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| Chapter XI.—The old prophets and righteous men knew beforehand of the advent of Christ, and earnestly desired to see and hear Him, He revealing himself in the Scriptures by the Holy Ghost, and without any change in Himself, enriching men day by day with benefits, but conferring them in greater abundance on later than on former generations.
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Chapter XI.—The old prophets and
righteous men knew beforehand of the advent of Christ, and earnestly desired to
see and hear Him, He revealing himself in the Scriptures by the Holy Ghost, and
without any change in Himself, enriching men day by day with benefits, but
conferring them in greater abundance on later than on former generations.
1. But
that it was not only the prophets and many righteous men, who, foreseeing
through the Holy Spirit His advent, prayed that they might attain to that
period in which they should see their Lord face to face, and hear His
words, the Lord has made manifest, when He says to His disciples,
“Many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things
which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye
hear, and have not heard them.”3928
In what
way, then, did they desire both to hear and to see, unless they had
foreknowledge of His future advent? But how could they have foreknown it,
unless they had previously received foreknowledge from Himself? And how
do the Scriptures testify of Him, unless all things had ever been
revealed and shown to believers by one and the same God through the Word;
He at one time conferring with His creature, and at another propounding
His law; at one time, again, reproving, at another exhorting, and then
setting free His servant, and adopting him as a son (in filium);
and, at the proper time, bestowing an incorruptible inheritance, for the
purpose of bringing man to perfection? For He formed him for growth and
increase, as the Scripture says: “Increase and
multiply.”3929
2. And in this respect God differs from man, that God
indeed makes, but man is made; and truly, He who makes is always the
same; but that which is made must receive both beginning, and middle, and
addition, and increase. And God does indeed create after a skilful
manner, while, [as regards] man, he is created skilfully. God also
is truly perfect in all things, Himself equal and similar to Himself, as
He is all light, and all mind, and all substance, and the fount of all
good; but man receives advancement and increase towards God. For as God
is always the same, so also man, when found in God, shall always go on
towards God. For neither does God at any time cease to confer benefits
upon, or to enrich man; nor does man ever cease from receiving the
benefits, and being enriched by God. For the receptacle of His goodness,
and the instrument of His glorification, is the man who is grateful to
Him that made him; and again, the receptacle of His just judgment is the
ungrateful man, who both despises his Maker and is not subject to His
Word; who has promised that He will give very much to those always
bringing forth fruit, and more [and more] to those who have the
Lord’s money. “Well done,” He says, “good and
faithful servant: because thou hast been faithful in little, I will
appoint thee over many things; enter thou into the joy of thy
Lord.”3930
The Lord Himself
thus promises very much.
3. As, therefore, He has promised to give very much to
those who do now bring forth fruit, according to the gift of His grace,
but not according to the changeableness of “knowledge;” for
the Lord remains the same, and the same Father is revealed; thus,
therefore, has the one and the same Lord granted, by means of His advent,
a greater gift of grace to those of a later period, than what He had
granted to those under the Old Testament dispensation. For they indeed
used to hear, by means of [His] servants, that the King would come, and
they rejoiced to a certain extent, inasmuch as they hoped for His coming;
but those who have beheld Him actually present, and have obtained
liberty, and been made partakers of His gifts, do possess a greater
amount of grace, and a higher degree of exultation, rejoicing because of
the King’s arrival: as
also David says, “My soul
shall rejoice in the Lord;
it shall be glad in His salvation.”3931
And for
this cause, upon His entrance into Jerusalem, all those who were in the
way3932
| 3932 Or, “all those
who were in the way of David”—omnes qui erant in
viâ David, in dolore animæ cognoverunt suum regem. |
recognised David their king in His sorrow of soul, and spread their
garments for Him, and ornamented the way with green boughs, crying out
with great joy and gladness, “Hosanna to the Son of David; blessed
is He that cometh in the name of the Lord: hosanna in the
highest.”3933
But to the envious wicked
stewards, who circumvented those under them, and ruled over those that
had no great intelligence,3934
| 3934 The Latin text is ambiguous: “dominabantur eorum,
quibus ratio non constabat.” The rendering may be, “and ruled
over those things with respect to which it was not right that they should
do so.” | and for this reason were unwilling that the
king should come, and who said to Him, “Hearest thou what these
say?” did the Lord reply, “Have ye never read, Out of the
mouths of babes and sucklings hast Thou perfected praise?”3935
—thus
pointing out that what had been declared by David concerning the Son of
God, was accomplished in His own person; and indicating that they were
indeed ignorant of the meaning of the Scripture and the dispensation of
God; but declaring that it was Himself who was announced by the prophets
as Christ, whose name is praised in all the earth, and who perfects
praise to His Father from the mouth of babes and sucklings; wherefore
also His glory has been raised above the heavens.
4. If, therefore, the self-same person is present who
was announced by the prophets, our Lord Jesus Christ, and if His advent
has brought in a fuller [measure of] grace and greater gifts to those who
have received Him, it is plain that the Father also is Himself the same
who was proclaimed by the prophets, and that the Son, on His coming, did
not spread the knowledge of another Father, but of the same who was
preached from the beginning; from whom also He has brought down liberty
to those who, in a lawful manner, and with a willing mind, and with all
the heart, do Him service; whereas to scoffers, and to those not subject
to God, but who follow outward purifications for the praise of men (which
observances had been given as a type of future things,—the law
typifying, as it were, certain things in a shadow, and delineating
eternal things by temporal, celestial by terrestrial), and to those who
pretend that they do themselves observe more than what has been
prescribed, as if preferring their own zeal to God Himself, while within
they are full of hypocrisy, and covetousness, and all wickedness,—
[to such] has He assigned everlasting perdition by cutting them off from
life. E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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