and it is enough that we are assured, the state and condition of his life was in the eye of the Jews without honour and inglorious. For though, being in the form of God he thought it Phil. fi. 6, 7. not robbery to be equal with God; yet he made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant. For thirty years he lived with his mother Mary and Joseph his reputed father, of a mean profession, and was subject to them. Luke ii. 51. When he left his mother's house, and entered on his prophetical office, he passed from place to place, sometimes received into a house, other times lodging in the fields: for while the foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, the Son of Matt. viii. 20. prophetis (Isa. liii. 2.) de ignobili aspectu ejus, ipsæ passiones ipsæque contumeliæ loquuntur. Passiones quidem humanam carnem, contumelia vero inhonestam probavere. An ausus esset aliquis ungue summo perstringere corpus novum, sputaminibus contaminare faciem nisi merentem?' De carne Christi, c. 9. And that we may be sure he pointed at that place in Isaiah, he says, that Christ was: 'Ne aspectu quidem honestus: Annuntiavimus enim, inquit, de illo, sicut puerulus, sicut radix in terra sitienti, et non erat species ei neque gloria.' Adv. Judæos, c. 14. and Adv. Marcion. 1. iii. c. 17. This humility of Christ, in taking upon him the nature of man without the ordinary ornaments of man, at first acknowledged, was afterwards denied, as appears by St Hierome, on Isaiah [lii. 14. Vol. iv. p. 612 E.] Inglorius erit inter homines aspectus ejus, non quo formæ significet fœditatem, sed quod in humilitate venerit et paupertate.' And Epist. 140. [65. § 8. Vol. 1. p. 377 A.] Absque passionibus crucis, universis pulcrior est. Virgo de virgine, qui non ex voluntate Dei, sed ex Deo natus est. Nisi enim habuisset et in vultu quiddam oculisque sidereum, nunquam eum statim secuti fuissent Apostoli, nec qui ad comprehendendum eum venerant, corruissent.' So St Chrysostom interprets the words of Isaiah of his Divinity, or Humility, or his Passion; but those of the Psalmist, of his native corporal beauty : Οὐδὲ γὰρ θαυματουργῶν ἦν θαυμαστὸς μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ φαινόμενος ἁπλῶς πολλῆς ἔγεμε χάριτος· καὶ τοῦτο ὁ προφήτης δηλῶν ἔλεγεν, Ὡραῖος κάλ λει παρὰ τοὺς υἱοὺς τῶν ἀνθρώπων. Homil. 28. in Matt. [al. 27. § 2. Vol. VII. p. 328 A.] Afterwards they began to magnify the external beauty of his body, and confined themselves to one kind of picture or portraiture, with a zealous pretence of a likeness not to be denied, which eight hundred years since was known by none, every several country having a several image. Whence came that argument of the Iconoclastæ, by way of Quare, which of those images was the true: Πότερον ἡ παρὰ Ρωμαίοις, ἢ ἥνπερ Ινδοὶ γράφουσιν, ἢ ἡ παρ' Ἕλλησιν, ἢ ἡ παρ' Αἰγυπτίοις; οὐχ ὅμοιαι ἀλλήλαις αὐταί. Photius Epist. 64. [Quæst. ad Amphil. 205. Vol. 1. p. 948.] And well might none of these be like another, when every nation painted our Saviour in the nearest similitude to the people of their own country. "Ελληνες μὲν αὑτοῖς ομοιον ἐπὶ γῆς φανῆναι τὸν Χριστ τὸν νομίζουσι, 'Ρωμαῖοι δὲ μᾶλλον ἑαυ τοῖς ἐοικότα· Ἰνδοὶ δὲ πάλιν μορφῇ τῇ αὐτῶν, καὶ Αἰθίοπες δῆλον ὡς ἑαυτοῖς. Photius ibid. [p. 950.] And the difference of opinions in this kind is sufficiently apparent out of those words in Suidas: [In voce elкŵ.] Ιστέον δὲ ὅτι φασὶν οἱ ἀκριβέστατοι τῶν ἱστορικῶν, ὡς τὸ οὔλον καὶ ὀλιγότριχον οἰκειότερόν ἐστι γράφειν ἐπὶ τῆς εἰκόνος τοῦ Χριστοῦ. man had not where to lay his head. From this low estate of life and condition, seemingly inglorious, arose in the Jews a Matt. xiii. 55. neglect of his works, and contempt of his doctrine. Is not Mark vi. 3. this the carpenter's son? nay, farther, Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary1? and they were offended at him. Thus was it fulfilled in him, he was despised and rejected of men, and they esteemed him not. Isai, liii. 3. Isai. liii. 3. This contempt of his personage, condition, doctrine and works, was by degrees raised to hatred, detestation, and persecution, to a cruel and ignominious death. All which if we look upon in the gross, we must acknowledge it fulfilled in him to the highest degree imaginable, that he was a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. But if we compare the particular predictions with the historical passages of his sufferings; if we join the prophets and evangelists together, it will most manifestly appear the Messias was to suffer nothing Zech. xi. 12. which Christ hath not suffered. If Zachary say, they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver; St Matthew will shew that Matt. xxvi. Judas sold Jesus at the same rate; for the chief priests covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver. If Isaiah say, that he was wounded; if Zachary, they shall look upon me whom they have pierced; if the prophet David, yet more particularly, Psal. xxii. 16. they pierced my hands and my feet; the evangelist will shew John xx. 25. how he was fastened to the cross, and Jesus himself, the print Psal. xxii. 7,8. of the nails. If the Psalmist tell us, they should laugh him to scorn, and shake their head, saying, He trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him, let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him; St Matthew will describe the same action, and Matt. xvi. the same expression; for they that passed by reviled him, wag 15. Isai. liii. 5. 39, 43. Matt. xxvii. 46. ging their heads, and saying, He trusted in God, let him deliver him now, if he will have him; for he said, I am the Son of Psal. xxii. 1 God. Let David say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? and the Son of David will shew in whose person the Father spake it, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? Let Isaiah foretell, he was numbered with the transgressors; and you shall find him crucified between two thieves, one on his right hand, the other on his left. Read in the Psalmist, in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink; and you shall find in the evangelist, John xix. 28. Jesus, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, I thirst: and Isai. lii. 12. Mark xv. 27. Psal. Ixix. 21. Matt. xxvii. 48. 1 Καὶ τέκτονος νομιζομένου· ταῦτα γὰρ τὰ τεκτονικὰ ἔργα εἰργάζετο ἐν ἀνθρώποις ὤν, ἄροτρα καὶ ζυγά. Just. Mart. Dial. cum Tryph. c. 88. p. 316. 24 they took a sponge, and filled it with vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave him to drink. Read farther yet, they part my Psal. xxii. 18. garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture; and, to fulfil the prediction, the soldiers shall make good the distinction, who took his garments, and made four parts, to every sol- John xix. 23, dier a part, and also his coat: now the coat was without seam, woven from the top throughout. They said therefore among themselves, Let us not rend it, but cast lots for it, whose 89 it shall be. Lastly, let the prophets teach us, that he Isal. liii. 7, 8. shall be brought like a lamb to the slaughter, and be cut off out of the land of the living; all the evangelists will declare how like a lamb he suffered, and the very Jews will acknowledge, that he was cut off. And now may we well conclude, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved the Luke xxiv. Christ to suffer; and what it so behoved him to suffer that he suffered. 46. Neither only in his passion, but after his death, all things were fulfilled in Jesus which were prophesied concerning the Messias. He made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich Isai. liii. 9. in his death, saith the prophet of the Christ to come: and as the thieves were buried with whom he was crucified, so was Jesus, but laid in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathæa, an honour- Mark xv. 43. able counsellor. After two days will he revive us, in the third Hos. vi. 2. day he will raise us up, saith Hoseah, of the people of Israel; in whose language they were the type of Christ; and the Hos. xi. 1 third day Jesus rose from the dead. The Lord said unto my Psal. cx. 1. Lord (saith David), Sit thou at my right hand. Now David Acts il. 34. is not ascended into the heavens, and consequently cannot be set at the right hand of God; but Jesus is already ascended, and set down at the right hand of God: and so all the house Acts ii. 36. of Israel might know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom they crucified, both Lord and Christ. For he who taught whatsoever the Messias, promised by God, foretold by the prophets, expected by the people of God, was to teach; he who did all which that Messias was by virtue of that office to do; he which suffered all those pains and indignities which that Messias was to suffer; he to whom all things happened after his death, the period of his sufferings, which were according to the divine predictions to come to pass; he, I say, must infallibly be the true Messias. But Jesus alone taught, did, suffered, and obtained all these things, as we have shewed. Psal. ii. 8. Isai, ii. 2. Micah iv. 1 Therefore we may again infallibly conclude, that our Jesus is Fourthly, If it were the proper note and character of the That all nations were to come in to the Messias, and so the distinction between the Jew and Gentile to cease at his coming, is the most universal description in all the prophecies. God speaks to him thus, as to his Son; Ask of me, and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. It was one greater Psal. Ixxii. 11. than Solomon of whom these words were spoken, All kings shall fall down before him, all nations shall serve him. It shall come to pass in the last days, (saith Isaiah,) that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall Isai. xi. 10. flow unto it. And again, In that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek. And in general all the prophets were but instruments to deliver the same message, which Malachi concludes, from God: From the rising of the sun, even unto the going down of the same, my name shall be great among the Gentiles; and in every place incense shall be offered unto my name, and a pure offering: for my name shall be great among the heathen, saith the Lord of Hosts. Now being the bounds of Judæa were settled, being the promise of God was to bring all nations in at the coming of the Messias, being this was it which the Jews so much opposed, as loath to part from their ancient and peculiar privilege; he which actually wrought this work must certainly be the Messias: and that Jesus did it, is most evident. Mal. i. 11. That all nations did thus come in to the doctrine preached 90 Matt. xv. 24. by Jesus, cannot be denied. For although he were not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel; although of those many Israelites, which believed on him while he lived, very 19. few were left immediately after his death; yet when the apostles had received their commission from him, to go teach Matt. xxviii. all nations, and were endued with power from on high by the Luke xxiv. 49. plentiful effusion of the Holy Ghost; the first day there was an accession of three thousand souls; immediately after we Acts ii. 41. find the number of the men, beside women, was about five Acts iv. 4. thousand; and still believers were the more added to the Lord, Acts v. 14. multitudes both of men and women. Upon the persecution at Jerusalem, they went through the regions of Judæa, Galilee, Acts ix. 31. and Samaria, and so the Gospel spread; insomuch that St James the Bishop of Jerusalem spake thus unto St Paul, Thou seest, brother, how many thousands (or rather how many Acts xxi. 20. myriads1, that is, ten thousands) of Jews there are which believe. Beside, how great was the number of the believing Jews, strangers scattered through Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, Bithynia, and the rest of the Roman provinces, will appear out of the epistles of St Peter, St James, and St. John. And yet all these are nothing to the fulness of the Gentiles which came after. First, those which were before Gentile worshippers, acknowledging the same God with the Jews, but not receiving the Law; who had before abandoned their old idolatry, and already embraced the true doctrine of one God, and did confess the Deity which the Jews did worship to be that only true God; but yet refused to be circumcised, and so to oblige themselves to the keeping of the whole Law. Now the apostles preaching the same God with Moses whom they all acknowledged, and teaching that circumcision and the rest of the legal ceremonies were now abrogated, which those men would never admit, they were with the greatest facility converted to the Christian faith. For being present at the synagogues of the Jews, and understanding much of the Law, they were of all the Gentiles readiest to hear, and most capable of the arguments which the apostles produced out of the Scriptures to prove that Jesus was the Christ. Thus many of the Greeks which came up to worship John xii. 20. at Jerusalem, devout men out of every nation under heaven, not Acts ii. 5. men of Israel, but yet fearing God, did first embrace the Christian faith. After them the rest of the Gentiles left the idolatrous worship of their heathen gods, and in a short time in infinite multitudes received the Gospel. How much did 1 Πόσαι μυριάδες. |