Lord: Egypt hath laboured for (d) thee, and the merchandise of the Ethiopians, and the Sabeans, great in stature, shall pass over to. thee, and shall be thy servants ; and they shall follow thee bound in fetters,^ and shall worship thee anew, and shall pray in thy name, because God is in thee, and there is no (iod but thee.
15. For thou art (}od, and we knew it not, Ciod of Israel, Saviour.-'
16.
All that are opposed j^,j ^j^. to Him shall be ashamed and confounded, and shall 14-16. walk in shame."
This is the prophecy.
And I do not think that any one, however deficient in judgment he may be, can fail to see how clearly and plainly the words evidently refer to God, Israel's Saviour, and another God in Him.
"'I'he just," he says, "shall worship thee, and make their prayers in thee.
P>ecause (iod is in thee, and there is no God but thee.
I'^or thou art God, and we knew it not. the God of Israel, the Saviour."
And the words "we knew it not" spoken {22(>] in the person of those of old who did not know Him, only
I'",, omits hal SiajSVjiroi'Tai ir^ws <r*.
I'or I'iot, S. icids iroi.
S, uniils cfWTijp, ami reads f> 0eos rov 'ItrpaiiK.
Ch. 4-
A HIDDEN GOD
occur in the Septuagint, for the Hebrew is different, and translated by Aquila, "God then is strong and hidden, God that saves Israel," and by Theodotion, " Therefore a strong secret God preserves Israel."
It is remarkable how he calls Christ a hidden God, and gives the reason clearly, why he calls Him God alone among the ones begotten alter the First and Unbegotten, viz. the dwelling of the Father in Him.
" For in him " according to the holy apostle " it pleased (b) that all the fullness of the godhead ^ should dwell."
This Col. i.
19. the passage plainly expresses when it says "God is in thee, and there is no God but thee."
Instead of, " But thee" Theodotion has "But him," translating:
"There is no God but him," that is to say, " Ikit the God that is in thee, by whom thou also art God."
According to Aquila it runs thus :
" But a strong one is in thee, and there is none beside thee : God the strong and the one that hides himself preserving Israel."
And Symmachu.s, " (iod is in thee alone, and there is no other and exists no other God, verily thou art a h.idden God, (c) God preserving Israel," in which the words clearly shew the reason of the Christ of God being God.
It is where he says, "God is in thee and therefore thou art a strong and hidden Ciod."
According to this, then, the true and only God must be One, and alone owning the Namein full right.
While the Second, by sharing in the being of the True God, is thought worthy to share His Name, not being
God in Himself, nor existing apart from the Father Who gives Him Divinity, not called (iod apart from the Father, («!) but altogether being, living and existing as God, through the presence of the Father in Him, and one in being with the Father, and constituted (iod from Him and through • Him,' and holding His being as well as His Divinity not from Himself but from the Father.
Wherefore we are ' W. II. omit T»)j dfOT»)TOT.
* The Greek is, <i fiti' oAtjOtjs koI fiovoi Qthi fTs h.v fir], fiSvos Kvpias Tiryxavaii' t^s Trpoariyopia!, and Diodatiis in order not to pa.ss on the heresy, replaces Kvplws liy Kupios, translating, qui hujus appellationis est Dominus ("who is Lord of this designation").
Pic, sed perperam, i,s the comment of the Paris editor.
Diodatus in his translation omits " constituted dod through Him, " nnd '• if'(-r ili.- Father."'
THE PROOF OF THE GOSPEL
Bk. V. taught to honour Him as God after the Father, through the Father dwelHng in Him, as we see these prophecies before us intend.
For as the image of a king would be honoured for the sake of him whose hneaments and hkeness it bears (and though both the image and the king received honour, one person would be honoured, and not two-; for there would not be two kings, the first the true one, and the one represented by the image, but one in both forms, not only conceived of, but named and honoured), so I say the Only-begotten Son, being the only image of the Unseen (227) God, is rightly called the image of the Unseen God, through bearing His likeness, and is constituted God by the Father Himself: thus He is, with regard to essence, and gives an image of the Father that grows from His nature and is not something added to Him, because of the actual source of His existence.
\Vherefore He is by nature both God and Only-begotten Son, not being made such by adoption like those who were without, who only acquire an accidental right to the Name of Ciod.
But He ('1) is celebrated as Only-begotten Son by nature and as our God, but not as the tirst God,^ but as the first OnlyBegotten Son of God, and therefore Ciod.
And the general cause also of His being God, would be the fact that He alone is Son of God by nature, and is called Only-begotten, and that He completely preserves the living and vivid spiritual image of the One God, being made in all things like the Father, and bearing the likeness of His actual Divinity.
Thus therefore Him also, as being the only Son and the only image of God, endued with the powers of the Father's Unbegotten and eternal essence fc) according to the example of likeness, and fashioned to the extremest accuracy of likeness by the Father Himself, Who is the most skilled and the wisest delineator and maker of life conceivable, the holy Scriptures salute as God, as One wf)rthy of receiving this Name of the Father with His other (names), but as one Who receives it, and does not * ovx u TTpwToj 6«os. non.itus translates to avoid tlic .Vri.nn pluase, " non tanien a seipso dens."
The I'.iris editor reminds us tliat Eiiseldiis did nut intend in this pass.itje the orthodox tlieology of the Nicene Fathers, but regarded the Son as "minor ct secun<1;i." classis Deus."
Ch. 4.
THE LABOUR
01' EGYPT
possess it in His own right. ^ Eor the One gives, and the Other receives ; so that strictly the First is to be reckoned God, alone being God by nature, and not receiving (d) (divinity) from another.
And the Other is to be thought of as secondary, and as holding a I )ivinity received from the Father, as an image of God. the Divinity in both being conceived of as one in type,- God in Himself being one without beginning and unbegotten, but He is seen through the Son as by a mirror and image.
And this is exactly the teaching of the prophetic oracle, which says that He is only to be worshipped as God, because the Father dwells in Him.
For it says, " In thee shall they pray, because God is in thee, and Thou thyself art God, the Saviour of Israel, and therefore Thou art a strong and a hidden God.
Since God is in Thee, and there is none beside Him."'
(22S) Instead of " Egy[)t laboured,'' the Hebrew has, and the other translators render, "Labour of Egypt," so that the passage runs :
" Ihe Labour of Egypt and the merchandise of the Aethiopians shall worship 'J'hee and be Thy slaves, and the Saheans,' by which I understand to be meant barbarous and obscure nations, in fact all those that long ago were a prey to ditmonic superstition.
For as the Egyptians seemed to be the most superstitious of all nations, and to have begun the errors of idolatry, it is 0') natural that they should be represented as first coming under the yoke of Christ, and should represent all the rest of idolatry.
And this was fulfilled in our Lord and Saviour, by the worship and service rendered to Him in all nations by many multitudes of nations throughout the world.
An<l I understand that the Ethiopians and Sabeans here foretold as worshipping Christ are also meant in Ps.
Ixxi., where it is said: "The Ethiopians shall fall down before Ps. Ixxi.
9. him, and the kings of Arabia and Saba shall bring gifts, and shall worship him."
And it is plain from the context that it is Christ Who it is there predicted will also be the(c) Object of their worship.
' fl\rj(pnTa 5f. oA.\' oi'K iSiiiKTrjrov avTrjv ttr\rfKOTa.
- Kara rh KapdSftyua.