CHAPTER 13
I yS
THE PROOF OF THE GOSPEL
Bk. IX.
CHAPTER
From Isaiah.
Of the Miracles He Performed.
[Passage quoted, Isa. xxxv.
3.] Now we have this prophecy fulfilled in the Gospels, partly, when they brought to our Lord and Saviour a paralytic lying on a bed, whom He made whole with a word
; and partly, when many that were blind and possessed with (cl)dcemons, yea, labouring under various diseases and weaknesses, were released from their sufferings by His saving power.
Nor should we forget how even now throughout the whole world multitudes bound by all forms of evil, full of ignorance of Almighty God in their souls, are healed and cured miraculously and beyond all argument by the medicine of His teaching.
Except that now we call Him God as we should, as One Who can work thus, as I have already shewn in the evidence of His Divinity.
Yea, surely (44S) it is right now to acknowledge Him to be God, since He has given proof of power divine and truly inspired.
For it was specifically God's work to give strength to the ]iaralysed, to give life ^ to the dead, to supply health to the sick, to open the eyes of the blind, to restore the lame, and to make the tongue-tied speak plain, all of which things were done by our Saviour Jesus Christ, because He was God, and they have been witnessed to by many throughout
(b) all the world that preach Him—whose evidence unvarnished and veritable is confirmed by trial of torture, and by persistence even unto death, which they have shewn fortTi before kings and rulers and all nations, witnes.sing to the truth of what they preach.
And I think that the spirit of prophecy addresses to these apostles and evangelists the words that begin with, " Lift up the hands that hang down, and the palsied knees."
For when they had grown weary (c) in their hands and powers of action,in their feet and walking with the long circuit of Mosaic observance. He awaked them to the life of the Gospel, and said, "Be strong, ye hands that hang down, and feeble knees," to '
{.'wo-yoi'tr*".
Cf.
1' K. 20 1>, d.
Ch.
13.
PRESENT MIRACLES
prepare them, that is to say, for the (iospel race.
And be strong, too, to encourage others, and to urge them to cling to the salvation of the Gospel, ye that before were low in spirit, and let not any fear take you of them that oppose (d) the Gospel preaching, but against them be strong and of a good courage.
For it is God and the Word of God, not one like Moses or the prophets, that was not only the Worker of the Miracles, but is also the Cause of your own strength.^ And the strongest confirmation of the Divine Power of the Saviour here foretold, by which He really used to cure the lame, the blind, the lepers and the palsied with a word according to that which is written concerning Him, is the power even now energi/ing through the whole world from His Godhead, by which is shewn to them that can see what He was while on earth, since after so many years His proclamation of the ^Vord of God i^ seen to last on invincUile and true, over- (449) coming all that have attempted from the beginning until now to withstand His teaching ; He attracts to Himself great multitudes from all the world, and releases them that come to Him from all kinds of evil and diseases and troubles of the spirit ; He summons to His holy school all races, Greek and Barbarian ; He leads countless hosts to the knowledge of the one true God, and to a healthy and (b) pure life, as befits those who promise to worship Almighty
God.
And He our God, since He is the Word of God, it says, " Gives judgment and will give. He will come and save us."
For, according to the Psalm which says, " (jive the King thy judgment, O God," and, according to the Ps. Ixxi i.
Gospel teaching, in which it is said, "The Father judgeth (c) no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son," John v. 2. having received the authority to judge from the Father, judging in righteousness. He repays justly to the Jewish people the fit penalty for their presumptuous treatment of Him and His prophets, and ever saves in justice as well those who come to Him, whose spiritual ears and eyes He has opened.
Wherefore the divine word calls the time of His Appearance the time of retribution, saying elsewhere,
"Call on the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of (d) retribution.'
This was the time of retribution in which all Isa. Ixi. 2.
' This is Eusebius' ultimate defence, the last trench of his dirJSei^is.
i8o
THE PROOF OF THE GOSPEL
Bk. IX. the blood poured out from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, yea, even to the precious Blood of Jesus, was required of the generation of them that had sinned against Him, so that from that time they underwent utter destruction and their final siege.
And the judgment declared against them wrought this retribution ; wherefore the prophecy says, " Behold our God exacts judgment, and will repay."
And the judgment on them that shall be saved by Him is foretold next in the words, "He will come and save us; then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf hear," and that which follows.
And another prophecy also promises that the Christ will bring this saving (450) judgment, saying "Behold my Son, I will succour him, my chosen, my Spirit hath accepted him, he shall bear judgment Isa. xli.
I. to the nations."
\Vherefore it is also said concerning the Word of the new covenant " For out of Zion shall come forth a law, and the Micah iv. word of the Lord from Jerusalem, and he shall judge 2. in the midst of the nations."
For there is little doubt that He effects the calling of them that turn to Him with divine justice and ineffable counsels.
And, moreover, as teaching us of the divine judgment, and instructing us always to act as under judgment,^
He is said " to bear judgment to the nations."
CHAPTER If From the same.
Of the Signs and Wonders which He ^corked.
[Passage quoted, Isa. viii. 16-20 «.] In the Epistle to the Hebrews, the apostle, quoting llie (d) above passage, "Behold, I and the children which Cod has given me," expounds it of the Christ, saying, " Forasnuicti then as the chiUlrcn arc partakers of flesh and blood,
' li(KptfiffO.'5 TTpaTTftV,
Ch.
14.
SIGNS AND WONDERS
i8i he also himself took part of the same, that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death."
Ilcb. ii. 14.
And here the prophet calls (lods children the Apostles, through whom he teaches that the Lord of Sabaoth, \\'ho dwells in Mount Zion, will do signs and wonders in the house of Jacob, and that they will be manifest if sealed, as is our custom, with the seal of Clirist on their foreheads, and taught no more to learn the Law of Moses, since it stands no longer, and since that which is called the house of Jacob is deserted by God.
This is rendered obscurely in the Scptuagint "Then they shall be manifest who seal up the law, so (451) as not to learn.
And he will say, I await God, who turns his face away from the house of Jacob, and I will trust in hini."
Symmachus translates more clearly, thus :
"Bind the testimony, seal the law in my ordinances.
And I will expect the I^ord that hides his face from the house of Jacob, and I will await him."
And Aquila also translates in this way :
"Bind up the witness, seal the law in my teachings.
And I will expect God that hideth his face from the house of Jacob, and I will await him."
This, then, the apostles of our Saviour are taught to do. CO And He proceeds to say to them :
" Behold, I and the children, which God has given me.
And they shall be for signs and wonders in Israel from the Lord of Sabaoth who dwells in Mount Sion.''
And the Lord of Sabaoth, the Word of God dwelling in the Humanity He has taken, and sojourning in Mount Zion, working signs and wonders, commands b(jth His disciples and all those that believe on Him, sprung from all those who before were idolaters, to fear idolatrous error no longer : (c) therefore if idolaters of the Gentiles would sap their fecundations and induce ^ them to inquire of pythons and the daemon oracles, as if they were equal to the prophetic inspiration of inspired and godly men, they ought to answer and say, " Wherefore do they inquire of the dead concerning the living?
For he has given a law for succour," and the * napaiTa\evoi(v, cf.
Philo 2.
and, peiliaps,
I'.E. 380
(1 .
TO Ij6r].
(where Gifford reads aaKivaai), a quotation from I'hilo.