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| Chapter IX. He corroborates this statement by the authority of the old prophets.
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Chapter IX.
He corroborates this statement by the authority of the
old prophets.
But since up to this
point we have made use more particularly of the witness, comparatively
new, of evangelists and apostles, now let us bring forward the
testimony of the old prophets, intermingling at times new things with
old, that everybody may see that the holy Scriptures proclaim as it
were with one mouth that Christ was to come in the flesh, with a body
of His own complete. And so that far-famed and renowned prophet as
richly endowed with God’s gifts as with his testimony, to whom
alone it was given to be sanctified before His birth,2472
Jeremiah, says, “This is our
Lord, and there shall no other be accounted of in comparison with Him.
He found out all the way of knowledge and gave it to Jacob His servant
and Israel His beloved. Afterwards He was seen upon earth and conversed
with men.”2473
| 2473 The passage
comes not from Jeremiah, but from Baruch (iii.
36–38). It is
also quoted as from Jeremiah by Augustine (c. Faustin. xii. c. 43): and
in the LXX. version the book of Baruch is placed among the works of
Jeremiah, e.g., In both the Vatican and Alexandrine mss. they stand in the following order: (1) Jeremiah, (2)
Baruch, (3) Lamentations, (4) the Epistle of Jeremy (Baruch c." id="iv.vii.v.ix-p4.3">Baruch c. vi. in
A.V.). The passage which Cassian here quotes is constantly appealed to
by both Greek and Latin Fathers, as a prophecy of the Incarnation. See
e.g. S. Augustine (l.c.) S. Chrysost. “Ecloga” Hom.
xxxiv. Rufinus in. Symb. § 5. | “This
is,” then, he says, “our God.” You see how the
prophet points to God as it were with his hand, and indicates Him as it
were with his finger. “This is,” he says, “our
God.” Tell me then, who was it that the prophet showed by these
signs and tokens to be God? Surely it was not the Father? For what need
was there that He should be pointed out, whom all believed that they
knew? For even then the Jews were not ignorant of God, for they were
living under God’s law. But he was clearly aiming at this, that
they might come to know the Son of God as God. And so excellently did
the Prophet say that He who had found out all knowledge, i.e., had
given the law, was to be seen upon earth, i.e., was to come in the
flesh, in order that, as the Jews did not doubt that He who had given
the law was God, they might recognize that He who was to come in the
flesh was God, especially since they heard that He, in whom they
believed as God the giver of the law, was to be seen among men by
taking upon Him manhood, as He Himself promises His own advent by the
prophet: “For I myself that spoke, behold I am
here.”2474
“There
shall then,” says the Scriptures, “be no other accounted of
in comparison of Him.” Beautifully does the prophet here foresee
false teaching, and so exclude the interpretations of heretical
perverseness. “There shall no other be accounted of in comparison
of Him.” For He is alone begotten to be God of God: at whose
bidding the completion of the universe followed: whose will is the
beginning of things: whose empire is the fabric of the world: who spake
all things, and they came to pass: commanded all things, and they were
created. He then alone it is who spake to the patriarchs, dwelt in the
prophets, was conceived by the Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary,
appeared in the world, lived among men, fastened to the wood of the
cross the handwriting of our offences, triumphed in Himself,2475
slew by His death the powers that were
at enmity and hostile to us; and gave to all men belief in the
resurrection, and by the glory of His body put an end to the corruption
of man’s flesh. You see then that all these belong to the Lord
Jesus Christ alone: and therefore no other shall be accounted of in
comparison with Him, for He alone is God begotten of God in this glory
and unique blessedness. This then is what the prophet’s teaching
was aiming at; viz., that He might be known by all men to be the only
begotten Son of God the Father, and that when they heard that no other
was accounted of as God in comparison with the Son, they might confess
that there was but one God in the Persons of the Father and the Son.
“After this,” he said, “He was seen upon earth and
conversed with men.” You see how plainly this points to the
advent and nativity of the Lord. For surely the Father—of whom we
read that He can only be seen in the Son—was not seen upon earth,
nor born in the flesh, nor conversed with men? Most certainly not. You
see then that all this is spoken of the Son of God. For since the
prophet said that God should be seen upon earth, and no other but the
Son was seen upon earth, it is clear that the prophet said this only of
Him, of whom facts afterwards proved that it was spoken. For when He
said that God should be seen, He could not say this truly, except of
Him who was indeed afterwards seen. But enough of this. Now let us turn
to another point. “The labour of Egypt,” says the prophet
Isaiah, “and the merchandise of Ethiopia and of the Sabæans,
men of stature, shall come over to thee and shall be thy servants. They
shall walk after thee, bound with manacles, and they shall worship
thee, and they shall make supplication to thee: for in thee is God, and
there is no God beside thee. For thou
art our God and we knew thee not, O God
of Israel the Saviour.”2476
How
wonderfully consistent the Holy Scriptures always are! For the first
mentioned prophet said, “This is our God,” and this one
says, “Thou art our God.” In the one there is the teaching
of Divinity, in the other the confession of men. The one exhibits the
character of the Master teaching, the other that of the people
confessing. For consider now the prophet Jeremiah daily teaching, as he
does, in the church, and saying of the Lord Jesus Christ, “This
is our God,” what else could the whole Church reply, as it does,
than what the other prophet said to the Lord Jesus, “Thou art our
God.” So that full well could the mention of their past ignorance
be joined to their present acknowledgment, in the words of the people:
“Thou art our God, and we knew thee not.” For well can
these who, in times past being taken up with the superstitions of
devils did not know God, yet when now converted to the faith say,
“Thou art our God, and we knew thee
not.”E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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