Chapter 2 (87)
108 | THE SENTENCES, BOOK 3
Chapter 2 (87) 1. ON THE FAITH OF THE SIMPLE. What, then, will be said of those simple persons, to whom the mystery of the incarnation was not revealed, who piously believed what was presented to them?
2. It may be said that no one would have been just or saved to whom a revelation was not made, whether manifest or veiled, openly or under a mystery: manifest, as to Abraham and Moses and the other ancestors, who had knowledge of the articles of faith in a distinct form; veiled, as to the simple, to whom it was revealed that they should believe the same things as those elders believed and taught, but who did not have knowledge in the same manifest form. In the Church also there are some who are less able, and so cannot distinguish and explain the articles of faith, but who nevertheless believe all that is contained in the Creed; these believe what they do not know, having a faith veiled under a mystery. In the same way, in that earlier time, too, those who were less able, on the strength of a revelation made to them, adhered in faith to the elders, to whom they, as it were, entrusted their faith—lHence Job: The oxen were ploughing, and the she-asses were grazing next to them.' The simple and lesser ones are the she-asses grazing next to the oxen because, by adhering in humility to the elders, they believed under a mystery what the others also taught under a mystery. Such a one perhaps was the widow of Sarephta.'
Chapter 3 (88)
1. BEFORE THE MEDIATOR'S COMING, WHAT WAS IT NECESSARY TO KNOW
CONCERNING HIM. But it is asked: since salvation would not have been available to the ancients, as it is not to the moderns, without faith in the mediator, would it have been necessary for them to believe concerning the mediator all the things that we now believe?
2. To some, it seems that it would have been sufficient for them to believe only four things, namely [Christ's] birth, death, resurrection, and coming in judgement; they gather this from the words of Augustine above, where he set out these four things.!
3. To others, it seems that, if they had faith in the Trinity, then it would have been sufficient, concerning faith in the mystery of the incarnation, if they believed that the Son of God would be born of woman and would come in judgement. These use John the Baptist as evidence for their view; according to Gregory's exposition,' in the Gospel, John seems to have had
Nob leas *Cf. 3 Kings 17, 10-16.
'Above, cl nl.
*Gregory, In Ezechielem, bk 1 hom. 1 n5; /n Evangelia, hom. 6 n1.