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Gr J.
y.
A
LIBRARY OF FATHERS
OF THE
HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH,
ANTERIOR TO THE DIVISION OF THE EAST AND WEST.
TRANSLATD BY MEMBERS OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.
YET SHALL NOT THY TEACHERS BE REMOVED INTO A CORNER ANY MORE, BUT THINE EYES SHALL SEE THY TEACHERS. Isaiah XXX. 20.
OXFORD,
JOHN HENRY PARKER;
F. AND J. RIVINGTON, LONDON. MDCCCXLVI.
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TO THE
MOST REVEREND FATHER IN GOD
WILLIAM
LORD ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY,
PRIMATE OF ALL ENGLAND,
FORMERLY REGIOS 1‘ROFESSOR OF DIVINITY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD,
THIS LIBRARY
OF
ANCIENT BISHOPS, FATHERS, DOCTORS, MARTYRS, CONFESSORS, OF CHRIST’S HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH,
is
WITH HIS GRACE’S PERMISSION RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED,
IN TOKEN OF
REVERENCE FOR HIS PERSON AND SACRED OFFICE, AND OF
GRATITUDE FOR HIS EPISCOPAL KINDNESS.
75309
THK
TREATISES
S. CJiCILIUS CYPRIAN,
BISHOP OF CARTHAGE, AND MARTYR,
TRANSLATED,
WITH NOTES AND INDICES.
OXFORD,
JOHN HENRY PAHKER ;
F. AND J. R1VINGTON, LONDON. MDCCCXLVI.
BAXTER, PRINTER, OXFORD.
PREFACE.
The Treatises of St. Cyprian may suitably be preceded by the short Memoir of his life written by his Deacon Pontius, and the Proconsular Acts of his Martyrdom.
The Memoir is recommended to our attention, not so much by any special excellence in itself, as by the circumstance that it is written by one who was about the Bishop’s person, who attended him in exile, and who was a witness of his death". The reader need scarcely be reminded, that the Deacon in St. Cyprian’s age, as afterwards, was the personal attendant and minister of the Bishop ; thus St. Laurence is celebrated as Deacon or Archdeacon to Sextus or Xystus, Bishop of Rome and Martyr, the contemporary of St. Cyprian; and St. Athanasius as Deacon to Alexander, Bishop of Alex¬ andria, in the Council of Nicsea.
The Proconsular Acts are considered to be the substance of the original, with the incidental additions of subsequent times \
1 S.JeromefScript.deVir. Must. 68.) praises this life as an “ egregium vo- lumen.” Ancient Martyrologies record that Pontius eventually followed his master in Martyrdom. The Bollandists, however, distinguish between him and the Martyr Pontius, who was a Priest, and suffered in Piedmont.
b The substantial authenticity of these Acts seems to be generally al¬ lowed ; by the Benedictines, by Cave, Lit. Hist. art. Pontius, and by Gibbon,
who says that they and Pontius’ life “ are consistent with each other and with probability.” The Bollandists consider that the Confession and Martyrdom were “ extracted by the faithful from the public A cts, and then a few words added in order to form them into a continuous narration. And that in like manner some additions were made at the end concerning the mode and circumstances of the Martyr¬ dom, &c.”
Vlll
PREFACE.
What has further to be said of St. Cyprian is reserved for the second part of the Volume, which will contain his Letters. It shall only be added here, that he was converted to the Christian faith about A. D. 246, consecrated A. D. 248, and martyred A. D. 258.
The Life of St. Cyprian , by Pontius his Deacon.
Cyprian, that religious Priest and glorious Witness of God, composed many works, whereby may survive the memory of so worthy a name ; the abundant fecundity of his eloquence, and of God’s grace in him, so widely spread itself in copious¬ ness and richness of speech, that perchance even to the end of the world he will speak on ; and yet, foi-asmuch as his works and merits claim as a right that they should become an example to us in writing, it has seemed good to draw up this brief sum¬ mary of it; not as if the life of so great a man wereunknown to any of the heathen, but that even to our posterity may be handed on his singular and high example unto an immortal memory. Certainly it were hard, when even laymen and catechumens, ivho have obtained martyrdom, have been honoui’ed by our forefathers for their very martyrdom’s sake, with a record of many, nay of all details of their passion, in order to our acquaintance with it who were yet unborn, hard were it to pass over Cyprian’s passion, so great a Priest and so great a Martyr, who even over and above his martyrdom had lessons to teach ; and hard again to hide the deeds which he did in his life. Those in truth were such, so great and wonderful, as to deter me by the very contemplation of their greatness, and to urge me to a confession of my incapacity to do justice to my subject, or to represent his high deeds in correspondent terms, except that the multitude of his achievements tells its own tale without heralding from others. It has to be added, that you too are longing to hear much, or, if possible, the whole concerning him, having a burning desire at least to know his deeds, though his word of mouth be silent. In which respect to say that I am deficient in the resources of
PREFACE.
IX
eloquence, is to say little. Eloquence itself fails of the means of fully satisfying your longing. Thus we are sorely pressed on either side ; by the weight of his excellences, by the importunity of your entreaties.
2. From what shall I commence? where enter upon his A. D. excellences, but from faith as a first principle, and from246’ his heavenly birth ? considering that the deeds of a man
of God should be reckoned from no other point than that of his being born of God. He might have employments before it, and a heart engaged and imbued with liberal arts ; still I pass over all this, as up to this date tending merely to advantage of this life'. But after he had learned sacred knowledge and had emerged out of the clouds of this world into the light of spiritual wisdom, whatever I was witness to, whatever I have discovered of his preferable works, I will relate ; with the request that those deficiencies of my narrative, which I feel will occur, should be charged upon my ignorance rather than on his fame.
3. While he was yet in the rudiments of his faith, he felti-e. be- that nothing was more fitting towards God than the observance tUnc3P of continence; for the breast' became what it should be, and
the understanding reached the full capacity of truth, when the lust of the flesh was trampled on with the healthy and unimpaired vigour of sanctity. Who has ever recorded such a marvel ? the second birth had not yet given eyes to the new man in the full radiance of divine light, yet he was now con¬ quering the old and previous darkness by the mere outskirts of that light. Next, what is greater still, when he had gained from Scripture certain lessons not according to the measure of his noviciate but with the rapidity of faith, he at once
c S. Gregory Nazianzen, in bis oration in praise of S. Cyprian, (Orat. 18.) states, that before bis conversion be was addicted to magical arts, which be made nse of against a Christian female, named Justina, of whom he was enamoured ; that she however be¬ took herself to Christ and St. Mary, and the attempt ended in his burning his books, and professing Christianity. Fell rejects the account altogether as a mere fiction, (Monit. in Conf. S. Cypr.); Maranus, the Benedictine Editor, (in
vit.) and Tillemont refer it to a Cyprian, Bishop of Antioch in Phoenicia, who has a place in both the Roman and Greek calendars. S. Cyprian was a teacher of rhetoric, of great reputation ; Jerom. de Vir. Illustr. 67. and before his conversion seems to have plunged into the usual excesses of heathenism, vid. Treatise i. 2, 3. He seems not to have been a native of Carthage, vid. Ep. 7. ed. Fell. St. Austin seems to speak of him as a Senator. Serm. 311. c. 7.
X
PREFACE.
appropriated to himself what he there read to be profitable in meriting of the Lord. Diverting his property to the maintenance of the indigent, and distributing whole estates in money, he secured two benefits at once, both renouncing the pursuit of this world, than which nothing is more pernicious, and observing mercy ; — mercy, which God has preferred even to His sacrifices, in which even he failed who said that he had kept all the commandments of the law, and by which with an yid.infra anticipating haste of piety, he arrived at perfection almost before he had learned howd. Who, let me ask, of the ancients, has done this ? who of the most esteemed elders in the faith, whose minds and ears have through ever so many years been assailed by the words divine, ventured any thing such as he, this man of an unformed faith and perchance unrecog¬ nised profession, did achieve, surpassing the old time by glorious and admirable works ? No one reaps as soon as he has sowed. None treads out the vintage from a young plantation. None yet ever sought ripe fruit of bushes freshly planted. In him all things incredible met together. In him the threshing anticipated, (if it can be said, for the thing surpasses belief,) anticipated, I say, the sowing ; the vintage the tendril ; the fruit, the firm root, l Tim. 4. The Epistle of the Apostle says, that novices should be 3> 6- passed by ; lest the drowsiness of heathenism hanging on the scarcely rallied senses, unlearned freshness might offend in aught against God. He was the first, and, I suppose, the sole instance, that greater progress is made by faith than by time. That Eunuch indeed in the Acts of the Apostles is described as being baptized at once by Philip, because he believed with his whole heart ; but the parallel does not hold. For the one was both a Jew, and in his way from the Lord’s Temple was reading the Prophet Isaiah, and had hope in Christ, though he thought Him not yet come; the other, coming of the un¬ learned heathen, had as ripe a faith at first, as few perhaps have at last. In a word, there was no delay in his case as to i.e.Bap-the grace of God, no postponement. I have said too little:
tism.
A S. Cyprian himself attributes his also, “ after that lifegiviug water change of heart and life to his baptism ; succoured me, what was dark began to and while confessing with Pontius “ to shine, what seemed impossible, now sin no more has come of faith,” declares could be achieved.” i. 3.
PREFACE.
xi
he forthwith received the Presbyterate and Priesthood. A. D.
J 247
Who indeed would not commit all the ranks of honour to such a mind believing ? Many are the things he did when yet a layman, many when a Presbyter, many after the example of just men of old, with a close imitation, earning of the Lord, and surrendering himself to all the duties of religion. And whenever he read of any one who had been mentioned with praise by God, this was his ordinary advice, that we should inquire on account of what deeds he had pleased God. If Job, glorious by the testimony of God, is called a true worshipper of God, one to whom no one might be compared on earth, he taught that “one ought to do whatever Job had done before ; that, while we too do the same, we may obtain the same testimony of God upon ourselves. Job, despising the ruin of his estate, was so strong in practised virtue, as not to feel even temporal losses of his benevolence. Penury broke him not, nor grief, neither his wife’s prayers, nor his bodily suffer¬ ings shook his resolution. Virtue remained fixed in her own home ; and resignation established upon deep foundations, was moved by no assault of the devil who tempted, from blessing his Lord with a thankful faith even amid adversity. His house was open to any one who came. No widow returned with her lap empty ; nor blind, but was guided by him as a compa¬ nion ; nor feeble in step, but was lifted by him as by a carrier; nor helpless under the hand of the powerful, but had him for a champion. These things,” he used to say, “ must they do who would please Gode.” And thus running through the specimens of all good men, while he ever imitated the best, he set forth himself also for imitation.
5. He had an intimacy with one among us, a just and memorable man, by name C8eciliusf, a Presbyter both' by age and order, who had converted him from his wanderings in this world to the acknowledgment of the true divinity : him he loved with full honour and all observance, looking up to him with dutiful veneration, not merely as the friend and brother of his soul, but as though the parent of his new life.
e This passage does not occur in any name, the name of one to whom he owed of S. Cyprian’s extant Treatises; it so much; vid. Jerom. 1. c. Hence resembles them in style. his full names are Thascius Ctecilius
f S. Cyprian, adopted as a Christian Cyprianus.
A. D. 248.
xii PREFACE.
And so it was that Caecilius, comforted by such attentions, was led, and reasonably, to such a fulness of affection, that, on departing from this world, when his summons was near, he com¬ mended to him his wife and children, and thus, from making him a member of his communion, in the event made him the heir of his affection®. It were long to go through details; it were a toil to enumerate his holy deeds.
6. For evidence of his good works, I suppose this is enough, that by the judgment of God and the good will of the people, he was chosen for the office of the Priesthood, and the rank of the Episcopate, while yet a neophyte, and, as was con¬ sidered, a novice h. Although still in the first days of his faith, and in the rudimental season of his spiritual life, in such sort did his noble disposition shine out, that, respleudent in the brightness at least ofhope, though not of office, he promised a full performance of the duties of the priesthood, which was coming on him. Nor will I pass over that special circum¬ stance, how, while the whole people, God influencing, poured itself out in love and honour of him, he on the other hand humbly withdrew himself, yielding to older men, and deem¬ ing himself unworthy of the title of such honour, whereby he became the more worthy. For be is but made more worthy ? who declines what he deserves. With such emotion was the excited people at that time agitated, longing with spiritual desire, as the event proves, not a Bishop merely; but in him who had hid himself, and whom it was by a divine presage so demanding, seeking, not a Priest only, but a Martyr to come. A numerous brotherhood had beset the doors of his house ; solicitous love poured itself around all the approaches. What befel the Apostle might then perhaps have been granted to him, as he washed it, to be let down through a window ; had he already shared with the Apostle the honour of ordination. One might see all others
g Clerics, however, “ by the Canons of the African Church, could not become trustees to the property of their brethren , on the ground that they were bound to serve nought but the altar and sacrifice, and to keep their time for supplications and prayers.” Fell in Cypr. Epist. 1. vid. Cone. Carthag. A.D. 348. The same rule mav be alluded to in
Treatise vi. 4. infra. “N umerousBishops, despising their sacred calling, engaged themselves in secular vocations,” “ di- vina procuratione contempta, procura- tores rerum secularium fieri.”
h Vid. 1 Tim. iii. 6. S. Ambrose, Neetarius, Eusebius of Caesarea in Cappadocia, and others, were made Bishops under the same circumstances.
PREFACE.
xm
in anxious suspense waiting for his coming, and receiving him with excess of joy when he came. I say it unwillingly, but I must say it. Some resisted him1, even that he might obtain his wish. Whom however, how forbearingly, how patiently, how kindly he bore with ! how indulgently he forgave, reckoning them afterwards among his most intimate and familiar friends, to the wonder of many! for who, but might count it miraculous that so retentive a memory should become so oblivious ?
7. How henceforth he bore himself, who would suffice to relate! how great was his loving-kindness, his strength of mind! his mercy, his severity! Such sanctity and grace shone forth from his countenance as to confuse the gazer.
His look was grave and glad; neither a sternness which was sad, nor overmuch good nature; but a just mixture of both ; so that one might doubt whether he claimed more our rever¬ ence or our love, except that he claimed both. Nor did his dress belie his countenance, subdued, as it was, to the middle course. He was not the man to be inflated with the pride of the world’s fashions ; yet neither to grovel in a studious penury; in that the latter style of dress is as boastful, as that so ambitious frugality is ostentatious. How, when a Bishop, he acted towards the poor, whom he already loved as a catechumen, let the priests of mercifulness consider; whether taught in the office of good works by the discipline of their very order, or obliged to the duty of love by the general bond of the Gospel Sacrament. As for Cyprian, what he was, such his Bishop’s seat found him ready made, and did not make him.
8. And so it was that for such merits he forthwith obtained A. D. also the glory of proscription. Nor was it other than fitting250' that one, who within the retreat of conscience so abounded in
the full honours of religion and faith, should also have a public name among the Gentiles. Indeed he might even then, for the rapidity with which he developed into all things, have hastened to the appointed crown of Martyrdom ; especially
* Five Priests opposed his conse- tise v.) and joined the party of Felicis- cration, one of them being Novatns; simus. This they did when S. Cyprian they afterwards fomented the disorders was in concealment during the perse- of which the Confessors were made the cntion. vid. Ep. 43. init. ed. Fell, instrument, (vid. infra, Introd. toTrea-
XIV
PREFACE.
since the cries were frequent \vhich~cal led him “ to the lionk;” had it not been meet that he should pass through all degrees of glory before he came to the highest, and had not the ruin of the Church which then threatened needed the aid of so fertile a mind. For imagine him taken hence at that ^ time by the high reward of Martyrdom ; who was there to ’ shew the gains of grace making progress by faith ? who to curb the single women as it were with the bridle of the vid. iv. Lord’s lessons into a congruous rule of chastity, and a dress vid. vi. becoming their holiness ? who to teach penitence to the vid. vii. Lapsed? truth to heretics, unity to schismatics ? to the sons of God peace and the law of Gospel prayer ? who to be the vid. ii. instrument of overthrowing blaspheming Gentiles, by retorting and vin. on t]iem their charges on us ? by whom were Christians, grieved vid. xi. at loss of friends with excess of fondness or (what is worse) _ defect of faith, by whom to be comforted with the hope of vid. x. things to come ? from whom should we else learn mercy ? vid. xi. from whom patience ? who was there to repress the evil vid. xii. feeling springing from the malignity of poisonous envy, with vid.xiii.the sweetness of a salutary remedy? who to cheer the host of Martyrs with the exhortation of a divine discourse, — who lastly to hasten with a stirring heavenly trumpet those many confessors, signed with a second inscription on their brow, and reserved as living examples of Martyrdom ? Well surely it was ordered then, well and indeed divinely, that a man so necessary for so many and so good objects, was retarded from a Martyr’s consummation1.
9. You wish to be sure that that retirement of his which now took place, was not from fear m ; uot to allege other
k “ Christianos ad Leonem.” Ter¬ tullian Apol. 40. de Spect. 26.
1 S. Jerome relates, that he had seen an old man, who professed to have seen in his youth an amanuensis of S. Cyprian’s, who was in the habit of relating that the latter never passed a day without reading Tertullian, continually saying to him. Da Magistrum ; Hand me my Master, vid. Jerom. de Yir. Illustr. 63. also Introd. to Treatise iv. That S. Cyprian however did not follow Tertullian implicitly is plain from his retiring from the persecution, not to mention other points of difference.
ra On the subject of flight in perse¬ cution, vid. infra note g, on vi. 8. vid. also Ep. 34. fin. ed. Fell. Tertullian in his Montanistic Tract De fuga in Persecutions maintains that flight is unlawful. The Roman Clergy (Ep. 8.) find fault with S. Cyprian’s flight: he defends himself, (Ep. 20.) saying he withdrew to hinder a riot. His warrant for doing so was a divine direction, vid. Ep. 16. “ When a persecution
impended, the Bishops used to assemble the people, and exhort them to con¬ stancy. Then they baptized infants and catechumens, and divided the Eucha-
PREFACE,
xv
evidence, he did suffer afterwards ; which suffering of course he would have shrunk from according to his wont, had he shrunk from it before. But in truth, fear it was, but right fear; fear of offending the Lord, fear which had rather be dutiful to God’s precepts, than be crowned together with the breach of them. A mind surrendered in all things to God, and a faith enslaved to the divine directions, considered that it would be sinning in very suffering, unless it had obeyed the Lord who then ordered that retreat. Something more must here be said on the advantage of the postponement, though already I have touched on the subject. By what seems shortly to have taken place, we may prove, as follows, that that retirement did not issue from human pusillanimity, but, as is the case, was really divine. The people of God had been ravaged with the extraordinary and fierce assaults of a harrassing persecution; and, whereas the crafty enemy could not deceive all by one and the same artifice, therefore raging against them in manifold ways, wherever the incautious soldier exposed his side, there he worsted each by various overthrows. Some one was required who, when wounds had been received, and darts cast by the changeful art of the torturing enemy, had heavenly remedies at hand according to the nature of each, now to pierce and now to sooth ; and then was preserved a man of a mind beyond all others divinely tem¬ pered, to steer the Church in a steady middle course between the rebounding waves of colliding schisms. Let me ask then, is not such design divine ? could it have been without God’s governance ? Let them look to it who think that such things happen by chance. The Church answers to them with loud voice, declaring that she does not allow, does not believe, that these her necessary champions are reserved without the pro¬ vidence of God.
10. However, let me be allowed to run through the rest. A. D. A dreadful pestilence broke out afterwards", and the extra- 202'
rist amoDg the faithful.’* Yales, in Dionysius of Alexandria (Euseh. Hist. Euseh. Hist. viii. 11. S. Dionysius vii. 22.) and S. Gregory Nyssen’s life was accused of having retired without of Gregory of Neo-Caesarea, in fin. In first attending to these necessary duties, the year 262 it was especially destruc- ibid. tive in Rome and in the cities of
n For a description of the pestilence, Greece, carrying off in Rome as many vid. infra ix. 9. vid. also the letters of as 5000 persons daily. Half the popu-
XVI
PREFACE.
ordinary ravages of a hateful sickness entered house after house of the trembling populace in succession, carrying off with sudden violence numberless people daily, each from his own home. There was a general panic, flight, shrinking from the infection, unnatural exposure of infected friends; as though to cany the dying out of doors, were to rid one’s self of death itself. Meanwhile multitudes lay about the whole city, not bodies, but by this time corpses ; and called on the pity of passers-by from the view of a fortune common to both parties. No one looked to aught beyond his cruel gain. No one was alarmed from the recollection of parallel instances. No one did to another what he wished done to himself. It were a crime to pass over what in such circumstances was the conduct of this Pontiff of Christ and God, who had surpassed the Pontiffs of this world as much in benevolence as in truth of doctrine. First he assembled the people in one place, urged on them the excellence of mercifulness, taught them by instances from holy Scripture how much the offices of bene¬ volence avail to merit with God. Then he subjoined that there was nothing wonderful in cherishing our own with the fitting dutifulness of charity ; that he became the perfect man, who did somewhat more than publican or heathen, who, over¬ coming evil with good and exercising what resembled a divine clemency, loved even his enemies, who prayed, as the Lord admonishes and exhorts, for the well-being of those who are persecuting him. He then makes His sun rise, and bestows rain from time to time to foster the seed, shewing forth all these benefits not only to His own, but to strangers also; and he, who professes himself even God’s son, why follows he not the example of his Father? “ We should answer to our birth,” he says; “ it is not fit that they should be degenerate who are known to have been bom again by God ; rather the seed of a good Father should be evidenced in the offspring, by our copying of His goodness.” I pass over many other things and those important, which my limits will not allow me to detail ; about which let it suffice to have noticed thus
lation of Alexandria perished in it, family of the Roman empire, from according to Gibbon, who says that it 250 to 265.” Hist. x. fin. Its duration “ raged without interruption in every is variously estimated, province, every city, and almost every
PREFACE.
XVII
much. If the very Gentiles, had they heard them in the rostrum, would probably have believed forthwith, what should a Christian people do, whose very name begins in faith? Accordingly ministrations are divided among them at once, according to the ranks and circumstances of such. Many who from stress of poverty were unable to shew forth benefits of cost, shewed forth what was more than costliness ; by then- personal toil doing other services more precious than all riches. Who indeed under such a teacher but must haste to be occupied in some part of that warfare, by which he would be pleasing God the Father, and Christ the Judge, and so good a Priest besides? Accordingly they did good in the profusion of exuberant works to all, and not only to the household of faith. They did somewhat more than is recorded of the incomparable benevolence of Tobias. He must pardon the word, again pardon it, pardon it often ; or, to speak more truly, he must in equity grant, that, although there was room for very much before Christ, yet after Him there has been room for somewhat more, since to Christ’s times the fulness is ascribed. The slain of the king and the outcasts, whom Tobias gathered together, were of his own kin only.
11. To these so good and so merciful deeds banishment A. succeeded. For unbelief ever makes such return, recom-20 pensing the worse for the better. Xor need I mention what God’s Priest answered the proconsul who questioned him, for there are Acts which relate it. Any how he is forbidden the city, he who had done some good towards its health ; he who had toiled lest the eyes of the living should suffer the horrors of the infernal abode; he, I say, who sleepless in the watch¬ ings of benevolence had by a blameless kindness, (O the crime !) secured a deserted state and destitute country from the sight of many exiles, when all were flying from the loath¬ some look of the city. But this is the world’s concern in it, with whom exile is a punishment. To us our country is less dear, who have a name in common, who abhor even our own parents if they would persuade us contrary to the Lord. To them it is a heavy punishment to live away from their city. To the Christian the whole world is our home. Wherefore, though he be sent away into ever so hidden and remote a
b
PREFACE.
xviii
place, having share in the things of his God, he cannot count it banishment. Besides, while he serves God entirely, even in his own city he is a stranger. For while he abstains from desires of the flesh by continence of the Holy Ghost, putting off the conversation of the old man, he is a foreigner even among his citizens, or I may say, among the very parents of his earthly life. Moreover, though this might seem a punish¬ ment under other circumstances, yet in such causes and sentences which we suffer for trial of our virtue, it is not punishment, it is glory. But even suppose banishment to be a punishment to us. If so, they are guilty of the most extreme of crimes and the worst impiety, as their own conscience testifies, who bring themselves to visit the innocent with what they deem a punishment. I will not at present delineate a delightful spot; I say nothing at first of the addition of all kinds of beauties. Let us suppose the place offensive in its circum¬ stances, wretched to look upon, without wholesome water, or pleasant green, or neighbouring shore; with vast rocks covered with forests, amid the inhospitable depths of an altogether desert solitude, far off in the world’s trackless districts. Such a place might indeed bear the name of exile, had Cyprian, priest of God, come thither; to whom if man’s ministrations failed, even the birds as to Elias, or the Angels as to Daniel, would minister. Far, far indeed be it from any one to believe, that even the least among us, provided he remained in the confession of the Holy Name, should want any thing; so far was he God’s Pontiff, who had ever been urgent in matters of mercifulness, from wanting the aid of all these things.
12. Next let us recount with thanksgiving what 1 had put as the second supposition ; namely, that there was divinely pro¬ vided for the soul of such a man, a sunny and sufficient place, a place of sojourn, secret, as he could wish it, and whatever has been before promised as his portion who seeks the kingdom and righteousness of God”. And, not to dwell upon the frequent visits of his brethren, nay, the love of the very citizens, which afforded to him all things whereof he seemed
0 Curnbis, the place of S. Cyprian’s a fertile territory, and at the distance exile, was “ a free and maritime city of about forty miles from Carthage.” of Zeugitania, in a pleasant situation, Gibbon, Hist. ch. 16.
PREFACE.
xix
to be despoiled, I will not pass over the wonderful visitation of God, by which He willed His Priest to be so sure in exile of his passion which was to follow, that from his more abundant assurance of the impending Martyrdom, Curubis possessed not an exile only, but even a Martyr. For on that day when first we remained in the place of banishment, (for me he chose out of his household in the condescension of his love to be a voluntary exile, which, O had I been also in his passion!) “there appeared to me,” said he, “before I was yet sunk in slumber, a young man greater than the human stature, by whom being led as if to the prsetorium, I seemed to myself to be brought near to the tribunal of the proconsul then sitting. He, on seeing me, forthwith began to write down upon a tablet a sentence, which I knew not, for he had not asked me questions in the usual form ; however, that young man, who stood behind his back, with great anxiety read whatever had been set down. And, since he could not utter it in words, he intimated it by signs, which declared what was in the writing of that tablet. For opening his hand and flattening it like a blade, and imitating the blow of customary execution, he expressed "what he would have signified as if in clear words. I understood the future sentence of my passion. I began at once to ask and seek, that the delay even of one day might be given me, in order to my settling my affairs in a regular way. After I had frequently repeated my prayer, he began again to set down something on the tablet. I per¬ ceived however, from the sereneness of his countenance, that the judge’s mind was influenced by the request, as if reason¬ able. Moreover, that youth, who already had divulged some¬ what by gesture, if not by word, concerning my passion, made haste to signify by secret signs from time to time, twisting his fingers one behind another, that the delay was granted which I asked until the morrow. For me, although the sentence was not read, while my heart exulted at the pleasant news of delay grauted, yet such was my alarm, from the chance of mistaking the interpretation, that it was still all in flutter and agitation from the remains of apprehension.”
13. What revelation could be more manifest? what con¬ descending mercy more blessed ? All that happened after in
b 2
XX
PREFACE.
due course, were announced to him beforehand. In nothing did the words of God come short ; in nothing was the holy promise mutilated. Do but review each particular as it was shewn to him. He seeks a delay till the morrow when his sentence of suffering was under deliberation ; alleging his wish to settle his affairs on the day which he had gained. His one day signified a year, which he was to pass in this world after the vision. For, to speak more distinctly, he was crowned, at the completion of the year, on that very day, on which this had been announced to him at its commencement. For the day of the Lord, though we do not find it used for year in divine Scripture, yet in making promise of things to come, we consider that that space of time ought to be given. Hence it matters not, if nothing short of a year, be announced while a day was spoken of, since that would necessarily be more complete, which is greater. And whereas it was explained by gesture not by speech, express speech was reserved for the presence of the time itself. For it is usual then to set forth a thing in words, when what is set forth is actually fulfilled. For no one knew for certain wherefore this was shewn to him, till it turned out that he was crowned on the same day on which he had seen it. And yet in the interval his impending passion was known for certain bv all ; but as to the particular day of his passion all those very persons were silent, as if they were ignorant. And indeed I find some such thing in the Scriptures. For the Priest Zacliavias, when a sou was promised him by the Angel, because he believed not, became dumb ; so that by signs he asked for a tablet, seeing he had, not to utter, but to write his son’s name. Reasonably here too, when God’s messenger signified the Bishop’s impending passion mainly by signs, he both ad¬ ministered his faith and fortified his Priest. But again the reason for seeking delay was his arranging his affairs and settling his will. Now what affairs had he, what will to arrange, except Ecclesiastical matters ? For this reason there is a final delay granted, that arrangements may be made as to whatever wants arrangement by a final determination con¬ cerning the maintenance of the poor. And I consider that for this sole end and for nothing else was he thus indulged by those who had banished and were to kill him, that while
PREFACE.
xxi
here he might relieve the poor who were here, with whatever remained to be given of his final bounty, or, to speak more exactly, with the total of his means. When then he had arranged matters so mercifully, and thus ordered them in his last wishes, to-morrow’s day drew near.
14. And now a messenger came to him from the City from From Xystus, that good and peaee-making Priest, and therefore Sextus. most blessed Martyr. The executioner was expected every A. D. day, who was to strike through that devoted neck of our most holy victim ; and by this daily expectation of dying, every day, as it came, became to him as though a day of crowning. Meanwhile there came to him numbers of eminent and illus¬ trious persons, men of rank and family and secular distinction, who for the sake of their old friendship with him, urged him many times to retire, backing their solicitations with the offer of suitable places. But he, with mind hanging upon heaven, had put the world out of sight, and did not assent
to their persuasive solicitations. Perhaps he would have done then also, what was urged on him, and by many of the faithful too, if he had been bidden by divine command11. Nor must we leave unheralded the sublime glory of such a man, in that, when the world was now raging and in reliance on its Rulers breathing out hatred of the sacred Name, he, as occasion was given, fortified God’s servants with exhortations of the Lord, and animated them to tread under foot sufferings of the present time, on the contemplation of the glory which is to follow. In truth, there was in him so great a love of sacred discourse, that while he prayed for passion, he desired that it might be granted him while he was conversing concerning God.
15. And these were the daily acts of a Priest destined for a sacrifice, pleasing to God ; when behold at the orders of the Proconsul, the Praetor’s Official with his soldiers suddenly sur¬ prised his gardens, those gardens which in the beginnings of his faith he had sold, and, when God’s kindness restored
p He did at first retire and conceal himself at the advice of his friends. This was on the Proconsul’s coming to Utica; on the latter’s returning to Carthage, he came back to his gardens, and remained there, without moving farther, till the officers arrested him.
He had sold his gardens on his con¬ version, but they had come back to him, perhaps (as Gibbon supposes) by the kindness of his friends, vid. Pontius infr. 15. The opening of Treatise i. may stand for a description of them.
XXII
PREFACE.
them, would certainly have sold again for the benefit of the poor, but that he feared to raise the jealousy of his per¬ secutors. The Official surprised him, or, 1 should more truly say, thought he had. For what is there to surprise, as though by unforeseen attack, the mind which is always ready ? He went forward therefore, now certaiu that that would be ac¬ complished, which had long been held back ; he went forward with high and erect mind, with cheerfulness in his look, and constancy in his heart. But being remanded till the morrow, he turned from the Prsetorium to the Official’s house, when suddenly the report spreads throughout Carthage, that “ Thascius was now brought out,” whom all knew, not only by the reputation in which he was honourably held, but also
viz. in from the recollection of his great achievement. All men
the
plague, throng together to a sight, which for us was glorious from the self-sacrifice of his faith, but to the Gentiles deplorable. However, during his lodgment for one night in the house of the Official, his confinement was not rigorous, so that we his intimates and friends were in his company as usual. Mean¬ while the whole people, conscious lest ought might be done in the night without its own knowledge, kept watch at the door of the house. The Divine goodness granted to him at that time, deserving as he was of it, that God’s people should even then keep vigil to usher in the day of their Priest’s Martyrdom. Some one, horvever, may perhaps ask, what was the reason why he returned from the Prsetorium to the Official ; and some think this, that on his part the Proconsul was then unwilling. Far be it from me in things divinely over¬ ruled to complain of indolence or caprice in the Proconsul. Far be it from me to allow such an evil within the thoughts of a scrupulous mind, as that the idle words of man should give sentence upon so blessed a Martyr. But that next dav, which a year before God’s condescension had predicted, was destined to be truly the morrow.
16. At length that other day dawned, that appointed, promised, divine dayq; which though the tyrant himself had desired to put off, he would not at all have been able; a day pleasant in the secret knowledge of the Martyr who was to
i S. Cyprian suffered on the same years after him. day as Cornelius of Rome, and six
PREFACE.
xxm
be, all clouds being dispersed throughout the world’s circuit, and the sun shining brightly. He left the Official’s house, he an Official of Christ and God, being hemmed in by the crowds of a mixed multitude on every side. So infinite an army joined his train, it seemed as though he was coming with troops in array to subdue death. As he went, he had to pass the race-course. Well did it happen, and as if with a meaning, that he should pass by the place of a corresponding contest, who was running for the crown of righteousness, and had just finished his labours. When he reached the Prsetorium, the Proconsul not yet having arrived, a private room was allowed him. There, while he sate profusely perspiring after his long journey, (it so happened that his seat was covered with linen’, as if to secure to him the honours of the episcopate even under the very stroke of Martyrdom,) one of the officers s, who was formerly a Christian, offered him clothes of his own ; thinking he might be willing to exchange his moist garments for his own dry ones, and for himself ambitious of nothing further in return for his gift, than to possess the now bloody sweat of the Martyr on his road to God. But h'e made answer, “ That were seeking remedy for discomforts, which perchance may not last out the day.” Is it surprising that he thought light of weariness in body, who in soul had made light of death r But, to be brief, suddenly the Proconsul is announced ; and he is brought out, placed before him, asked his name ; he says who he is, and no more.
17. Upon this the judge reads from the tablet the sentence, which before in the vision he had not read; a divine sentence, not lightly to be spoken ; a sentence worthy of such a Bishop and such a Witness; a glorious sentence, in which he is called a “ standard-bearer of the sect,” and “ an enemy of the gods,” and one who should be made “ an example to his followers,” and whose blood should now be shed “ in viudi- vid.infrs cation of the law.” Most satisfactory, most true is this ^°^ons‘ sentence ; for every thing that was said, though said by a Gentile, is divine. Nor surely is it wonderful, that High Priests are apt to prophesy of the passion. He had been a
r “ The Bishop’s seat used anciently 5 tesserariis ; those who communi- fo be covered with linen.” Ed. Ben. cated the tessera through the century.
XXIV
PREFACE.
standard-bearer, who was in the practice of teaching con¬ cerning the bearing of Christ’s cross ; an enemy of the gods, who bade destroy idols; he was an example to his own, who unto the many who were about to follow in the same way, first of his province1 presented these first-fruits of Martyrdom. In his blood too “ the law began to be ratified,” but the law of Martyrs, who rivalling their teacher in an initiation of a like glory, themselves too ratified the law of his example in their own blood.
18. And when he passed out of the doors of the Praetorium, a crowd of soldiers accompanied him, and that nothing might be wanting in his passion, centurions and tribunes were at his side. The place where he was to suffer is level, surrounded with numerous trees so as to afford a sublime spectacle. But, whereas its exceeding breadth hindered the view amid that tumultuous crowd, persons who favoured him had climbed up the branches, that he might gain this distinction also, (as in Zacchaeus’s history,) of being seen from the trees. And now his eyes being bound with his own hands, he tried to hasten the delay of the executioner, whose business is the steel ; and who with failing hand and trembling fingers scarce could grasp it, until, when the hour was ripe for his glorifi¬ cation, that centurion was granted strength to consummate the death of a rare man, his hand being nerved with power from above. O blessed people of the Church, who in eyes and other senses and in uplifted voice, suffered together with such a Bishop, and thus, as they had always heard him dis¬ course, were crowned by God the Judge ! For although it could not happen, as the common wish was, that the whole people at once should suffer in partnership of his glory, yet whoever had the hearty will to suffer under the eyes of Christ and in the ears of His Priest, did by the sufficient witness of his wish, send up his name God-wards, as if by a representative. And thus, his passion being consummated, it came about, that Cyprian, who had been an example to all good men, was moreover the first in Africa to dye his priestly diadems"
1 i. e. in the province so called, the passages as this allude to the tonsure. Eastern or Proconsular Africa. The African Bishops cut their hair in a
" i. e. his crowns of sanctity aDd circle. Yallars. in Hieron. Ep. 142. priesthood became a crown of martyr- vid. also August. Ep. 33. §. 5. Bingham dom. The Romanists would mate such does not dissent ; though he is “ not con-
PREFACE.
XXV
ill blood. For from the time that the Episcopal Order is catalogued in Carthage, none is ever related, even of the holiest Priests, to have attained unto passion*, though service devoted to God is always counted in dedicated men as if a martyrdom. But Cyprian reached even unto the perfect crown the Lord consummating ; so that in that very city in which he had so lived, and had been the first to do such noble deeds, he was the first also to decorate the ensigns of the heavenly priesthood with glorious bloodshed. What shall I here do ? between joy at his passion, and grief at bereavement, my mind is divided, and two sorts of feelings oppress a breast too straitened for them. Shall I grieve that I was not his companion ? but his triumph is to be celebrated. Shall I celebrate his triumph ? but I am in grief that I am not his companion. To you, however, the truth is to be avowed, and simply, as you know it, that it was in my purpose to be so. In his glory I exult much and more than much, and yet I grieve more that I remain behind.
The Confession and Martyrdom of St. Cyprian, from the Proconsular Acts.
When the Emperor Valerian was Consul for the fourth, A D and Gallienus for the third time, on the third of the Kalends 257. of September, Paternus Proconsul at Carthage in his council- Aug-30, chamber thus spoke to Cyprian the Bishop. ‘ The most sacred Emperors Valerian and Gallienus have honoured me with letters, wherein they enjoin that all those who use not the religion of Rome, shall formally make profession of their return to the use of Roman rites ; I have made accordingly enquiry of your name ; what answer do you make to me ?’
tident that this was the reason of the name coronati.” Antiqu. vi. 4. §. 17.
* S. Cyprian himself stems to say that African Bishops had already been martyred. Ep.66. ed. Fell. Accordingly, Tillcmont suggests that Pontius speaks only of Africa in a restricted sense, or the Carthaginian territory, which was called especially “ the Province.” vid.
supra 17. Baronius, Lumper, and others interpret it of Carthage only, referring to the words which follow in Pontius’ text. Others understand Pontius to speak only of the Valerian Persecution. Gibbon eagerly seizes on Pontius’ assertion in its broadest sense, and uses it for his own purposes.
XXVI
PREFACE.
A. D. 258.
Cyprian the Bishop spake, ‘lama Christian and Bishop ; I know no other Gods besides the One and true God, who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all things therein ; this God we Christians serve, to Him we pray day and night, for our¬ selves, for all mankind, for the health of the Emperors them¬ selves V Paternus Proconsul said, ‘ Do you persist in this pur¬ pose ?’ Cyprian Bishop answered, ‘That good purpose, which hath once acknowledged God, cannot be changed.’ Paternus Proconsul said, ‘ Will you then, obeying the mandate of the Emperors, depart into exile to the city of Curubis?’ Cyprian Bishop said, ‘ I go.’ Paternus Proconsul said, ‘ The letters, where¬ with I have been honoured by the Emperors, speak of Presby¬ ters as well as of Bishops; T would know of you therefore, who be they, who are Presbyters in this city ?’ Cyprian Bishop answered, ‘ By your laws you have righteously and with great benefit forbidden any to be informers' ; therefore they cannot be discovered and denounced by me ; but they will be found in their own cities.’ Paternus Proconsul said, ‘ I am accordingly inquisitor in this place.’ Cyprian said, ‘ Our rules forbid any man to offer himself for punishment, and your ordinances discourage the same ; they may not therefore offer themselves3, but they will be discovered by your inquisition.’ Paternus Proconsul said, ‘ They shall be discovered by me and added, ‘ they further ordain, that no conventicles be held in any place, and that the Christians shall not enter their cemeteries ; if any transgress this wholesome ordinance, it shall be capital.’ Cyprian Bishop answered, ‘ Do as you have been instructed.’
Then Paternus the Proconsul bade them lead away the Bishop Cyprian into exile. During his long abode in this place, Aspasius Paternus was succeeded by Galerius Maximus, who bade the Bishop Cyprian be recalled from exile, and brought before him. Cyprian, the holy Martyr, chosen of God, returned from Curubis, to which he had beeu exiled by order of Aspasius Paternus then Proconsul, and by sacred
r Vid. in like manner Polycarp, ad * \Tid. August, contr. GaudeDt. i. 40. Phil. 12. Just. M. Apol.l.i. 17. Athenag. (31.) where this passage is referred to. Leg. 37. Tertullian, Apol. 30. Origen, vid. also Cypr. Ep. 81. ed. Fell. Those in Cels. viii. 73. Euseb. Hist. vii. 11. who studiously exposed themselves to
1 For this law vid. Justinian Cod. persecution were called Professores. x. 11. vid. Lumper in Vit. Cypr.
PREFACE.
xxvu
command abode in his own gardens. There he was in daily vid. su- expectation that he should be visited as it had been shewn B him. While he dwelt there, suddenly on the Ides of Sep- Sept. 13. tember, in the consulship of Tuscus and Bassus, there came to him two chief officials’”; one the chief gaoler' in the Procon¬ sular court of Galerius, the other d marshal of the guard in the same court ; they placed him between them in a chariot, and carried him to Sexti', whither the Proconsul had retired for the recovery of his health. By order of the Proconsul he was reserved for hearing on another day ; so the blessed Cyprian was privately lodged in the house of the chief gaoler of the court of the most honourable f Galerius Maximus, Proconsul, in the street which is called Saturn’s, between the temples of Venus and of Salus. Thither flocked the whole multitude of the brethren ; which when holy Cyprian knew, he bade that the young women should be protected, seeing they all continued in the open street before the gate of the officer’s house. So on another day, the 18th of the Kalends Sept. 14. of October, a great crowd was collected early at Sexti, as the Proconsul commanded. And the same day Cyprian was brought before him as he sat for judgment in the court called Sauciolum®. The Proconsul demanded, ‘ Are you Thascius Cyprianus ?’ Cyprian Bishop answered, ‘ I am he.’ Galerius Maximus Proconsul said, “ The most sacred Emperors have commanded you to conform to the Roman rites.” Cyprian Bishop said, “ I refuse to do so.” Galerius: “ Take heed for yourself.” Cyprian ; “ Execute the Emperor’s orders ; in a matter so manifest I may not deliberate.” Galerius, after briefly conferring with his judicial council, with much reluctance pronounced the following sentence. “ You have long lived sacrilega an irreligious life, and have drawn together a number of rnenmente- bound by an unlawful association h, and professed yourself an
b Principes; they were the chief 17, who says that in the reigns of the officers of the Praetorian court. Antonines this title was the ordinary and
e Strator officii, al. stator, vid. Du- legal style of senators. Afterwards it cange in verb. was given to the governors of provinces.
<* Equistrator. e i. e. the criminal court, vid. Du-
e Sexti, as it is written by Tillemont cange, and Fell in loc. and Lumper, was a place according to h Nefarise conspirationis. Christi- some authorities six miles, according anity was not recognised as a religio to others, four miles from Carthage, licita till the next year, 259, by Galli- Morcelli writes it Sextum. enus. vid. Neander Hist. (Rose) vol. i.
1 Clarissimi. vid. Gibbon Hist. ch. Sect. i. 2. A.
PREFACE.
xxviii
open enemy to the gods and the religion of Rome ; and the pious, most sacred, and august Emperors, Valerian and Gallienus, and the most noble Caesar Valerian, have endea¬ voured in vain to bring you back to conformity with their re¬ ligious observances; — whereas then you have been apprehended as principal aud ringleader in these infamous crimes, you shall be made an example to those whom you have wickedly associated with you : the authority of law shall be ratified in your blood.” He then read the sentence of the court from a written tablet. “It is the will of this court, that Thascius Cyprianus be immediately beheaded.” Cyprian Bishop said, “ Thanks be to God1.” After sentence was pronounced, the whole assembled of the brethren cried out, “ We will be beheaded with him.” A great tumult arose among the brethren, and a crowd followed to the place of execution. He was brought forth into the field near Sexti, where having laid aside his upper garment11, he kneeled down, and addressed himself in prayer to the Lord. Then stripping himself of his dalmatic, and giving it to the Deacons, he stood in his linen tunic1, and awaited the executioner, to whom when he came Cyprian bade five and twenty pieces of gold be given. The brethren meanwhile spread linen cloths and napkins on the ground before him. Being unable to tie the sleeve of his robe at the wrist, Julian Presbyter and Julian Subdeacon performed this office for him. Then the blessed Cyprian covered his eyes with his hands, and so suffered. His body was exposed in a place hard by, to gratify the curiosity of the heathen. But in the course of the night it was removed, and transported with prayers and great pomp with wax tapers and funeral torches to the burying ground of Macrobius Candidianus the Procurator, near the fish ponds in the Mappalian Way. A few days after, Galerius Maximus the Proconsul died.
* Vid. S. Augustin. Serm. 309. §. 6. 1 The tunicle or dalmatic “ was used
which in several points illustrates and in the earliest ages of the Christian confirms this narrative. Church. Originally it has no sleeves.
k Lacerna or byrrus, a cloke, an- ... It is said that wide sleeves were ciently, of a red colour. Ducange. added . . . about the fourth cer.tury in Baronius would interpret it of the the 'West. . . . The English Ritual di- episcopal dress of his day ; but the rects it to be used by the a'sistant passage in the Acts in an addition, vid. ministers in the Holy Communion.” Bingham Antiqn. vi. 4. §. 18. Palmer’s Origines. Appendix 6. 4,
PREFACE.
XXIX
Tims suffered the most blessed Martyr Cyprian, on the eighteenth day of the Kalends of October, under Valerian and Sept. Gallienus Emperors ; in the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Some such notice of St. Cyprian’s life and death, as the above, was necessary to introduce the following Treatises; the force of which, as compositions, depends in no small degree on some previous knowledge of the character and history of the writer. They are the words of one who loved Christianity well enough to give up for it at a mature age secular engage¬ ments, settled habits and opinions, property, quiet, and at length life itself. While exhorting to almsgiving, he is already an example of voluntary poverty; if he praises virginity, he has himself embraced the single life ; he insists on the nothingness of things earthly, having first chosen contempt and reproach ; he denounces the heathen magis¬ trate, with the knowledge that he is braving his power; and he is severe with the Lapsed, because he himself is to be a Martyr. Without going into the details of his theological and ecclesiastical career, these facts are the great outlines of his history, and may suitably and profitably be set against the subjects treated in the following pages, and his mode of treating them. So much is there of pretence in the world ; so easy is it to see truths which are hard to practise, so skilful is the intellect in simulating moral greatness, so quick to feel and admire the truth, and so dexterous in expressing and adorning it, that we naturally look out for some assurance, which professions seldom supply, that we are reading what is real and spon¬ taneous, and not a mere semblance of high qualities.
As regards the Translation, for almost the whole of which
XXX
PREFACE.
the Editors are indebted to the Rev. Charles Thornton, of Christ Church, it need only be stated, that neither the text of Baluzius nor of Fell has been followed implicitly, but, where they differed, one or other has been preferred according to the particular case. An attempt has been made, in one portion of the Scripture references, to mark S. Cyprian’s variations from the present Vulgate version ; but the differences between the latter and his own, though often considerable, are often so small, as to make it a matter of nice judgment when he should be said to agree or disagree with it. It would seem on the whole that the Vulgate and S. Cyprian’s version differ from each other most in the Prophets, next in the rest of the Old Testament, and least in the Gospels and Epistles. The Psalms must be excepted from this com¬ parison, in which there is very little difference of translation at all, perhaps from substitution of the Vulgate on the part of transcribers. Next to the Psalms, there is least difference in the books of the Apocrypha, and among these in Ecclesi- asticus. This information and other assistance while the Volume has been in the press, have been kindly supplied by two friends of one of the Editors.
Oxford ,
Feast of St. Mark , 1839.
J. H. N.
CONTENTS
TREATISE I.
ON THE GRACE OF GOD.
Addressed to Donatus, A. D. 246. p. 1
TREATISE II.
ON THE VANITY OF IDOLS.
Written A. D. 247. 13
TREATISE III.
SCRIPTURE TESTIMONIES AGAINST THE JEWS. Addressed to Qoirinus, A. D. 248.
Book 1. On the Rejection of the Jews. 21
2. On the First Coming of Christ. 31
3. On Christian Duties. 65
TREATISE IV.
ON THE DRESS OF VIRGINS.
Written A. D. 248. 116
TREATISE V.
ON THE UNITY OF THE CHURCH.
Written A. D. 251. 131
TREATISE VI.
ON THE LAPSED.
Written A. D. 251.
153
xxxii
CONTENTS.
TREATISE VII.
ON THE LORD’S PRAYER.
Written A. D. 252. 177
TREATISE VIII.
AN ADDRESS TO DEMETRIANUS.
Written A. D. 252. 199
TREATISE IX.
ON THE MORTALITY.
Written A. D. 252. 216
TREATISE X.
ON WORKS AND ALMS.
Written A. D. 254. 231
TREATISE XI.
ON THE BENEFIT OF PATIENCE.
Written A. D. 256. 250
TREATISE XII.
ON JEALOUSY AND ENVY.
Written A. D. 256. 266
TREATISE XIII.
EXHORTATION TO MARTYRDOM. Addressed to Fortunatus A. D. 252 or 257-
278
TREATISE I.
ON THE GRACE OF GOD.
ADDRESSED TO DONATOS.
[S. Cyprian addressed the following composition to his intimate friend Donatus shortly after his baptism, that is, about A.D. 246. S. Augustine thus remarks concerning it ; (De Doctr. Christ, iv. 14.) “ No pleasure is imparted by that sweetness of style, which, though keeping clear of what is exceptionable, dresses up its small and fugitive excellences in a frothi- ness of language, which could not he applied with propriety or judg¬ ment even to what is great and standard. An instance of this occurs in an Epistle of S. Cyprian, which, whether the author intended it or not, shews posterity, as T think, how his style was pruned of its redundance by the soundness of Christian doctrine, and subdued into a more grave and sober eloquence ; such as in his later Epistles delights without drawback, is imitated without reserve, and is equalled only with great difficulty.” After quoting a passage from the opening of this work, he proceeds: “ Such writing is wonderful, and argues an overflowing exuberance of eloquence, yet it displeases a correct taste by its excess. Those however who like it, consider forsooth a person who avoids it, and speaks more soberly, to be unable to use it, not to avoid it from judgment. Accordingly that holy man shews both that he can so speak, for he has in one place done so, and to be averse to it, since he has never afterwards.”]
1. You rightly remind me, most clear Donatus: I remember my promise, and this is of a truth fit season for performing it, when the vintage gives holiday0, and the mind, abandoning itself to repose, enjoys the recurring and appointed resting-time of the wearied year. The place too suits the day ; and the
» The Church, while abolishing hea- vid. Cod. Theod. II. Tit. 8. and Fell’s then feasts, retained that of the vintage, note in loc. as really belonging to natural religion.
B
2
Grace dues the work of habit and experience.
at. fair face of the gardens joins with the mild airs of gentle
— autumn, in soothing and cheering the senses. It is pleasant here to lead on the day in talk, and to form the heart toward a knowledge of the revealed will, by edifying narratives. And that no profane intruder may induce restraint on our converse, or the ill-ruled tongues of a loud family out-talk it, pass we unto this seat. ’Tis a secret spot made for retirement, and the vines, whose gadding and vagrant shoots form festoons among the canes which support them, have framed for us a portico of tendrills with a roof of leaves. Fitly here shall we tell the tales of wisdom ; and while we refresh the eye with a delightful gaze upon the trees and vines, the mind will be gathering at once instruction from what is said, and refresh¬ ment from what is seen ; though you indeed have neither pleasure nor purpose now in any thing but conversation. Despising the enchantments of this delicious scene, your eye rests upon me ; in look, in thought, you have given your whole self to listen, and with that love for me, which you feel. Yet what in sum or substance can be any thoughts, imparted by me to you? The poor worth of my narrow wit puts out but a sorry harvest, no weighty generous stalks give wealth to the herbage ; still, with what power I can, I will make the endeavour. I have indeed a support in my subject. In courts of justice, in political speaking, a fertile genius may toss its fluent efforts aloft ; but when we speak concern¬ ing the Lord our God, the pure sincerity of our words rests for convincing, not on powers of eloquence, but on things. Accept then what, without talent, is still substantial ; no tinselled art of words to catcli the common ear, but simple things, in their rude truth, which go to preach God’s mercy. Accept what is felt, before it is learnt ; not gathered by a slow discovery through the train of years, but brought into me in one short act of an undelaying grace.
2. For me, while I yet lay in darkness and bewildering night, and was tossed to and fro on the willows of this troublesome world, ignorant of my true life, an outcast from light and truth, I used to think that second birth, which Divine Mercy promised for my salvation, a hard saying according to the life I then led : as if a man could be so quickened to a new life in the Laver of healing water, as to
Baptismal grace does what is impossible to nature. 3
pat off his natural self ; and keep his fonner tabernacle, yet be changed in heart and soul ! How is it possible, said I, for so great a conversion to be accomplished, so that both the obstinate defilement of our natural substance, and old and ingrained habits, should suddenly and rapidly be put off; evils, whose roots are deeply seated within ? When does he learn frugality, to whom fine feasts and rich banquets have become a habit ? or he who in gay sumptuous robes glisters with gold and purple, when does he reduce himself to ordinary and simple raiment? Another, whose bent is among public distinctions and honours, cannot bear to become a private and unnoticed man ; while one who is thronged by a phalanx of dependents, and retinued by the overflowing attendance of an obsequious host, thinks it punishment to be alone. The temptation still unrelaxed, need is it that, as before, wine should entice, pride inflate, anger inflame, covetousness disquiet, cruelty stimulate, ambition delight, and Inst lead headlong.
3. Such were my frequent musings ; for whereas I was encumbered with the many sins of my past life, which it seemed impossible to be rid of, so I had used myself to give way to my clinging infirmities, and, from despair of better things, to humour the evils of my heart, as slaves bom in my house, and my proper offspring. But after that life-giving Water succoured me, washing away the stain of former years, and pouring into my cleansed and hallowed breast the light which comes from heaven, after that I drank in the Heavenly Spirit, and was created into a new man by a second birth, — then marvellously what before was doubtful became plain to me, — what was hidden was revealed, — what was dark began to shine, — what was before difficult now had a way and means, — what had seemed impossible now could be achieved, — what was in me of the guilty flesh now confessed that it was earthy, — what was quickened in me by the Holy Ghost now had a growth according to God. Thou knowest well, thou canst recollect as well as I, what was then taken from me, and what was given by that death of sin, that quickening power of holiness. Thou knowest, I name it not, over my own praises it were unwelcome to boast ; though that is ground, never for boasting but for gratitude, which is not ascribed to man’s virtue, but is confessed to be God’s
B 2
AD
DONAT.
4 The gift in Baptism perfect , and all-sufficicnl for after needs.
Treat, bounty ; so that to sin no more has come of faith, as hereto-
— — — fore to sin had come of human error. From God, I say, from God is all we can be; from Him we live, from Him we grow, and by that strength which is from Him accepted and in- gathered, we learn beforehand, even in this present state, the foretokens of what is yet to be. Let only fear be a guard upon inuocency, that that Lord, who by the influence of His heavenly mercy has graciously shone into our hearts, may be detained by righteous obedience in the hostelry of a mind that pleases Him ; that the security imparted to us may not beget slothfulness, nor the former enemy steal upon us anew.
4. But if you would keep the path of innocency and of righteousness, and walk with a firm unfailing step, hanging upon God in all your strength and with all your heart, you have but to be that, which this beginning has made you ; „ your power to do will be according to the increase of spiritual grace. For there is no measure or rule, as is the way of earthly gifts, in dispensing of the gift from heaven ; the spirit is poured forth liberally, not confined by limits, not hindered in its course by the restraint of barriers or by definitely measured goal. It flows on without stop, it flows over without stint. We have only to present to it a thirsting and opened breast ; what measure we bring thither of faith -to hold, so much do we drink in of grace to inundate. Hereby is the strength given, with sober chastity, uncorrupt mind, pure voice, and virtue undefiled, to cure the sick by staunching the poisonous work within them, to cleanse the defilement of unwise souls by restoring to them health, to bid enemies be at peace, to give gentleness to the violent, and calmness to the excited ; to force to confession by sharp threatening the unclean and wandering spirits, who have of violence effected lodgment in men, till they fly, to inflict on them severe stripes, while they struggle, shriek, and groan, to stretch them out in pains increasing and renewed, to smite them with rods, and scorch with fireb. A work is wrought there, but is not seen; the blow is secret, but the punishment is manifest. Thus in so far as we are what we have begun to be, the Spirit which we have received enjoys its state of freedom ; in so far as we
*’ Yid. notes on Treatise ii. §. 3. 4.
Human nature before grace — bandits — tear — gladiators. 5
have not changed body and limbs, our fleshly sight is still ad darkened by the cloud of this world. What a dominion is-^YL this, and what a power of the mind ! not only to be itself withdrawn from the pernicious touch of the world, as one who being cleansed and hallowed can take no defilement from encounter with the enemy, but to be found in such an increase of greatness and might, as to rule with sovereign lordship over the whole force of our assailing adversary !
5. That by a more clear exposure of the truth, the signs of this divine gift may be rendered plainer, I will give you light whereby to understand it ; wiping aside the mist of evils,
I will uncover to you the shadows of this shrouded world. Imagine yourself a little time to have been removed to the summit of some lofty mountain, aucl witness from thence the aspect of human things as they lie spread beneath you: cast your eyes hither and thither, and yourself free from contact of earth, mark the turmoils of this billowy world. You will at once begin to look on life with pity ; recalled to self-remem¬ brance, and made more thankful to God, you will congratulate yourself with increased comfort on having escaped from it.
Look then, and see the public ways obstructed by bandits, the seas invested by pirates, the murderous sternness of camps introducing warfare into every place; a world reeking with mutual bloodshed ; and homicide, a crime in individuals, called virtue when wrought by nations, as if sin should gain impunity, not from the measure of innocence, but from the extent of its barbarity.
6. If next you turn eyes and countenance towards the cities; no solitude so melancholy, as the peopled concourse there. The show of gladiators is placed in its array, that eyes which lust for cruelty may find in it a pastime. The body is nourished up with strong aliments, and the huge bulk of limbs thrives in its brawn and muscle, that the pampered victim may die a costlier death. Man for man’s pleasure is slaughtered; and to learn to slay is a point of skill, an exercise, a trade; sin is not only done, but taught. What can be named more inhuman, or more miserable ? Men are educated in the capacity of murder, and find their glory in the practice.
What think you, I pray, of this also, when men expose them¬ selves to wild beasts, unsentcnced thereto ? In the flower of
a
The theatre — its immoralities.
Tiieat. their age, beautiful in person, and in robes of cost, they dress
- 1 — themselves alive for their voluntary funeral, glorying, poor
creatures, in their very misery. They fight with beasts, not for their crimes, but for their madness. Fathers are spectators of their own sons; a brother is in the ring, and his sister close by; and though the increased graudeur of the spectacle, makes addition to its expense, yet, alas ! even the mother supplies that increase, in order that she too may be present at her own woes. In scenes thus impious, thus dreadful and deadly, they forget that their eyes at least are murderers.
7. Turn now and look at another kind of spectacle, as contagious and as deplorable; in the theatres you will witness occasions both for sorrow and shame. It is called “ the tragic buskin,” to recount in verse the enormities of early times; the by-gone sin of parricide and incest is unfolded in representation fashioned after the pattern of the truth, lest in the course of ages what erst was perpetrated may be forgotten. Every age is reminded by what it hears, that what has been, can be done; offences die not with the wane of ages, crime is not drowned in years, nor wickedness buried in forgetfulness ; deeds gone by in the perpetration abide in the precedent. In mimes, men are drawn on, by lessons of impurity, to review what they have done before in secret, or to hear told what they may do hereafter. Adultery is learnt, while it is seen ; and while this evil, publicly sanc¬ tioned, inveigles to vice, the matron returns from the scene, with loss of the modest feeling which perchance she took to it. What ruin is it to morals still beyond, what a provocative to infamous deeds, what food for vice, to be contaminated by stage-playing, to see the studied sufferance of sinful acts' against the covenant and law of birth ! Men are unmanned11, their especial pride and strength is all enfeebled in the dis¬ honour of their enervated frame ; and he best pleases there, whose gait best minces into a woman. His crime expands into a deed of praise, and the more infamous he is, the more accomplished is he accounted. Witnessed, (alas the guilt !) and witnessed with delight, what cannot such a one insinuate ? He stirs the senses, he lulls the feelings, he drives out the sterner conscience of an honest breast; and even authority is ' Patientiam incest® turpitudinis elaboratam. d Evirantur.
7
General profligacy — the forum.
not wanting to the disgrace which solicits them, that the mischief may creep upon men by an easier access. They draw Venus unchaste, Mars adulterous; and that Jupiter of theirs, supreme not more in dominion than in vice, burning amidst his very thunderbolts for earthly amours, one time bespangled in the plumage of a swan, and at another floating down in a shower of gold, and now rushing forward with his ministering birds to seize upon children. Ask now, can a spectator continue uninjured or pure? The Gods whom they worship, they imitate ; to the wretched men crimes become a religious duty.
8. Oh, if standing on that lofty watch, you could pry into the secret places, unbolt the doors of chambers, and expose the hidden recesses to the testimony of sight, you would behold the immodest commit what the modest brow cannot even behold ; you would see what it is a blame even to see ; you would see what men frenzied with their vices deny that they commit, while hasting to commit them. With mad purpose man assaults man. Things are done which are dis¬ tasteful even to the doers. It is a truth, the criminal accuses those who are but like himself; the infamous defames the infamous, and thinks to be but conscious an acquittal, as if consciousness were not proof. In public they are accusers, in private they incur the charge; sitting in judgment upon the act, while they are the culprits who have done it. They condemn abroad, what they practise at home ; freely doing what when done they blame. Such audacity is fit help-meet to vice ; it is a shamelessness befitting the impure. Wonder not at ought which their mouth may speak ; its worst offence in words is but a small sin.
9. But now, after highways occupied by robbers, after battles manifold dispersed through the whole earth, after spectacles either cruel or impure, after infamous lusts, either publicly proffered or secluded within the walls of home, where sin concealed but makes boldness greater, — you may still think the public forum' safe, as neither subjected to open outrage, nor touched with a criminal pollution. Thither then look, and you will witness abominations more abundant, and
c S. Cyprian’s profession, as a rheto- acquaintance with the forum, rician, prior to his conversion, gave him
AD
DONAT.
8 Fraud — oppression — venality of judyes —
Treat, will turn your eyes aside with increased aversion. Though
— - — the laws be graved on twelve tables, and the statutes publicly lettered on entablature of brass, amid those very laws is wickedness committed, amongst those statutes are offences wrought. Innocence is not retained even where it is defended. The fury of disputants rages ; amid the garbs of peace, peace is broken, and the mad forum rebellows with litigation. Spear is there, and sword, and executioner nigh at hand; there is hook to pierce, and rack to stretch, and fire to consume : torments for one body of man more than his members. Who is to interpose ? His patron ? He plays a double game and deceives. The judge ? He sells his sentence. He sits to punish, and commits crimes; and judge becomes guilty, that defendant may perish guiltless. Crime is rife in all quarters; every where, in multiplied forms of sin, does the injurious ' poison work, by means of iniquitous iniuds. One man forges a will; another deposes falsely by a fraud which is capital ; here children are kept from their patrimony, there a man’s property is estreated to strangers. The adversary incriminates, the false informer assails, the witness defames ; on all hands the bold venality of prostituted voices advances on its work of lying accusation ; the guilty not even share ruin with the innocent. There is no fear of the laws; no appre¬ hension of inquisitor or judge ; what can be paid for, is not dreaded; the offence is, among the guilty to be guiltless; he who does not imitate the bad, offends them. Law has made a compact with crime, and guilt has become legal, by being public. What sense of shame, what probity can exist, where bad men have none to condemn them, and where none are found but ought to be condemned ?
10. But that I may not seem to be selecting the worst specimens, and, from wish to disparage, to be leading you over objects offensive, from their sad and odious aspect, to the gaze of a purer conscience, I will now point you to things which the world’s ignorance accounts good; but wherein you will still discover objects of aversion. What you deem to be honours, the fasces, resources in wealth, power in the camp, purple robes in office, arbitrary power in command, these are but the hidden virus of seductive ills, sin smiling with a face of gladness, but a deep woe under the treacherous attraction.
Ambition — servility — popularity — disgrace — indigence — 9
Poison, whose deadly juices have been tinctured with sweet¬ ness, and its savour disguised by a successful deceit, seems on the drinking but a common beverage; when drunken up, the death which you have swallowed surprises you. You see that man, remarkable in dress, and glittering, as he thinks, in his purple : what baseness was the price which bought his splendour? What arrogant rebuffs did he not first submit to? What proud gates were not besieged by his matin salutations ? How many haughty men’s insulting steps, wedged in their crowd of clients, did he front, before himself in turn was greeted by an equal retinue, appendage not of his person but of his power ? He earns respect not by his character but by the fasces. Witness, in a word, the wretched exit of these men, when the time-serving flatterer moves off, and their par- tizan, deserting them when private men, leaves their side bare to dishonour-. Then the injuries which they have inflicted on their estate come home to them, the losses of their exhausted fortune, by which the favour of the vulgar was bought, and the popular breeze pursued with perishing and thankless solicitations. Utterly infatuate indeed and barren was the adventure, to present, in the mere amusement of a disappoint¬ ing show, what is no gain to the people, and a waste to the candidate !
11. Those too whom you consider as the rich, who add park to park, shutting out the poor beyond their bouuding- line, and stretching ever further their limitless estates ; who possess the mighty mass of silver and gold, treasuries of wealth, whether in budded heap or buried store, these too, trembling amidst their riches, are torn by the workings of anxiety, lest the robber dispossess them, lest the assassin assail them, lest the jealousy of richer men molest them with fraudulent suits. Their food is not in peace, nor their slum¬ bers. See he is sighing amidst a banquet, drinking from gems; and though the soft couch receive his body, exhausted with feasting, in its embosoming depth, he lies sleepless amid the down ; not aware, wretched man ! that his are tor¬ ments in disguise, that he is held captive by his gold, and is rather the menial than the master of his wealth and riches. And, oh hateful blindness of mind, and profound darkness of an insane cupidity! when he might disburden and uplift him-
1 0 Wealth — l uxury — n iyyardness — Ran k — -fear — suspicion .
Treat, self from his load, still he does but brood over his tormenting
- - — wealth, still obstinately cling to his penal gatherings. No
bounty thence to clients, no sharing with the needy ; and they call that money their own, which they keep immured with solicitous pains, as though it were another’s, and from which they impart neither to their friends nor to their chil¬ dren any thing, nor even to themselves. In such sort only are they possessors, that they keep others from the possession ; and, oh strange abuse of names ! they call that ‘ goods’ which they use for nought but evil.
12. Think you that even those are safe, those with their chaplets of honours and large resources, at least firm-footed and secure, who glitter in the splendour of a royal court, and are circled with the protection of armed sentinels? Greater fears are theirs than other men’s ; in proportion as one is dreaded,
Js he compelled to dread. His very greatness exacts from the mighty his proportion of penalties, though he be guarded by a baud of satellites, and his person be closed and covered by the frequent retinue around him. The peace of mind which he denies to those beneath him, he is unable to transfer to himself. The power which makes men terrible to others, first is a terror to themselves. It smiles that it may rage, it flatters that it may deceive, it entices that it may slay, it exalts that it may cast down. Arbitrary power exacts usury; the more abundant are the dignities given, the more severe is the iuterest of their loan.
13. It is then the only placid and sui'e tranquillity for man, the one solid and firm and perpetual security, to be rescued from the tempests of this troublesome world, and to rest in the settled anchorage of salvation ; to lift his eyes from earth to heaven; and, admitted to the benefit of the Lord, and now most near in mind unto his God, to glory that whatever to other men seems lofty and great in human affairs, falls short of the feelings of his own bosom. He has nothing now to seek from this world, nothing to pine after, who is superior to the world. How settled, how immoveable is that protection, how heavenly the blessedness in its never-failing good, to become released from the bonds of earthly entanglement, and emerge out of this nether defilement into the light of the life ever¬ lasting ! Nothing avails all that the guileful mischief of our
Faith brings grace, into effect , obedience keeps it unsullied. 11
assailing foe has in past times done against us: we are brought to love still more what we are to be, by being admitted to see and to condemn what once we were. No need of price, or solicitation, or labour, that the perfection of man, whether in excellence or in power, should be wrought in us with an elaborate travail ; it is a gift from God, freely bestowed, and at our hand. As the sun irradiates spontaneously, the day illuminates, the stream irrigates, and the shower bedews, so does the Heavenly Spirit pour itself into us. When once the soul has fixed its gaze on heaven, and recognised its Author, rising off' earth, and lifted out of all dominion of the world, it begins to be that, which it believes itself to be. You then, who are sealed in the spiritual camp by a heavenly warfare, do but preserve in integrity and sobriety your exercise of religious virtues; be ever either in prayer or reading; now speak wffth God, now let Him speak with thee. Let His precepts instruct and form you ; whom He has made rich, none will make poor : there will be poverty never more, when once the breast has been satisfied with the heavenly ban- quelting. Ceilings embellished with gold, mansions encrusted with slabs of precious marble, will seem poor, when you feel, that it is yourself that is rather to be waited on, yourself to be garnished, that that is your better house, wherein the Lord sits as in a temple, and where the Holy Spirit has begun to dwell. Let us array that house with the colours of innocency, and illumine it with the light of righteousness ; age will not cause it to decay, the colours on its walls will not change their lustre, nor its gold lose its brightness. All tinselled things are transitory; those inspire the possessor with no sure confidence which are not possessed in substance. But this remains in a dress ever fresh, in honour untarnished, in brilliancy perpetual. It admits neither of wane nor perishing; only, when the body is given back, of fashioning unto perfection.
14. Thus far, most dear Donatus, briefly, for the present : for though a permissive and loving temper, a sledfast mind, a constant faith, finds comfort in wholesome words; and though nothing pleases your ears so well, as what is pleasing to them in God; we ought yet to place a limit upon our converse, as we live hard by one another, and may often talk together. And since this is the quiet of the holidays, and a season of
12
Religious feasting.
Treat, leisure, what remains of the day, now that the sun is descend-
- 1 — ing towards evening, let us enjoy it, not even the time of our
repast being unprivileged with heavenly grace. Let psalms keep measure in our temperate feasting, and as you have a ready memoiy and a melodious voice, take on you that task, as you are wont. Best entertainment will your dear friends have, if we have something spiritual to hear, and our ears be soothed with sweet religious music.
TREATISE II.
ON THE VANITY OF IDOLS.
[The following short Treatise, which some have suspected to be a fragment of a larger work, was written by its author soon after the foregoing, apparently in the beginning of A.D. 247. For passages in it, S. Cyprian seems to be indebted to the writings of Tertullian and Minucius Felix. In this as well as in the foregoing there are no quotations from Scripture.]
1. That they are no Gods, whom the common people worship, is known from hence. They were kings in ancient times, whose royal memory obtained for them when dead an after-homage from their people. Hence temples were esta¬ blished to them ; and images graved, that the countenances of the departed might be detained in the resemblance ; and victims immolated to them, and holidays appointed to pay them honour; and what at first was invented as a consolation, became a sacred rite in the generations after “. Let us see whether this truth is sustained in the individual instances. Melicertes and Leucotlioe fall headlong into the sea, and presently they become sea-deities. Castor and his brother die by turns, that by turns they may live. Esculapius, the better to mount into a god, is struck by thunder ; Hercules puts off the man, by being consumed in the fires of CEta; Apollo was shepherd to Admetus; Neptune built walls for Laomedon, and obtained, unhappy labourer, no wages for his
a Eusebius ( Praep. Evang. i. 9.) gives Elements, and the phenomena to which a more detailed account of the origin of they gave rise. The use of temples, Idolatry. He says that Sun and Moon images, and the artificial decorations were the first objects of worship, and that which it involved, came in afterwards among the Egyptians. The Phoenicians when dead men were deified and spirits worshipped Sun, Moon, Planets, and evoked.
DE
IDOL.
VAN.
14
Coda of Italy and Rome,
Treat, work. Jupiter’s cave is still seen in Crete and his tomb
— shewn. It is notorious too that Saturn was driven away by him, and that Lalium received its name from his being latent there. It was he that first taught the imprinting of letters and the stamping of coins in Italy; whence the public treasury is said to belong to Saturn ; be too was maintainer of the country life, and is therefore painted as an old man with a sickle. When driven into exile, Janus admitted him to a home; who gave name to the Janiculum, and occasion to the month of January. He is imaged with two faces, as seeming to stand midway, and look both upon the commencing and the departing year. The Mauritanians moreover notoriously worship kings, and make no secret of it.
2. Hence the worship of the Gods receives a variety of change through different nations and provinces; no longer the same god being adored by all, but each preserving religious veneration of their own ancestors. That this was so, Alexander the Great declares, in that famous volume written to his mother : that a priest, under fear of his power, made known to him conceming the Gods a truth which from men in general is concealed, that it is ancestors and kings whose memory is observed, and that the rituals of worship and sacrifice grew up therefrom. If, however, Gods ever were bora, why are none bom up to this day r Unless indeed Jupiter has aged, and Juno has left bearing. Why again think you that the Gods can do all for the Romans, when you see them availing nothing for their own nations against the Roman arms ? for we know that the Gods of the Romans also are home-born. Through the peijury of Pro- culus, Romulus was made a god ; so were Picus, and Tibe- rinus, and Pilumnus, and Consus, to whom Romulus would have worship paid as god, not of fraud, but of counsel, when the triumph of perfidy was accomplished in the rape of the Sabines. Tatius was inventor and worshipper of a goddess Cloacina ; Hostilius of Dismay and Paleness ; afterwards, by some one, Fever was consecrated, and Acca, and Flora, who were harlots. To such a pass indeed do the Romans proceed in inventing the names of Gods, that they have even a god Viduus, who widows the body of the soul, and who is too sad and funeral to be admitted within the walls, but is placed
not the causeof Roman (j rent ness; btil the coarse of Pfso&id'tnCeAb
bevond them; so that being thus made an exile, ho is rather t>e put under ban than worshipped by the Roman religion. VAX‘ There is besides a Scansus named from ascents; Forculusforibus. from doors, Limentinus from thresholds, Cardea from hinges, ^car- and Orbona from bereavements. These are Roman Gods.
But there is a Mars of Thrace, a Jupiter of Crete, a Juno bus. whether of Argos or Samus or Carthage ; a Diana of Taurus, a Mother of the Gods at Ida, and monsters (if not deities) in Egypt; these surely, if any power belonged to them, would have saved their own dominion, and the dominions of their people. The Roman household-gods are confessedly a van¬ quished set, brought by the fugitive riEneas; and they have a Venus the Bald, more dishonoured by her baldness in Rome, than by her wound in Homer.
3. Kingdoms are not the result of desert, but are changed about by chance ; empire once belonged to Assyrians,
Medes, Persians ; and we know that Greeks and Egyptians have enjoyed dominion. Thus in the succession of ascend¬ ancy, the Romans likewise, like the rest, have reached their season of empire ; but if you look back to its origin, you must blush. We find culprits and criminals brought together to make a nation ; and the Asylum established, that impunity may render them numerous. That their king may have a prerogative in crimes, Romulus becomes a fratricide ; and to promote matrimony, he enters on that work of peace by deeds of quarrel ; rapine, violence, and deceit, are the increase of the population of the state ; their marriage is a breach of the covenant of hospitality, and cruel warfare with their fathers- in-law. The highest step in Roman honours is the Consul¬ ship; but we find the Consulship of no better origin than the Crown. Brutus puts his sons to death, in order that the desert of guilt may add fresh title to his office. Not then from the sanctities of religion, from auguries and auspices, did the Roman dignities receive their growth ; but they observe their permitted season within their destined limits. Furthermore, Regulus obeyed the auspices, and yet was taken prisoner; Mancinus yielded submission to them, yet was sent under the yoke; Paulus had chickens that fed, and neverthe¬ less was slain at Cannae; Caius Caesar, when the auguries and auspices restrained him from sailing to Africa before winter.
1 6 The heathen the prey of evil spirits under the name of gods.
Treat, made light of them ; : and thereby Hie sooner both sailed
-1— — and conquered, .Ail these hare that same method of error and deceit, leading the foolish and extravagant multitude, by tricks which blind the truth ; spirits unclean and wander¬ ing, who having plunged in human vices, and left their heavenly strength through contagion of the earth, cease not to draw others into an equal perdition, and pour over them the delusion of their own depravity b.
4. The Poets likewise recognise these spirits; and Socrates professed himself to be taught and directed by the motions of a spirit ; herefrom too the Magi assume a power, whether for mischief or for trilling; the chief of whom, however, Hostanes, acknowledges that the form of the true God cannot be seen, and says that Angels stand beside His throne. Herein Plato upon the same principle consents, worshipping one God, and naming the rest Angels or spirits. Hermes Trismegistus likewise speaks of the one God; and acknowledges Him to be beyond comprehension or appreciation. These spirits then lurk under statues and consecrated images ; they in¬ spire the breasts of bards with their breath, they animate the fibres of the entrails, direct the flight of birds, rule the lots, cause oracles, and ever mix falsehood with truth. Them¬ selves beguiled, they are the beguilers of others ; disturbing their life, disquieting their sleep. Creeping likewise into their bodies, they affright the mind, distort the limbs, break the health, provoke diseases, to drive men into worshipping them; and, on being feasted with the odour of altars and the piles of slaughtered sheep, to seem by undoing what they had inflicted, to effect a cure. All the reined}’ they give, is to leave off harming. Neither have they other aim than this, to call men away from God; to divert them from intelligence of the true religion, into superstition towards themselves: making men to become companions in those pains which are their own portion, by guilefully leading them into their own guilt. Yet these when adjured on our part by the true God, at once submit, and make confession, and are forced to depart from
b Vide Id the foregoing Treatise, §. 4. that besides the great apostasy when the andsoMinucius,(§.27.)andLactantius, devil fell, sons of God or Angels had (Instit.ii. 15.) speaks of spirits, polluted been tempted and overcome by the at- by sins of earth, and wandering over it. tractions of sense, vid. Translation of It was a common belief of the Fathers, S. Cyril, Catech. ii. 10. note.
Evil spirits exorcised. God is One and Incomprehensible. 17
the bodies they have possessed. You may see them by our voice, and through the operation of the unseen majesty, lashed with stripes, and scorched with fire ; stretched out under the increase of their multiplying penalty, shrieking, groaning, intreating, confessing from whence they came, and when they depart, even in the hearing of their own worshippers ; and either leaping out suddenly, or gradually vanishing, as faith in the sufferer aids, or grace in the curer conspires'. Hence they impel the populace into a hatred of our name, in order that men may hate before they know us; and not, through knowing, either be forced to follow us, or be restrained from condemning.
5. God then is the one Lord of all : a height which allows of no compeer, itself sole occupant of all power. Let us gather an illustration from earth concerning the empire divine. When did ever a partnership in royalty either begin with good faith, or end without bloodshed ? Thus the brotherhood of the Thebans was sundered, and discord, out¬ living death, kept its hold in their unreconciled ashes : neither could one kingdom contain the Roman twius, though housed afore within the tabernacle of one womb. Pompey and Caesar were connected together, yet observed not their bond of relationship, amidst the rivalry of power. Neither in man only need this draw your attention, for all nature here consents; bees have one king, the flocks one guide, the herds one ruler; far more has the world but one Ruler, who orders all tilings that are by His word, regulates by His wisdom, and accomplishes by His power. We cannot see Him, He is too bright for our vision ; we cannot reach Him, He is too pure for our touch ; we cannot scan Him, He is too great for our intelligence; and therefore we but think of Him worthily, when vve own Him to be beyond our thought.
c Similar accounts are found in Jus- words, and the fire of our speech.” tin, (Apol. ii. 6 fin.) Theophilus, (ad And Lactantius of their being “ ad- Autol. ii. 8.) Tertullian, (Apolog. 23.) jured by the Name of God,” and “ tor- Minucius, (§. 270 Origen, (in Cels. vii. tured by the voice of the righteous 4.) Lactantius, (Instit. ii. 16.) Athana- “ therefore,” heco- tinues, “after much sius, (vit. Ant. 63, 64.) By torturing howling, they often cry out, that they them “ by fire” seems to be meant the are scourged and burned, and are de- mysterious pain inflicted on them by parting without delay.” Again, S. the words of tbeexorc-iser ; for Minucius Hilary speaks of their “ groaning at the speaks of “ their being expelled out of bones of the Martyrs, and being burnt the bodies of men by the torture of our without tire.” in Constant. 8.
C
DE
IDOL.
VAN.
18
History of Christ's coming to the Jews.
Treat. And now what Temple can God possess, when the whole
— Ill— world is His Temple? When man dwells at large, shall I shut up within a single structure the power of so great a majesty? In our own mind must be Ilis shrine, and 1 1 is con¬ secration within our own bosom. Neither ask thou the Name of God. God is His Name. There names are needed, where multitude is to be divided by separate distinction of terms ; * but to God, beside whom there is none other, God is the only name. He therefore is One, and every where is He whole, yet diffused. People oftentimes in common course make con¬ fession of God, when mind and soul become warned of their Author and first Principle. We ofttimes hear it said, ‘ O God,’ and, ‘ God sees me,’ and £ to God I commend him,’ and ‘ God will restore to me,’ and cas God will,’ and c if God vouchsafes.’ And herein is the essence of the guilt, to refuse to own, while you cannot avoid to know Him.
6. But that Christ is, and how salvation hath come to us through Him, herein is the plan, and the means. The grace of God was given at first to the Jews; through this they were righteous in old time, and their ancestors were obedient to the ordinances of religion. Hence their Kingdom was uplifted in renown, and their race became many, and abounded. But becoming negligent in the after-time, unruly and proud, and puffed up in a confidence in their fathers, they slight the divine commandments, and have forfeited thereby that grace which had been given them. How unhal¬ lowed their life became, with what guilty offences they violated their religion, themselves give witness; silent with the tongfie, but confessing by the event. Dispersed and straggling, they roam ; exiles from their soil and clime, they are tossed among the homes of strangers. God moreover had aforetime de¬ clared, that in the decline of ages, when the end of this world came nigh, He from every nation and people and place would gather to Him worshippers much more faithful and of a better obedience, who should have enjoyment of that loving-mercy, as a divine gift, which the Jews having received had lost through neglect of His ordinances. Dispenser then and Master of this loving mercy, of this grace and discipline, Sermo. the Word and Son of God is sent, who by all the prophets hitherto was fore-announced, as the Enlightener and Teacher
His divine nature , incarnation, preaching , miracles, crucifixion. 1 9
of the human race. He is the Virtue of God, He is His Reason, de He is His Wisdom and Glory. He enters into the Viigin, and puts on flesh, being the Holy Spirit4. God is made one Virtus. with man. He is our God, He is the Christ, who as Mediator Ivatl0'
1 . misce-
between two, puts on man* that He may lead him to thetur. Father. Christ willed to become what man is, in order that man may have power to become what Christ is. The Jews also knew that Christ should come. Continually by the voice of the Prophets were the tidings of Him renewed to them; but with a signification of two Advents of Him, one which should be occupied in the dealings and example of man, the other which should reveal Him as God ; though, not under¬ standing His first Advent, which went first and was hidden in His passion, they believe in one Advent only, that which will be manifested in His power. That the people of the Jews could not understand this, was the due reward of their crimes. Such blindness had they earned as to wisdom and knowledge, that, as being unworthy of life, they had the Life before their eyes, yet could not see it.
7. Therefore when Christ Jesus, as had been before told by the Prophets, cast devils out of men by a word and by the bidding of His voice, nerved the palsied, cleansed the leprous, enlightened the blind, gave stepping to the lame, revived the dead, made the elements to wait on Him, the winds to serve, the seas to obey, hell itself to submit to Him, the Jews, who had believed Him only man for the lowliness of flesh and body, thought Him a sorcerer for the fulness of His power. Their masters and rulers, whom He confuted both in learning and wisdom, inflamed by anger and stimulated by indignation, at length laid hold on Him, and delivered Him to Pontius Pilate, at that time procurator of Syria on the part of the Romans ; and with violent and importunate petitionings, demanded His
d Spiritus Sanctus. Ed. Ben. It is not Spiritu Sancto cooperante. unfrequent with the earlier Fathers to e Hominem induit,i.e. human nature. use the title Spiritus Sanctus for our Thus the orthodox doctrine differs from Lord’s Divine nature; after the texts Nestorianism, which holds that the Son which speak of His being “ the Son of of God assumed a man, thatis, a human God according to the Spirit of holiness,” /?erson; a notion which, involving a double and having “ offered Himself up to God personality .divine and human, issued in a through the Eternal Spirit.” vid.Hermas sort of (what is now called) Socinianism ;
Pastor, iii. 6. §.5. Tatian, adv. Gr*c. 7. as if Jesus Christ were a man inhabited Theophilus, ad Autol. ii. 10. Justin, or inspired by God, not numerically one Apol. 1. 33. <fcc. Fell however reads with Him, or God in human nature.
c 2
20 His death, resurrection, ascension, second coming.
Treat, crucifixion and death. That thev should do thus, Himself had II. J
- foretold, and all the prophets had also given witness; that He
must needs suffer, not merely in order to experience but to conquer death ; and having suffered, should go back again into heaven, that He might manifest the power of the Divine majesty. The course of events fulfilled the promise. For on the Cross He of Himself yielded up the ghost, anticipating the office of the executioner, and of Himself on the third day He rose again from the dead. He appeared to His disciples such as He had been; He gave their eyes opportunity of recognising Him; mingling with them, visible in the sub¬ stance of the material body, He continued until forty days, that they might be instructed from Him in the lively precepts, and learn what the}' were to teach. Then into heaven He Homi- was raised, with a cloud around Him ; that man which He vid?sup. loved, which He put on, which He covered from death, He oote e. might with victory bring in before the Father: hereafter soon to return from heaven for the punishment of Satan and the judgment of the human race, in the might of an Avenger and the power of a Judge; whilst the disciples, spread over the world at the bidding of their Master and God, taught the precepts of God unto salvation, led men from the error of darkuess unto the way of light, and gave eyes to the blind and ignorant, for the acknowledgment of the truth. And lest their testimony should fail in cogency, or the confession of Christ become an indulgence, they were tried by torments, by crucifixions, and many kinds of sufferings. Pain, which is the test of truth, is applied; that Christ the Son of God, who is believed in as given to mankind that they may live, might be declared not only in the heralding of the voice, but by the testimony of suffering. Him therefore we accompany; Him we follow; Him have we for Guide of our journey, Source of light, Author of salvation : who promises both heaven and the Father, to them that seek and believe. What Christ is, shall we Christians be, if we become imitators of Christ.
TREATISE III.
st. cyprian’s testimonies against the jews.
ADDRESSED TO QUIRINUS, IN THREE BOOKS.
[This collection of Testimonies, or, as we now speak, Texts, was made after its author was admitted into Holy Orders, as may be argued from his addressing Quirinus as his “ son.” From its nature it is impossible to say whether the whole was written by S. Cyprian ; the matter contained in it admitting of indefinite increase, and there being no opportunity afforded for the internal evidence of style. It is quoted as Cyprian’s by Augustine and Jerome, among others; the latter of whom refers to a passage in the third book, which exactly occurs in the existing work, according to the reference which he gives. The references in the notes which have been subjoined are in great measure from Bp. Fell's edition. Only the principal variations in the text of Scripture are noticed. ]
PREFACE
TO THE FIRST TWO BOOKS.
Cyprian to my son Quirinus, greeting.
Needs was it, dearest son, that I should obey your spiritual ad wish, asking me with most earnest entreaty for those divine QUII®IN sanctions, wherewith the Lord hath been pleased to ground and instruct us, through the Holy Scriptures; to the end that, led out of the shadows of error, and enlightened by His pure and radiant light, we may hold the way of life through saving Sacraments. And indeed such as you applied for, so has my work been fashioned, a treatise gathered up within straitened limits ; not distending what was written into too wide a space of matter, but as far as my poor memory permit¬ ted, collecting all the necessary points in extracted and con¬ tinuous portions; so that I seem not so much to have entered into the subject, as to have furnished others with the materials of so doing. Brevity of this sort is greatly of benefit to the
22
T he Scriptures fountains of Divine fulness.
Treat, reader, whose understanding and perception are carried astray III‘— by a long work, whereas his memory accurately retains what is read, where the more meaning is in less space. I have limited myself to two books, both of moderate length. The one, wherein we have endeavoured to shew, that the Jews, according as had before been prophesied, have departed from God, and lost that favour of the Lord, which was given them in the time past, and had been promised for the time to come ; prome- and that Christians have succeeded into their place, earning rentes. ^ tjie Lon] through faith, and coming out of all nations and from the whole world. The second book further contains the Sacrament of Christ ; that He hath come, who was before declared by the Scriptures ; and hath done and fulfilled those things by which it may be known and discerned, that it is He who was foretold. These things while you read them ^will meanwhile be profitable, in fixing the first outlines of your faith ; more strength will be given you, the wisdom of the heart will be exercised more and more, as you more fully examine into the Scriptures Old and New, and peruse the entire extent of those spiritual books. As yet we have but drawn thus scantily from the divine fountains, for your present supply ; you will be enabled to drink more largely, and be satisfied more bountifully, if with us you yourself approach to drink at those same fountains of divine fulness. Dearest son, it is my wish that all health may ever attend you.
Heads of the first Book.
1. That the Jews have grievously fallen under God’s dis¬ pleasure in departing from the Lord, and following idols.
2. Likewise in not believing the Prophets, and slaying them.
3. It was foretold that they would neither recognise, nor understand, nor accept the Lord.
4. That the Jews would not understand the Holy Scrip¬ tures, which yet were to be understood in the last times, after that Christ should have come.
5. That the Jews could have no understanding of the Scriptures, unless they first believed in Christ.
History of the reject ion of the Jews and calling of the Gentiles. 23
6. That they would lose Jerusalem, and leave the land ad
which had been given them. cunt
7. That they would likewise lose the light of the Lord.
8. That the former carnal circumcision is made void, and a second spiritual one assigned.
9. That the former law given by Moses was to cease.
10. That a new law was to be given.
11. That another Dispensation and a new Testament was to be given.
12. That the old Baptism was to cease, and a new begin.
13. That the old yoke was to be made void, and a new yoke be given.
14. That the former shepherds should cease, and new ones begin.
15. That Christ was to be the House and Temple of God; and that the old Temple had ceased, and a new begun.
16. That the old sacrifice was to be made void, and a new sacrifice celebrated.
17. That the old Priesthood should cease, and a new Priest should come, who should be for ever.
18. That another Prophet was promised, like unto Moses; one, that is, who should give a new Testament, and whom rather it should be a duty to hear.
19. That two people were foretold, the elder and the younger, that is, the former one of the Jews, and that new one which should be of us.
20. That the Church, which had before been barren, should have more sons out of the Gentiles, than what the Synagogue before had had.
21. That the Gentiles rather should be believers in Christ.
22. That the Bread and Cup of Christ, and all His grace, the Jews would lose, and we receive; and that the new Name of Christians would receive a blessing in the earth.
23. That Gentiles, rather than Jews, attain unto the kingdom of heaven.
24. That hereby alone the Jews can receive pardon of their offences, if they wash off the blood of Christ slain, in His Baptism ; and passing over into the Church, yield obedience to His commandments.
BOOK I.
Treat. l. That the Jews have grievously fallen under God’s dis-
- —pleasure in departing from the Lord, and following idols.
Ex. 32, Ju Exodus the people said unto Aaron, Up, make us gods Vulg. which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, (he man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him. Likewise in the same place Moses saith unto !“*■ the Lord, O Lord, I pray Thee, this people have sinned a great not v. sin, and have made them gods of gold and silver: yet now, if Thou wilt forgive their sin, forgive ; but if not , blot me out of the book which Thou hast written. And the Lord said unto Moses, JVhosoever hath sinned against Me, him will I blot out ^e“f- of My book. Likewise in Deuteronomy, They sacrificed unto not v. devils, not to God. Likewise in the Book of Judges, And Judg.^2, tj/e children 0J Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord God not V. of their fathers, which brought them up out of the laud of Egypt, and followed the gods of the people that were round about them, and provoked the Lord to anger ; and forsook Judg.^j, God, and served Baal. Likewise in the same place, And the children of Israel added to do evil again in the sight of the Lord, and served Baal and the gods of the strangers, and forsook the Lord, and served Him not. Likewise in Malachi, Mai. 2, Judah is forsaken", and an abomination hath been committed v. in Israel, and in Jerusalem ; for Judah hath profaned the holiness of the Lord which He loved, and hath courted strange gods. The Lord will cut off the man that doeth this, and he shall be made base in the tabernacles of Jacob.
2. Likewise in not believing the Prophets, and slaying them.
Jer. 7, In Jeremiah the Lord says, I sent unto you My servants not V. the prophets, before the dawn I sent them, ( and ye hearkened not unto Me, neither inclined your ear,) saying, Turn ye every one from his evil way, and his most wicked doings, and ye shall dwell in the land, which I have given to you and to your Jer. 25, fathers for ever and ever. Likewise in the same place, Go not V. n°t after other gods, to serve them, neither worship them, and provoke Me not to anger by the works of your hands, to
a Judah is forsaken, derelictus est. Sept, has dealt treacherously. Engl. transyressus est. Vulg. lyxariXtSfjn. Trans.
~1
25
The blindness of the Jen s
scatter you abroad; and ye have not hearkened unto Ale. ad Likewise in the third book of Kings, Elias saitli unto UUIT|a the Lord, I have been very jealous for the Lord God Al- i Kings mighty, for the children of Israel have forsaken Thee, have ^ • thrown down Thine altars, and slain Thy prophets with the sword; and I only am left behind, and they seek my life to take it away. Likewise in Ezra, They rebelled against Thee, 2 Esdr. and cast Thy law behind their backs, and slew Thy prophets, which testified against them to turn them to Thee. not V.
3. It was foretold that the Jews would neither recognise, nor understand, nor accept the Lord.
In Isaiah, Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for the Isa. l, Lord hath spoken : I have nourished and brought up children, ^ y but they have rebelled against Me. The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib ; but Israel doth not know Me, and the people hath not perceived Ale. Ah sinful nation , a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evil doers, children that are corrupters ; ye have forsaken the Lord, and provoked the Holy One of Israel to anger. Likewise by the same prophet the Lord saith, Go and tell this people, Ye shall hear with Isa.6,9. the ear, and shall not understand, and seeing ye shall see, and not shall not perceive ; for the heart of this people hath waxed fat, and they hear heavily with their ears, and have shut their eyes, lest by any means they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them. Likewise in Jeremiah the Lord saith, They have forsaken Ale, the fountain of living Jer. 2, waters, and hewed themselves out broken cisterns, which will y ' not not be able to hold water. Likewise in the same, Behold, the Jer. 6, word of the Lord is unto them a reproach, they have no delight y ‘ not in it. Likewise in the same the Lord says, The turtle and Jer. 8, the swallow knoweth its time, the sparrows observe the time ofD ot v their com ing ; but My people doth not know the judgment of the Lord. How will ye say, We are wise, and the law of the Lord is with us? The false measurement hath been made in vain, the scribes are ashamed, the wise men are dismayed, and taken, because they have rejected the word of the Lord. Like- ] wise in Solomon, Evil men seek Ale, and they shall not find 28. 29. Me; for that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear ^ot
of the Lord. Likewise in the twenty-seventh Psalm, Render to [ 28,] 4.
5. V.
2G
though light and understanding were given.
Treat, them their desert , because they regard not the works of the | Lord. Likewise in the eighty- first Psalm, They know not, [82,] 5’. neither have they understood; they walk on in darkness. John l Likewise in the Gospel according to John, He came unto His 11. 12. ou n, and His own received Him not ; but as many as received not . f0 t]iem gave ije power to become the sons 0/ God, even
to them that believe on His Name.
4. That the Jews would not understand the Holy Scrip¬ tures, which vet were to be understood in the last times, after that Christ should have come.
is. 29, In Isaiah, And all these words shall be unto you as the 11.18. 7 ^ not V.' words of a book that is sealed, which if you deliver to read
unto one that knowelh letters he shall say, I cannot read,for
it is sealed. . . . But in that day shall the deaf hear the words
of the book, and they who are in darkness and in a cloud ;
Jer. 23, the eyes of the blind shall see. Likewise in Jeremiah, In the
y ' latter days ye shall know those things. Likewise in Daniel,
Dan. 12, Shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the
4^7. QOt end’ until many learn, and knowledge is fulfilled ; for when
there shall be a dispersion, they shall know all these things.
l^Cor. ju the £rst Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians, Brethren, I
not V. would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers
were under the cloud. Likewise in the second Epistle to the
i4C°r]6 ’Corinthians, Their minds are blinded even unto this day,
not v. by this same vail, which is taken away in Christ ; but even
unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their
heart. Nevertheless, when they shall turn unto the Lord,
the vail shall be taken away. In the Gospel the Lord after
Luke24, the resurrection says, These are the words which I spake
unto you, while I teas yet with you, that all things must be
fulfilled, which were written in the Law of Moses, and in the
Prophets, and in the Psalms, concerning Me. Then opened
He their understanding, that they might understand the
Scriptures, and said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus
it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the
third day ; and that repentance and remission of sins should
be preached in His Name even among all nations.
5. That the Jews could have no understanding of the
Scriptures, unless they first believed in Christ.
Is. 7,9. In Isaiah, If ye will not believe, neither shall ye under - not V.
The Jews have lost Jerusalem and the light of the Lord. 27
stand. Wherefore the Lord in the Gospel, If ye believe not ad that I am He, ye shall die in your sins. But that righteous- CUIjKIN ness should stand by faith, and that therein was life, was John 8, foretold in Habakkuk, Now the just shall live by faith in Me. y ' not Hence Abraham the father of nations believed. In Genesis, Hab. 2, Abraham believed in God, and it was accounted to him for ^ not^' righteousness. Likewise Paul to the Galatians, Abraham q. notv’ believed in God, and it teas accounted to him for righteous- Gal. 3, ness. Ye know therefore that they which are of faith, the not v. same are children of Abraham. And the Scripture, fore¬ seeing that God justifieth the heathen by faith, preached beforehand to Abraham, that in him all nations shall be blessed. So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.
6. That the Jews would lose Jerusalem, and leave the land which had been given them.
In Isaiah, Your country is desolate, your cities are burned Is. 1, with fire, your land strangers shall devour it in your pre- ^ y. sence; desolate and overthrown by strangers, the daughter of Zion shall be left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a city which hath been besieged.
And except the Lord of hosts had left unto us a seed, we should have been as Sodom, and been like unto Gomorrha. Likewise in the Gospel the Lord says, Jerusalem, Jerusalem flat-23, that killest the prophets, and slonest them which are sent y " unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gatherelh her chickens under her wings, and thou wouldest not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.
7. That the Jews would likewise lose the light of the Lord.
In Isaiah, Come ye, and let us walk in the light of the Is.2,5.6. Lord: for He hath sent away His people, the house of Israel. not V‘ Likewise in the Gospel according to John, That was the true John 1, Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world, v He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. Likewise in the same place, He John 3, that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not not V." believed in the Name of the only-begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light.
28 Circumcision made way for Baptism, theOld La u for theXew.
Treat.
III.
4. not V.
Col. 2, 1 1. not V.
8. That the former carnal circumcision is made void, and a second spiritual one assigned.
Jer.4,3. In Jeremiah, Th us saith the Lord to the men of Judah , and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, Renew newness among you, and sow not amomj thorns. Circumcise yourselves to your God, and circumcise the foreskins of your heart ; lest My fury come forth like fire, and burn so that none can quench it. Likewise Moses savs, In the latter days God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God. So in Jesus the Son of Nave ; And the Lord said unto Jesus, Make thee sharp knives of stone, and circumcise forthwith the children of Israel a second time. Likewise Paid to the Colossians, Ye are circumcised not with the circumcision made with hands in the putting off of the flesh, but with the circumcision of Chrisi. Likewise because Adam whom God first made was uncircumcised; and righ¬ teous Abel ; and Enoch who pleased God and was translated ; and Noah, who when the world and mankind perished for sin, was alone chosen in whom the race of man should be preserved; and Melchisedech the priest, after whose order Christ was promised. Farther, because that sign avails not to women ; but by the Sign of the Lord all are sealed.
9. That the former law given by Moses was to cease.
Is. 8, 16. In Isaiah, Then shall they be manifest, who seal the law,
y ‘ not that they may not learn. And he shall say, I wait upon God, that hideth His face from the house of Jacob, and Mat. li, / will trust in Him. Likewise in the Gospel, All the 13. not pfQpfetg an(i i/ie paw prophesied until John.
10. That a new Law was to be given.
Micah In Micah, For the Law shall go forth of Zion, and the not v.' word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And He shall judge among many people, and rebuke and uncover strong nations. Is.2, 3.4. Likewise in Isaiah, For out of Zion shall go forth the Law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem ; and He shall judge among the nations. Likewise in the Gospel according Mat.ir, to Matthew, And behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, s.not^ . p/^s jjy beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased ; hear ye Him.
11. That another Dispensation, and a new Testament, was to be given.
The old Testament, old Baptism , and old Yoke ceased. 20
In Jeremiah, Behold, the days corne,saith the Lord, that I ad will make a new Testament with the house of Israel, and 0UIiRIN with the house of Judah. Not according to the Testament Jer. 31, that I made with their fathers, in the day that I took them by the hand, to bring them out of the land of Egypt ; because they remained not in My Testament , and I neglected them, saitli the Lord. For this shall be the Testament that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saitli the Lord; I will give them My laws, and will write them in their hearts, and will be their God, and they shall be My people. And they shall teach no more every man his neigh¬ bour, saying, Know the Lord ; for all shall know Me, from the least even unto the greatest of them ; for I will forgive their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.
12. That the old Baptism was to cease, and a new begin.
In Isaiah, Remember ye not the former things, neither 4^> consider the things of old. Behold , I make new the things not V. that shall now spring forth, and ye shall know it; and / will make a way in the desert, and rivers in a droughty place; to give drink to My chosen race. My people whom I accepted, that they should shew forth My praise. Likewise in the same, If they thirst, He will lead them th rough the desert, Is. 48> He will cause the waters to flow out of the rock for them : y. the rock shall be cloven, and the water shall gush, and My people shall drink. Likewise in the Gospel according to Matthew, John says, I indeed baptize you with water unto Matt. 3, repentance, but He that cometh after me is mightier than I, y' not whose shoes I am not worthy to bear. He baplizeth you with the Holy Ghost and with fire. Likewise according to John, Except a man be born of wafer and of the Spirit, he cannot John 3, enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born off. n° the flesh is flesh ; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
13. That the old yoke was to be made void, and a new yoke to be given.
In the second Psalm ; Why do the heathen rage, and the Ps. 2, people imagine vain things ? Hie kings of the earth stand up, and the rulers are gathered together, against the Lord, and against His Christ. Let ns break their bands asunder, and cast away their yoke from us. Likewise in the Gospel
, l— 3.V.
30 The old Shepherds and Temple made way for the new.
Trrat. according to Matthew, the Lord says, Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
III.
Jer. 3, 15.
not Y .
28 _ 30.’ Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me ; for I am meek
not V. alni iow/y in /lcar/ . and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
For My yoke is kind, and My burden is light. In Jeremiah, Jer. 30, / n that day I will break the yoke from off their neck, and Y. burst their bonds; and they shall no longer serve others , but they shall serve the Lord God; and I will raise up David a king unto them.
14. That the former shepherds should cease, and new ones begin.
Ezek. In Ezekiel, Wherefore thus saitli the Lord, Behold, I am not~ n^ove Hie shepherds, and I will require My sheep at their hand; and I will turn them away from feeding Mg sheep , neither shall they feed them any more ; and I will deliver My sheep from their mouth, and L will feed them with judg¬ ment. In Jeremiah the Lord saith, 1 will give you pastors according to Mine heart, and they shall feed you with the Jer. 31, food of discipline. Also in Jeremiah, Hear the word of the not v. Lord, O ye nations, and declare it in the isles which are far off, and say, He that scattereth Israel will gather him, and keep him as a shepherd doth his flock ; for the Lord hath redeemed Jacob, and ransomed him from the hand of him that was stronger than he.
15. That Christ was to be the House and Temple of God, and that the old Temple had ceased, and a new begun.
2 Sam. In the second Book of Kings, And the word of the Lord 12II16 came to Nathan, saying. Go and tell My servant David, thus not v. saith the Lord, Thou shalt not build Me an house to dwell in; 17 3. ' but it shall come to pass, when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, and I will set up thy Seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels; and I will establish His kingdom : He shall build Me an house, for My Name, and I will stablish His throne for ever: and I will be His Father, and He shall be My Son, and His house shall obtain assurance, and His kingdom for evermore in My sight. Mat. 24, Likewise in the Gospel the Lord saith, There shall not be left John 2 ^,e ,ewple one sl°ne upon another, that shall not be thrown
19. down. And, After three days another shall be raised up
u?58. without hands. not V.
The Old Sacrifice, Priesthood, and Prophets for the New. 31
16. That the old sacrifice was to be made void, and a new ad
sacrifice celebrated. ouirin
In Isaiah, To what purpose is the multitude of your sacri- is.1,11. fees unto Me, saith the Lord ; I am full; burnt offerings of ^2- not rams, and fat of lambs, and blood of bulls and goats , I will not. For who hath required those things at your hands ? Likewise in the forty-ninth Psalm, I will not eat the flesh of Ps. 49, bulls, or drink the blood of goats ; offer unto God thanks- j'^15 giving, and pay thy vows unto the Most High ; call upon Me v. in the day of trouble, I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify Me. Likewise in the same Psalm, The sacrifice Ps. 49, of praise shall glorify 31 e ; therein is the way where I will ^0’- 23' shew him the salvation of God. Likewise in the fourth Psalm, Offer the sacrifice of righteousness, and put your Ps. 4,5. trust in the Lord. Likewise in Malachi, I have no pleasure ^‘al j in you, saith the Lord, neither will 1 take an accepted offer-i° • it* ing at your hands ; for from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same , 31y Name is great among the Gentiles, and in every place incense shall be offered unto 3Ly Name, and a pure offering a; for 31y Name is great among the Gentiles, saith the Lord.
17. That the old Priesthood should cease, and a new Priest should come, who should be for ever.
In the hundred and ninth Psalm, Before the morning-star Vs. 109, 1 begat Thee. The Lord hath sworn and will not repent, ^ y’- 3' Thou art a Priest for ever after the order of 3Lelchizedek. Likewise in the first of Kings the Lord saith unto Eli the Priest, And 1 will raise Me up a faithful Priest, that shall do l Sam.2, all things which are in 31y heart , and I will build Him a sure not v. house; and He shall walk before 3Iine anointed ones for ever.
And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left in thine house shall come and crouch to Him for a piece of silver and for a morsel of bread.
18. That another Prophet was promised, like unto Moses; one, that is, who should give a new Testament, and who should rather be heard.
a Vid. also Justin. M. (Tryph. 41.) words, of pure mincha, or an oblation Irenteus (H®r. iv. 17. §. o.) “ Instead of meal with its drink offering, viz. of of the victims and feast on slaughtered bread and wine, of the true and ever- animals, this alone remains among enduring Eucharistical sacrifice and the Christians, a reasonable and bloodless incense of pious prayers.” Fell in sacrifice, which consists, in Malachi’s loc.
32 To barren Jewish Ch urcli moreGenlile sons thanloSynayogue.
1 i?iVT" Deuteronomy> concerning God speaking unto Moses; jjeu|J8 And the Lord said unto me, A Prophet uill I raise up unto 18. 19. them from among their brethren like unto thee, and uill put 0 ‘ Mg words in His mouth, and He shall speak unto them all that
I shall command Him, and whosoever shall not hearken unto whatsoever things that Prophet shall speak in Mg name, [ will require it. Concerning whom Christ also speaks in 39^40^" ^le Gospel according to John, Search the Scriptures, for in 45—47 . them ye think ye have eternal life ; they are they which not v ' testify of 3Ie ; and ye will not come to 3Ie, that ye might have life. Do not think that I accuse you to the Father ; there is one that accuseth you, even 3Ioses, in whom ye trust. For had ye believed 3Ioses, ye would have believed 3Ie ; for he wrote of 3Ie; but if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe 31y words i
] 9. That two people were foretold, the elder and the younger, that is, the former one of the Jews, and that new one which should be of us.
Gen. 25, jn Genesis; And the Lord said unto Rebekah, Two nations v. are in thy womb , and two manner of people shall be sepa¬ rated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other pjeople, and the elder shall serve the younger. H°s. 2^ Likewise in Hosea, L will call them that are not 3Ly people not v. 31y people, and her beloved that was not beloved. For it shall come to qiass, that in the place where it shall be said. Ye are not 3Iy people, that shall they be called, the sons of the living God.
20. That the Church, which had before been barren, should have more sons out of the Gentiles, than what the Synagogue before had had.
is. 54, jn Isaiah; Rejoice, thou barren, that dost not bear ; break not'Y. forth and sing, thou that travailest not ; for many are the children of the desolate, rather than of her that hath an hus¬ band. For the Lord hath said, Enlarge the place of thy tent, and of thy curtains, and stretch them. Spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes ; stretch forth yet to thy right hand and to thy left, and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and shall inhabit the desolate cities. Fear not, for thou shall overcome; neither be ashamed for that thou art accursed; for thou shall forget thy shame for ever. So also,
33
Mystery of the number seven.
to Abraham, (who had a son afore born of a bondwoman,) ad Sarah remained long barren, and late in age bare her sonQLIIRIN Isaac by promise, who was a type of Christ. So also Jacob had two wives, the elder Leah, with weak eyes, a type of the Synagogue ; Rachel the younger, beautiful, a type of the Church; who likewise long remained barren, and afterwards bare her son Joseph, who was himself also a type of Christ.
And in the first book of Kings it is read, that Elkanah had two wives, Peninnah with children, and Hannah barren, from whom was born Samuel, not according to the order of procreation, but according to the compassion and promise of God, upon her having prayed in the Temple ; and Samuel whom she bare was a type of Christ. Likewise in the first book of Kings,
The barren hath borne seven , and she that had many children 1 Sam.2, is waxed feeble. The children are the seven Churches; whence0-n0tV’ also Paul wrote to seven Churches, and the Apocalypse sets forth seven Churches, that the number of seven may be pre¬ served. In like manner there were seven days in which God made the world ; so also seven Angels who stand and go in Tobit and out before the face of God, as Raphael the Angel saith in^J y' Tobit; and seven lamps in the Tabernacle of witness; and the ExotE
r 25 37.
eyes of the Lord are seven, which keep watch over the world; ze’c.4,2.
and a stone with seven eyes, as saith Zecliariah ; and seven ”ot v-
J Zee. 3,9.
Spirits, and seven candlesticks in the Apocalypse; and seven 4, 10.
pillars, on which Wisdom hath built Her house in Solomon. ^Ysj1’
21. That the Gentiles rather should be believers in Christ. Pro.9,1.
In Genesis, And the Lord God said unto Abraham, Get Gen. 12,
i _ o
thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy not y father's house , and go into a land that I will shew thee ; and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and will make thy name great , and thou shall be blessed; and I will bless him that blesseth thee, and curse him that curseth thee ; and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. On the same point, in Genesis, See the smell of my son is as the smell of a plenteous Gen. 27, field, which the Lord hath blessed; and may God give thee of the ^‘rfy9' dew of heaven, and of the fatness of the earth plenty of corn and wine and oil ; and people shall serve thee, and princes bow down to thee ; thou shall be lord also over thy brother, and thy father's son shall bow down to thee ; cursed shall he be that curseth thee, and blessed shall he be that blesseth thee. On the same point, in
n
34
The call of the Gentiles predicted ,
Tkf.at. Genesis; But when Joseph saw that his father laid his right — ^ 4'8~ hand upon the head of Ephraim , it displeased him ; and Joseph 17—19.’ held up his father's right hand, to remove it from Ephraim's not ^ ‘ head unto Manasseh's head ; •and Joseph said unto his father, Not so, my father ; this is my first-born ; put thy right hand upon his head; but he ref used, and said, l know it, my son, I know it; he also shall become a people, and he also shall be great; but his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his seed shall become a multitude of nations. Likewise in Genesis, Gen. 49, Judah, thou art he, whom thy brethren shall praise; thine hand not v." shall be in the neck of thine enemies : thy father' s children shall bow dozen before thee. Judah is a lion's whelp; from the prey, my son, thou art gone up ; thou layedsl down and sleepedst like a lion, and as a lion's whelp ; who shall raise him up ? There shall not be wanting a prince from Judah, and a leader from _ his loins, until the things come which have been entrusted with him; and he is the hope of the nations. Binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass's colt unto the choice vine; he shall wash his robe in wine, and his clothes in the blood of the grape. His eyes are terrible with wine, and his teeth are more white than milk. Hence in Numbers it is written concerning our people, Numb. Behold, the people shall rise up as a lion-like people . In Deu- not v. teronomy, Ye Gentiles shall be the head, but the unbelieving Deut. people shall be the tail. Likewise in Jeremiah, Hearken to the not v. sound of the trumpet; and they said, We will not hearken: for uT not ^is cause the nations shall hear, and they who shall feed flocks v. among them. In the seventeenth Psalm, Thou shall make me [is,] 43. the head of the heathen : a people whom I have not known have 4i- v- served me, at the hearing of the ear they have obeyed me. Con- Jer.1,5. cerning the same thing in Jeremiah the Lord saith, Before I not v. jorme(i ijiee ;n tfo fje[iy i knew thee, and before thou earnest forth out of the icomb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a ls.ob,\.prophet among the nations. Likewise in Isaiah, Behold, I have not Y. given Him for a witness to the people, a leader and commander ver. 5. to the nations. Likewise in the same, Nations which knew not v. phee not shall call upon Thee, and people shall run to Thee is. li, that had no knowledge of Thee. Likewise in the same, In that y • not day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall rise to rule in all people ; in Him shall the Gentiles hope, and His rest shall be
is. 9, \. glory. Likewise in the sam e, The land of Zabidon and the land
2. not Y.
and their being blessed ivith Christ's Bread and Cup. So
o/Naphtalim, by the uay of the sea, and ye others who dwell by ad
the sea-places, and beyond Jordan, Galilee of the nations; ~lI[RIN
people that walk in darkness, see ye the great light; ye who
dwell in the land of the shadow of death, the light shall shine
upon you. Likewise in the same, Thus saith the Lord God to Is.45,].
Christ my Lord, whose right hand I have holden, that nations
may hear Him, and that I may break asunder the strength
of kings ; I will open gates before Him, and cities shall not
be shut. Likewise in the same, I come to gather all nations Is- 66,
u 18. 19.
and tongues, and they shall come and see My glory ; and I will not y
send out an ensign over them, and will send those that are pre¬ served of them unto the nations that are afar off, that have not heard My Name, nor seen My glory ; and they shall de¬ clare My glory among the Gentiles. Likewise in the same, In all Is. 5,25. this they are not converted; therefore will He lift an ensign to v. the nations that are afar, and will call them from the end of the earth. Likewise in the same, They which had not been told Is. 52, of Him shall see, and they which have not heard shall under- y. stand. Likewise in the same, lam made manifest to them that Is. 65, l. seek Me not, I am found of them that asked not for Me. I said, not Behold, it is /, to a nation that has not called upon My Name. Concerning this same thing saith Paul in the Acts of the Apo¬ stles, It was necessary that the word of God should first be Acts 13, spoken to you, but seeing ye put it from you, and judge your-no[ -y. selves tin worthy of eve) lasting life, lo, ice turn to the Gentiles.
For so hath the Lord spoken to us by the Scriptures, saying,
I have set thee to be a light among the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth.
22. That the Jews would lose and we receive the bread and cup of Christ and all His grace ; and that the new Name of Christians would receive a blessing in the earth.
In Isaiah thus speaks the Lord, Behold, they who serve Me Is. 65, shall eat, but ye shall be hungry ; they who serve Me shall re- y ' joice, but ye shall be ashamed ; the Lord shall slay you; but to them that serve Me, a new Name shall be named, which shall be blessed in the earth. Likewise in the same place, Therefore will He lift an ensign to the nations that are afar, Is. 5,26. and will call them from the end of the earth. And, behold, y " not they shall come with speed swiftly, they shall not hunger nor thirst. Likewise in the same place, Behold therefore the is. 3, l.
36 Baptism only washes the yuilt of Christ's blood from the Jews.
Treat. Ruler, the J^ord of hosts, shall take away from Judah and
from Jerusalem, Hie mighty man and the strong, (he stay of
bread, and the stay of water. Likewise in the thirty-third
Ps. 33, Psalm, O taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man
to4 y8" irw&leth in Him. Fear the Lord God, all ye His saints;
for there is no want to them that fear Him. Rich men want
and hunger, but they that seek the Lord shall not want any
good thing. Likewise in the Gospel according to John the
John 6, Lord saith, I am the bread of life ; he that cometh to Me shall
y‘ never hunger, and he that believeih on Me shall never thirst.
John 7, Likewise saith He in the same place, If am/ man thirst, let 37 38. . Jr 47
V. him come unto Me and drink. He that believeih on Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of John 6, living water. Likewise saith He in the same place, Except j ‘ ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, ye „ shall have no life in you.
23. That Gentiles, more than Jews, attain unto the king¬ dom of heaven.
Mat. 8, In the Gospel the Lord saith, Many shall come from the not v. east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness, there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
24. That hereby alone the Jews can receive pardon of their offences, if they wash off the blood of Christ, in His Baptism, and passing over into the Church, yield obedience to His commandments.
Is. i, In Isaiah the Lord saith, 1 will not release your sins. When not"v.°" Ve spread forth your hands, I will turn away My face from you, and when ye make many prayers, I will not hear you ; for your hands are full of blood. Wash you, make you clean; take away the wickedness from your souls, from before Mine eyes ; cease to do evil, learn to do well ; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge for the fatherless, and justify the widow. Come now and let us reason together, saith the Lord; though your sins be as scarlet, I will whiten them as snow ; though they be red like crimson, I will whiten them as wool. And if ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land. But if ye refuse and hear Me not, the sword shall de¬ vour you : for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.
Heads of the second Book.
1. That Christ is the First-born; and that He is the Wisdom of God, by Whom all things were made.
2. That Christ is the Wisdom of God; and concerning the Sacrament of His incarnation and passion, and cup and altar, and of the Apostles who by commission preached.
3. That Christ is likewise the Word of God.
4. That Christ is likewise the hand and the arm of God.
5. That He is likewise Angel, and God.
6. That Christ is God.
7. That Christ our God should come as the Enlightener and Saviour of the human race.
8. That having from the beginning been Son of God, He yet was to be begotten anew according to the flesh.
9. That this should be the sign of His nativity, that He should be born of a Virgin, man and God, Son of man and of God.
10. That Christ is man and God, consisting11 of either nature, that He might be able to be Mediator between us and the Father.
1 1 . That He was to be bom of the seed of David, according to the flesh.
12. That He was to be born in Bethlehem.
13. That He was to come in low estate on His first Advent.
14. That He was the Just, whom the Jews should kill.
15. That He was a Sheep and a Lamb who was to be killed ; and concerning the Sacrament of His Passion.
16. That He likewise is called a stone.
17. That that stone should afterward become a mountain, and fill the whole earth.
18. That in the last times, that same mountain should be revealed, upon which the Gentiles should come, and by which all the just should go up.
19. That He is a Bridegroom, having the Church for a Bride, of whom children should be spiritually bom.
d Ex utroqiie genere concretus. so miscetur. vid. above, p. 19. de Idol. Van. 6. Deus cum homine
primo-
genitus,
Sermo.
38
Christ the First-horn and the Wisdom of God ,
Treat. 20. That the Jews would fasten Him to the Cross.
11 21. That in the passion of His Cross and the sign is
all virtue and power.
22. That in this sign of the Cross is salvation to all who are marked in their foreheads.
23. That during His passion there was to be darkness at mid-day.
24. That He would not be overcome by death, nor remain in hell.
25. That He would rise from the dead the third day.
26. That after He had risen, He would receive all power from the Father, and that His power is eternal.
27. That it is impossible to come unto God the Father, except through Jesus Christ His Son.
28. That He will come to judge.
29. That He will reign as a King for ever.
30. That He is both Judge and King.
BOOK II.
1 . That Christ is the First-born ; and that He is the Wisdom of God, by Whom all things were made.
Prov. 8, In Solomon in the Proverbs, The Lord made Me* the noTy1' beginning of His ways in His works; He set Me up before the
a Condidit. £*v/crt» or fx-riVava. So also Philo Jud. (de Temul. p. 244. ed. Franc-.) Justin. (Tryph. 129.) Athena- goras, (Leg. 10.) Clement of Alex¬ andria, (Protrept. p. 52. ed. Sylb.) Origen, (in Joan. i. 11. et a/.) Atha¬ nasius, (ad Serap. i. 3. et at.) Pseudo- Ignatius, (ad Tarsens. 6.) and the Arians, (Theod. Hist. i. 6.) who urged it in defence of their heresy that our Lord has a beginning of existence ; whereas it only implies a Source of ex¬ istence, which being eternal, (viz. the Father,) the Son may be eternal too, or Tather must be, in that no change can take place in the Divine Nature, and if the Son is in the Father and the Father in the Son now, that adorable mystery
must ever have been. However, Eu¬ sebius, (Eecles. Theol. iii. 3.) and Je¬ rome, (Epist. ad Cyprian.) translate the word, possessed,” Ixrr.iraro, and refer to the Hebrew text as their authority. Basil, (in Eunom. ii. 20.) and Nyssen, (in Eunom. i. p. 34.) mention both readings. Epiphanius, (Haer. 69. n. 25.) translates the Hebrew ixTxraro or Waacivti. Even those Fathers however, who prefer IxTxffure, are content to take ixTiri, and with the others above mentioned, to which may be added, Tertullian, Lactantius, Gregory Na- zianzen, Cyril of Alexandria, Hilary, Ambrose, and Augustine, for the most part explain it of our Lord’s incar¬ nation.
39
by ivltom all things were made.
worlds. In the beginning, or ever He made the earth, and ad before He established the depths, before the fountains ofQV jf.IN water flowed forth, before the mountains were settled, before all the hills, the Lord begot Me. He made the regions and the uninhabitable places, and the uninhabitable limits beneath the sky. When He prepared the heavens, I was with Him, and when He set apart His seat. When He made the strong clouds above over the winds , and when He laid the strong fountains beneath the heaven, when He established the found¬ ations of the earth, I was by, disposing them under Him ;
I was with Him, in whom He delighted; 1 daily rejoiced before His face always, when He rejoiced in the perfecting of the earth. Likewise in the same in Ecclesiasticus, I came Ecclus. out of the mouth of the Most High, before every creature; I D0{ v. ’ made the unfailing light to rise in the heavens, and covered the whole earth with a cloud; I dwelt in high places, and My throne is in a cloudy pillar. I compassed the circuit of heaven, and entered to the bottom of the deep, and walked in the waves of the sea, and stood in the whole earth ; and in every people and in every nation I possessed preeminence, and have trod by My own power the hearts of all the excellent and the lowly. In Me is all hope of life and virtue. Pass over to Me, all ye who desire Me. Likewise in the eighty-eighth Psalm, Also 1 will make Him My first-born, higher than the ^ 88,^ kings of the earth. I will keep for Him My mercy for ever-L-33. more, and My covenant shall stand fast with Him. His seed Dot will I make to endure for ever. If his children forsake My law, and walk not in My judgments, if they profane My statutes, and keep not My commandments , I will visit their transgressions with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes.
But My lovingkindness will I not take away from them. Likewise in the Gospel according to John the Lord saith,
And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only John 17, true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent. I have y. glorified Thee on the earth, I have finished the work which Thou garest Me to do. And now glorify Thou Me with Thine own self, with the glory which I had with Thee before the ^ ] world was. Likewise Paul to the Colossians, Who is the 15. not image of the invisible God, the first-born of every creature. ] Likewise in the same place, The first-born from the dead, is. no’t
40
Christ the Word of God.
Treat, that in all things He might have the jjreeminence. Likewise Rev'— in the Revelation, I am Alpha and Omega , the beginning and c. v. ’ the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. That lie is likewise both the wisdom and power of God, Paul shews in his first to the 1 Cor. l, Corinthians, For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks not v. seek aftcr wisdom ; but we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling-block , and to the Gentiles foolishness, bid unto them that are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.
2. That Christ is the wisdom of God; and concerning the
Sacrament of His incarnation and passion, and cup and altar,
and of the Apostles w ho by commission preached.
Prov. 9, In Solomon in the Proverbs ; Wisdom hath builded Her 1—6 /
not v. house, and hath put beneath it seven pillars; She hath killed Her beasts. She hath mingled Her wine in the cup, and hath furnished Her table, and hath sent forth Her servants, calling with a loud cry unto the cup, saying, Who is simple? let him turn in to Me ; and to them that want understanding She hath said, Come , eat of My bread, and drink of the wine which I have mingled. Forsake foolishness, and seek pru¬ dence, and rule knowledge by understanding.
3. That Christ is the Word of God.
Ps. 44, In the forty-fourth Psalm, 3Iy heart hath breathed forth a not’ VI good Word b ; I say 3Iy works unto the King. Likewise Sermo- jn t]ie thirty-second Psalm, By the Word of God were the
nem ;bnt J J
Verbmn, heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath of His pUl32 mou^i- Likewise in Isaiah, A Word concluding and shorten - [33,] 6. ing in righteousness ; for a shortened Word will God make in not ^ • the whole earth. Likewise in the hundred and sixth Psalm, 23. not He sent His Word, and healed them. Likewise in the Gospel according to John, In the beginning was the Word, and {he Word was with God, and the Word was God. The 20. not same was in the beginning with God: all things were made John l Him, and without Him was not any thing made that was t— 5. made. In Him was life ; and the life was the light of inen. And the light shinelh in darkness, and the darkness com-
b So interpreted also generally by the sius, (de Deer. 21 .) Ambros. t'de Ben. Fathers, e. g. by Tertullian, (in Prax. Patr. 51.)
7.) Origen, (in Joan. i. 42.) Athana-
41
Christ the Hand and Arm of God.
prehended it not. Likewise in the Revelation, And I saw ad heaven opened , and, behold, a white horse ; and He that satQUj*TN upon him was called Faithful and True, judging rightly andllev. 19, justly, and making war : and He was clothed in a vesture ^fy3' dipped in blood, and His Natne is called, the Word of God.
4. That Christ is the hand and the arm of God.
In Isaiah, Is God's Hand weak, that it cannot save ? or is. 59, His ear heavy, that it cannot hear? But your iniquities^ y separate between you and God, and because of your sins He hath hid His face from you, that He may not pity ; for your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity : and your lips have spoken wickedness, and your tongue muttereth unrighteousness. None speaketh true things, nor is there true judgment ; they trust in vanity, and speak vanity, they conceive sorrow, and bring forth iniquity. Like¬ wise in the same, 0 Lord, who hath believed our report ?I».53,i. and to whom is the Arm of God revealed ? Likewise in the
same the Lord thus saith. The heaven is My throne, and the Is. 66,1.
T 2.notV.
earth is 3Iy footstool ; what seat will ye build Me, or what is ’ the place of My rest? For all those things hath Mine Hand made. Likewise in the same, 0 Lord God, Thine Arm is Is- 26> aloft", and they knew it not, but when they see it, they shall v. be ashamed. Likewise in the same, The Lord hath revealed^- 52, His Arm, His holy arm, in the sight of all nations ; all y ' not nations, even the ends of the earth, shall see the salvation of God. Likewise in the same place, Behold, I have made thee Is-
17 j 5 _ 20.
as the wheels of a threshing instrument made with new teeth, not y. ' and thoushalt thresh the mountains, and beat the hills small, and make them as chaff, and winnow them, and the wind shall carry them away, and the whirlwind shall scatter them ; but thou shall rejoice in the Holy of Israel, and the poor and needy shall glory : for they shall seek water, and there shall be none, and their tongue shall fail for thirst; 1 the Lord God,
I the God of Israel will hear them, and will not forsake them.
I will op>en rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the fields , I will make the wilderness groves of water, and
c Our Lord and the Holy Ghost are §. 1. 28. §. 4.) and by Athanasius, (in called by Irenaeus, “ the Hands of Arian. iv. 26.)
God.” (Hter. iv. 20. §. 1. v. 1. §. 3. 6.
42
Christ the Angel who is God.
The\t. water-courses of a dry land ; I will plant in the droughty
- '—ground the cedar and the box and the myrtle and the
cypress and the poplar ; that they may see and know and understand and believe together, that the Hand of the Lord hath done this, and the Holy One of Israel hath mani¬ fested it.
5. That Christ is likewise Angel and God.
Gen. 22, In Genesis to Abrahamd; And the Angel of the Lord
not v. called unto him out of heaven, and said unto him, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I. And He said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him; for now I know that thou fear est thy God, and hast not spared thine only-beloved son for Me. Likewise in the Gen. 31, same place, to Jacob ; And the Angel of the Lord spake unto Y. me in a dream, I am God whom thou sawest in the Place of God \Beih-el ], where thou anointedsl to Me a pillar, and Ex. 13, vowedst a vow unto Me. Likewise in Exodus, And God V.’ went before them, by day in a pillar of a cloud , to lead them the way, and by night in a pillar of fire. And afterwards in Ex. 14, the same place, And the Angel of the Lord removed, which Y. went before the host of the children of Israel. Likewise Ex. 23, in the same place, Behold, I send My Angel before thy face, not V.* beep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the land which I have prepared for thee. Observe Him, and obey Him, and be not disobedient to Him, and He shall not be failing to thee, for My Name is in Him. Wherefore Himself saith in John 5, the Gospel, I am come in My Father’s Name, and ye have Y. DOt received Me not ; when another shall come in his own name, Ps. 117, him ye will receive. Likewise in the hundred and seventeenth j^t Psalm; Blessed is He that cometh in the Name of the Lord. v- Likewise in Malachi, My covenant was with Levi of life and 5^7 2’ peace, and 1 gave Him fear that He should fear Me, to go not v. forth before the face of My Name. The law of truth was in His mouth, iniquity was not found in His lips; in peace of the tongue correcting He walked with us, and did turn many away from iniquity. For the Priest's lips shall keep know-
d It is a Catholic doctrine that our (in Prax. 16.) Origen. (in Joan. Horn. Lord is spoken of in such passages as i. 34.) Syn. Antioch. A.D. 264. Euseb. these; vid. Justin, (Tryph. 06.) Iren. (Hist. i. 2.) Basil, (in Eunom. ii. 18.) (Hser. iv. 7. §. 4.) Theoph. (ad Autol. Athan. (in Arian. ii. 14.) Hilar, (de ii. 22.) Clem. (Ptedag. i. 7-) Tertull. Trin. iv. 22 <fec.) &c.
Christ is God.
43
ledge, and they shall seek the law at His mouth ; for He is ad the Angel of the Almighty. quxrin
6. That Christ is God.
In Genesis, And God said unto Jacob, Arise, and go up to Gen. 35, the place of Bethel, and dicell there, and make there an altar n ' to that God that appeared unto thee when thou fleddest from the face of Esau thy brother. Likewise in Isaiah, Thus saith is. 45, the Lord God of Hosts; Egypt is wearied, and the merchan- not y." c Use of the Ethiopians , and the tall men of the Sabeans shall come over unto Thee, and shall be Thy servants, and shall walk after Thee bound with chains, and they shall worship Thee, and make supplication unto Thee, because God is in Thee, and there is none other God beside Thee; for Thou art God, and we knew it not, O God of Israel the Saviour.
They shall be ashamed and fear, all icho oppose Thee, and shall fall into confusion. Likewise in the same, The voice of Is. 40, him that crieth in the wilderness , Prepare ye the way of the y Lord, make straight the paths of our God. Every channel shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made loio ; and all the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain, and the glory of the Lord shall be seen, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God; for the Lord hath spoken it. Likewise in Jeremiah, This is our God, and there^ aruch shall none other be accounted of beside Him; who hath found 37 out all the ivay of knowledge, and hath given it unto Jacob v •
His child, omd to Israel His beloved; afterward was He seen upon earth, and conversed with men. Likewise in Zechariah God says, And they shall pass through the straitened sea, and Zech. shall smite the waves in the sea, and all the deeps of the rivers \ shall they dry up ; and all the pride of the Assyrians shall V". be confounded, and the sceptre of Egypt shall be taken away, and I will strengthen them in the Lord their God, and they shall make their boast in His Name, saith the Lord. Like¬ wise in Osee the Lord saith, I will not do according to
^ 9. 10.
fierceness of Mine anger, I will not suffer Ephraim to be not v. destroyed: for I am God, and there is not an holy man in thee, and I will not enter into the city, I will go after God. Likewise in the forty-fourth Psalm, Thy throne, O God, is for Ps- 44» ever and ever; a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of Thy r!™/’' kingdom; Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity ; v-
44
Christ is God.
Treat, wherefore God, even Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the „ — j J- oil of gladness above Thy fellows. Likewise in the forty- [46, ]io. fifth Psalm, Be still, and know that I am God; I will not v‘ be exalted among the heathen, and I will be exalted in Ps. 81, the earth. Likewise in the eighty-first Psalm, They know not’v5’ not’ neither have they understood, they walk on in dark- Ps. 67, ness. Likewise in the sixty-seventh Psalm, Sing unto God> sing praises to His Name, make a way to Him that ascendeth into the west, God is His Name. Likewise in the John l. Gospel according to John, In the beginning was the Word , 1-EOt% 'and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. John 20, Likewise in the same the Lord saith unto Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold My hands ; and be not faithless, but believing : Thomas answered and said unto Him, My Lord, and my God. Jesus saith unto him. Because thou hast seen Me, thou hast believed ; blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed. Likewise Paul to the Romans ; Eom. 9, 1 could wish that myself were accursed from Christ, for my brethren and my kinsmen according to the flesh ; who are Israelites, to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory , and the covenant, and the giving of the law , and the service of God, and the promises ; whose are the fathers, of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed Rev.2i for ever*. Likewise in the Revelation, I am Alpha and
6. , . not Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. He that overcometh shall inherit these things, and I will be his God, and he shall be My son. Likewise in the eightv-first Ps. 81, Psalm, God stood in the congregation of the Gods, and judging c^y | ’ in the midst of Gods. And again in the same place, I have ver. 6. 7. said, Ye are Gods ; and all of you are children of the Most High ; but ye shall die like men. If then they who have been righteous, and have obeyed the divine commandments, can be called Gods, how much more is Christ, the Son of God , God? Thus Himself saith in the Gospel according to John ; John to, Is it not written in the law , that I said ye are Gods? If He noPt"5 vailed them Gods, unto whom the icord of God came, and the Scripture cannot be broken ; say ye of Him, whom the Father
e Quoted also for our Lord s divinity 13.) Origen. (ad Rom. lib. vii. 10.) vid. by Irenseus, (Hter. iii. 16.) Tertullian, Bull. Def. F. X. ii. 5. §. 3.
(in Pras. 15.) Xovatian, (de Reg. Fid.
45
Christ the Enlightener and Saviour of man.
hath sanctified and sent into the world , Thou blasphemest ; ad because I said I am the Son of God? If I do not the works QU‘i[UtJ of My Father , believe Me not; but if I do, though ye will not believe Me, believe the works, and know that the Father is in Me, and I in Ilhn. Likewise in the Gospel according to Matthew, And ye shall call His Name Emmanuel, which Matt. 1, is being interpreted, God with us. y ’
7. That Christ our God should come, as the Enlightener and Saviour of the human race.
In Isaiah, Be strengthened, ye weak hands, and be con- is. 35,
o
firmed, ye feeble knees; ye who are of a fearfxd heart, be not ff y afraid; our God will recompense judgment, He ivill come and save us. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall hear. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall be opened; for in the wilderness do waters break out, and a stream in the thirsty land. Likewise in the same place, Not an Elder1, Is.63,9. nor an Angel, but the Lord Himself shall deliver them, be- not V‘ cause He shall love them, and spare them, and Himself shall redeem them. Likewise in the same place; I the Lord God Is. 42,
1 Q _ g
have called Thee in righteousness, that I may hold Thine not y. hand, and I will keep Thee ; and I gave Thee for a covenant of My people, for a light of the Gentiles, to open the eyes of the blind, to bring out the prisoners from bonds, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison-house. I am the Lord God; that is My Name: My glory will L not give to another, nor My praises to graven images. Likewise in the twenty- fourth Psalm, Shew me Thy ways, O Lord, and teach me Thy Ps. 24, paths, and lead me unto Thy truth, and leach me; for Thou y'6' art the God of my salvation. Whence in the Gospel accord¬ ing to John the Lord saith; L am the Light of the world; he John 8, that followeth 3Ie shall not walk in darkness, but shall have y ' not the light of lij'e. Likewise in that according to Matthew,
The Angel Gabriel said unto Joseph, Joseph, thou son of David, Mat. l, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy icife ; for that which y1- shall be born from her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a Son, and thou shalt call His Name Jesus,- for He shall save His people from their sins. Likewise in that
according to Luke, And Zacharias was filled with the Holy Luke l,
67—69.
f Elder, senior ; — legatus, Tertull.in Mar. iv. 22. ut, Sept, the Vulgate omits it. not V.
4(»
Christ not only God hut man,
Tbeat. Ghost, and prophesied, saying, Blessed he the Lord God of
- — Israel, for He hath provided redemption unto His people,
and hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house Luke 2, of His servant David. Likewise in the same place, the Angel not t’ said unto the shepherds, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you tidings, that unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Jesus Christ.
8. That Christ, having from the beginning been Son of
God, was yet to be begotten anew according to the flesh.
Ps.2, 7. In the second Psalm ; The Lord hath said unto Me, Thou
8. V,
art My Son, this day have I begotten Thee. Ask of Me, and 1 shall give Thee the heathen for Thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for Thy possession. Likewise in Luke 1 , the Gospel according to Luke; And it came to pass, that not"V. when Elisabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leapjed ' in her womb ; and she was filled with the Holy Ghost, and she spake out with a loud voice, and said, Blessed art thou among women , and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should Ga\A,±.come to me? Likewise Paul to the Galatians, But when the not ' fulness of the time was come , God sent forth His Son, born of 1 John4, a woman. Likewise in the Epistle of John, Every spirit that V3' n t confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: and he that denieth that He is come in the flesh, is not of God, but is of the spirit of antichrist.
9. That this should be the sign of Christ’s nativity, that He should be bom of a Virgin, both man and God, Son of man and of God.
Is. 7, In Isaiah, The Lord spake again unto Ahaz, saying. Ask noTv?" thee a sign of the Lord thy God, in the height above, or in the depth beneath ; and Ahaz said, I will not ask, neither will I tempt the Lord my God. And he said, Hear ye now, 0 house of David; it is not unto you a small contending with men, since God supplies a combat; therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign, Behold, a Virgin shall conceive, and bear a Son, and ye shall call His Xante Emmanuel. Butter and honey shall He eat; before that He know to choose the evil, He shall exchange the goodg. This seed God had fore-
s Exchange , commutabit. So also Ire- monly agrees with Cyprian,” Fell. UAs- nseus, (Hser. iii. 21. §. 4.) 11 who com- girau Sefi.etigere Y n\g. choose Eng. Tr.
47
That He might he a Mediator.
told should come forth of the woman, which should bruise ad the Devil’s head; in Genesis, Then God said unto the serpent, euiKIN Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed from every kind Gen73," oj beasts of the earth. On thy breast and belly shall thou ^ y ' creep, and earth shall be iliy food, all the days of thy life ; and I will put enmity between thee, and the woman and his seed: He shall regard thy head, and thou sha/t regard His heel.
1 0. That Christ is man and God, consisting of either nature, that He might be able to be mediator between us and the Father.
In Jeremiah, And He is man, and who shall know Him h? Jer. 17, ^ 9.notV.
Likewise in Numbers, There shall come a star out of Jacob,
and a Man shall arise out of Israel. Likewise in the same 24, 17.
place, A Man shall come forth of His seed, and shall rule ^mb’
many nations: and His kingdom shall be exalted over Agag,2i, 7—
and His kingdom shall be increased, and God brought Him 9'notV'
out of Egypt : His glory is as of the unicorn, and He shall eat
up the nations His enemies, and shall take away the marrow
of their fatness, and pierce the enemy with His arrows. He
couched, He lay down as a lion, and as a young lion;
who shall stir Him up ? They who bless Thee are blessed, and
they who curse Thee are cursed. Likewise in Isaiah, Thels.61,
Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, wherefore He hath anointed y.
Me, He hath sent Me to preach good tidings unto the
poor, to heal the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the
captives, and sight to the blind, to proclaim the acceptable
year of the Lord, and the day of recompence. Wherefore in
the Gospel, Gabriel unto Mary; And the Angel answered awe? Luke 1,
said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the v.
power of the Highest shall overshadow thee : therefore that
Holy Thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the
Son of God. Likewise in the former Epistle of Paul to the
Corinthians, The first man is of the dust of the earth, the 1 Cor-
second Man is from heaven. As is the earthy man, such are 4 9.’ not
they also that are earthy; and as is the heavenly, such also ' •
are the heavenly; as we have borne the image of the earthy,
we must also bear the image of the heavenly.
h Who shall know him 1 //ms cognosce t Jerome, (in loo.) who however denies if re - eum. So Tertull. (adv. Jud. 14.) aud lers to our Lord. Tnscrutabile (cor) Vulg.
48
Christ the Son of David.
not V.
Is. II, 1—3. not V.
Treat. 1 1 . That Christ was to be born of the seed of David, - — according to the flesh.
2 Sam. In the second Book of Kings, And the word of the Fjjrd 12—16. came to Nathan, saying. Go and tell My servant David, thus l Chron. saK}t i],e ford. Thou slialt not build Me an house to dwell in; 11—14. but it shall come to pass, when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shall sleep with thy fathers, that I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels; and 1 will establish His kingdom: He shall build Me an house for My Name, and I will stablish His throne for ever: and I will be His Father, and He shall be My Son, and His House shall obtain assurance', and His Kingdom for evermore in My sight. Likewise in Isaiah, And there shall come forth a Rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots ; and the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of piety, and the Spirit of the fear of the Lord shall fill Him . Like- Ps. 131, wise in the hundred and thirty-first Psalm; God hath i^3 not stcorn in truth unto David himself, and He will not turn v- from it ; Of the fruit of thy belly will I set upon thy Luke l, throne. Likewise in the Gospel according to Luke, And
3Q _ 33 # 1 °
jntV. the Angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary; for thou hast found favour with God; behold, thou slialt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a Son, and shall call His Name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest ; and the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of His father David, and He shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and of His Kingdom there shall Rev. 5, be no end. Likewise in the Revelation ; And L saw in the right hand of God who sate on the throne, a book written within and on the back-side, sealed icith seven seals: and L saw a strong Angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to receive the book, and to open the seals thereof ? And no man in heaven nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look therein. And L wept much, because no man was found worthy to open the book, or to look upon it. And one of the Elders said unto me,
' His house shall obtain assurance, I urill settle Him, Engl. Trans].
1 idem consequetur. xieTutu alrir Sept.
1—5 not V.
Christ came in a humble state.
49
Weep not : behold the Lion of the tribe of Judah , the Root of ad David hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven ‘ n. seals thereof.
12. That Christ was to be born in Bethlehem.
In Micah, And thou, Bethlehem, house of Ephrata, art not Hicaho, little k, that thou sliouldest stand among the thousands of ,no Judah ; out of thee shall He come forth unto Me, that is to be Ruler in Israel, ivhose goings forth have been from old from everlasting. Likewise in the Gospel: Now when Jesus Mat.2^1. was born in Bethlehem of Judcea in the days of Herod the king, behold there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem , saying, Where is He that is born King of the Jews ? for we have seen His star in the east, and are come to worship Him.
13. That Christ was to come in low estate on His first Advent.
In Isaiah, Lord, who hath believed our report, and to whom Is- 53, is the arm of the Lord revealed ? We have preached before not y. Him as children, as a root in a dry ground. He hath no form nor comeliness, we saw Him, and He had no form nor beauty : but His form was without honour, and failing beyond the rest of men. He was a man under plague, and knowing to bear weakness ; for His face was turned away,
He was dishonoured and not accounted. He bears our sins, and suffers sorrow for us; and we did esteem Him stricken, smitten, and afflicted; but He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities ; the discipline of our peace was upon Him, and with His bruise we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray, man has wandered from his way ; and God hath delivered Him for our sins, and because that He was afflicted, He opened not His mouth. Likewise in the same, / am not rebellious, is. so, neither do 1 contradict. I gave My back to stripes, and My °~y cheeks to smiting, I hid not My face from the shame of spitting, and God was My helper. Likewise in the same ;
He shall not cry, nor shall any one hear His voice in the Is. 42, streets; a bruised reed shall He not break, and the smoking ^ v. fax shall He not quench, but He shall bring forth judgment unto truth. He shall shine forth, and shall not be shaken, till He have set judgment in the earth, and in His Name k Not little, and so Matt. 2, 6. Sept, and Vulg. omit not.
E
50 He was the Righteous.
Treat. shall the Gentiles trust. Likewise in the twenty-first Psalm, pg f— But I am a worm and no man , a reproach of man, and de- [22, ]6— spised of the people. All they that saw Me despised Me; they h net \ -Spaf.e within their lips, and shook their head: He trusted on the Lord, let Him deliver Him: let Him deliver Him, seeing He Ps. 21, delighted in Him. Likewise in the same place, My strength not v.°’ dried up like a potsherd, and My tongue cleave th to My jaws. Zech. 3, Likewise in Zechariah, And the Lord shewed me Jesus, that
2. 3 _ 5# 7
not v. great Priest, standing before the face of the Angel of the Lord, and the Devil stood at His right hand to resist Him. And Jesus teas clothed with filthy garments, and stood before the face of the Angel himself j and answered, and spake unto those that stood before His face, saying. Take away the filthy gar¬ ments from Him ; and He said unto Him, Behold, I have taken away thine iniquities: and put on Him an alb, and set ye a fair mitre upon His head. Likewise Paul to the Philippians; Phil. 2, Who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be no7v! equal with God; but emptied Himself, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in likeness of men ; and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath exalted Him, and given Him a Xame which is above every name : that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and of things under the earth ; and that every tongue should con¬ fess that Jesus Christ is Lord, in the glory of God the Father.
14. That He was the Just, Whom the Jews should kill. Wisd.2, In the Wisdom of Solomon, Let us lie in wait for the not v. Righteous, because He is unacceptable to us, and is clean con¬ trary to our doings, and upbraidetli us with our offending the law, and objecteth to us the transgressings of the law. He pro- fesseth to have the knowledge of God, and calleth Himself the Son of God. He is made to us for a reproof of our thoughts, He' is grievous unto us, even to behold: for His life is not like other men s, His ways are of another fashion. We are esteemed of Him as empty men, and He abstaineth from our ways as from filthiness; He praiseth the last end of the just, and ma/ceth His boast that God is His Father. Let us see there¬ fore if His words be true, and let us prove what shall happen unto Him. Let us examine Him with despitefulness and tor-
51
He was the Sheep and the Lamb.
tare, that we may know His meekness, and prove His patience. Let us condemn Him with a shameful death. Such things they did imagine, and were deceived ; for their own wickedness hath blinded them, and they knew not the Sacraments of God. Likewise in Isaiah, See ye, how the righteous perishetli \ and no man understandeth it; and righteous men are taken away, and no man considereth it. For the righteous is taken from the face of unrighteousness, and His burial shall be in peace. Concerning this same thing it was fore-spoken in Exodus, The innocen t and the righteous slay thou not. Likewise in the Gospel, Judas, led by penitence, said to the Chief Priests and Elders, I have sinned, in that I have betrayed the innocent blood.
15. That Christ was a Sheep and a Lamb, who was to be killed ; and concerning the Sacrament of His Passion.
In Isaiah, He was led as a Sheep to the slaughter, and like a Lamb dumb before her shearer , so opened He not His mouth. In His humiliation His judgment was taken away; and who shall declare His generation ? For His life shall be taken from the earth ; for the transgressions of My people He was led unto death, and I will give the wicked for His burial, and the rich themselves for His death : because He hath done no wickedness, neither was there any deceitin His mouth. Wherefore He shall be gainer of many, and shall divide the spoils of the strong, be¬ cause His soul was delivered unto death, and He was numbered with the transgressors, and Himself bare the sins of many, and was delivered for their transgressions. Likewise in Jeremiah, Lord, give Me knowledge, and I shall know ; then I saw their de¬ vices. I was led as a Lamb without malice to the slaughter. They devised devices against Me, say ing, Come, let us cast the tree in to Hisbread and let us blot ou t His Name from the earth, and His Name shall be no more remembered. Likewise in Exodus, God said unto Moses, They shall take to them every man a sheep through the houses of their tribes, a sheep without blemish, per¬ fect, a male of a year old shall it be unto you. From the lambs and from the goals shall ye takeit out, and the whole assembly of the children of Israel shall kill it in the evening. And they shall take of its blood, and place it upon the two side-posts and the
AD
QU1RIN
II.
Ex. 23, 7. notV.
Mat.27, 3. 4. not V.
Is. 53, 7—9.12. not V.
Jer. 11, 18. 19. not V.
Ex. 12, 3—12. not V.
1 This is applied to our Lord by Justin M. (in Apol.1,48.) Irenseus, (Haer. iv. 34. §. 4.) Tertullian, (in Marc. iii. 22.) Jerome, (in loc.)
E
m So also Justin, (Tryph. 72.) Tertullian, (in Jud. 10.) vid. note on
Translation xiii. 19.
2
of S. Cyril, Catech.
52
He is the Stone
Th-t- upper door-post of the ho uses, wherein they shall eat it ; and they
- shall eat the flesh in that night roast with fire, and unleavened
bread with bitter herbs shall they eat. Ye shall not eat of it raw, nor sodden with water, but roast with fire: his head with the feet and the inner parts. Ye shall let nothing of them remain until themorning, neither shall ye break a bone thereof; and that which remaineth of it until the morning shall beburnt with fire. And thus shall ye eat it ; with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand, and ye shall eat it in haste ; it is the Lord's Passover. Likewise in ®’ev- 1 5> the Revelation, And I beheld in the midst of the throne and of not V. the four beasts, and in the midst of the Elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the Spirits of God, sent forth into all the earth. And He came and took the book out of the right hand of God that sat upon the throne. And when He had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty Elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours of supplications, which are the prayers of the Saints ; and they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to take the book, and to open the seals thereof, for Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us by Thy blood, out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation ; and hast made us a Kingdom unto our God, and hast made us Priests: and they shall reign on the Likewise in the Gospel, The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, and behold Him , which taketh away the sins of the world. 16. That Christ is likewise called a Stone.
In Isaiah, thus saith the Lord, Behold, I lay in the found¬ ations of Sion a precious Stone, elect, a chief corner Stone, honoured; and he that believeth on Him shall not be confounded. Ps. 117, Likewise in the hundred and seventeenth Psalm, The Stone which the builders refused is become the Head-stone of the corner. This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes. This is the day which the Lord hath made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. Save therefore, O Lord; O Lord, direct therefore. Blessed be He that cometh in the Name of the Lord. Likewise Zech. 3, in Zechariah, Behold, I bring forth My Servant, the East isHis 8.9. not Name; for the Stone which I have placed before the face of Joshua, upon this one Stone are seven eyes. Likewise in Dente-
John l, earth. 29. not V.
Is. 28, 16. not V.
[118,] 21—26 not V.
u-hich became a Great Mountain.
53
ronomy, And thou shall write upon stone all this law , very ad
plainly. Likewise in Jesus the son of Nave; And he took a QV**IS
great stone, and set it up there before the Lord ; and Jesus said Deut.
unto the people, Behold, this stone shall be a witness unto us, for y
it hath heard all the thin gs wh ich were spoken by the Lord, which Josh.24,
He hath spoken unto you to-day; and it shall be for a testimony
unto you at the end of days, when ye shall have departed from
your God. Likewise Peter in the Acts of the Apostles, Ye Acts^i,
Rulers of the people and Elders of Israel, hear ; Behold, we are DOt v\