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| Chapter IX. Since those marvellous works which from the days of Moses were shown to the children of Israel are attributed to Christ, it follows that He must have existed long before His birth in time.
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Chapter IX.
Since those marvellous works which from the days of
Moses were shown to the children of Israel are attributed to Christ, it
follows that He must have existed long before His birth in time.
And when the Apostle
wanted to make this clear and patent to everybody he spoke as follows,
saying that, “Jesus having saved the people out of the land of
Egypt afterward destroyed them that believed not.”2520
But elsewhere too we read: “Neither
let us tempt Christ, as some
of them tempted, and were destroyed by
serpents.”2521
Peter also the
chief of the apostles says: “And now why tempt ye God to put a
yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we
have been able to bear. But we believe that we shall be saved by the
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ even as they were.”2522
We know most certainly that the people of
God were delivered from Egypt, and led dryshod through mighty tracts of
water, and preserved in the vast desert wastes, by none but God alone;
as it is written: “The Lord alone did lead them, and there was no
strange God among them.”2523
And how can an
Apostle declare in so many and such clear passages that the people of
the Jews were delivered from Egypt by Jesus, and that
Christ was at that time tempted by the Jews in the wilderness,
saying, “Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them tempted,
and were destroyed of the serpents?” And further the blessed
Apostle Peter says of all the saints who lived under the law of the Old
Covenant that they were saved by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Get out then, and wriggle out of this if you can—whoever you
are—you who rage with vapid mouth and a spirit of blasphemy, and
think that there is no difference at all between Adam and Christ; and
you who deny that He was God before His birth of the Virgin, show
clearly how you can prove that He was not God before His body came into
existence. For lo, an Apostle says that the people were saved out of
the land of Egypt by Jesus: and that Christ was tempted by unbelievers
in the wilderness: and that our fathers, i.e., the patriarchs and
prophets, were saved by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Deny it if
you can. I shall not be surprised if you manage to deny what we all
read, as you have already denied what we all believe. Know then that
even then it was Christ in God who led the people out of Egypt, and it
was Christ in God who was tempted by the people who tempted, and it was
Christ in God who saved all the righteous men by His lavish grace: for
through the oneness of the mystery (of the Incarnation) the terms God
and Christ so pass into each other, that whatever God did, that we may
say that Christ did; and whatever afterwards Christ bore, we may say
that God bore. And so when the prophet said, “There shall no new
God be in thee, neither shalt thou worship any other
God,”2524
he announced it
with the same meaning and in the same spirit as that with which the
Apostle said that Christ was the leader of the people of Israel out of
Egypt; to show that He who was born of the Virgin as man, was even
through the unity of the mystery still in God. Otherwise, unless we
believe this, we must either believe with the heretics that Christ is
not God, or against the teaching of the prophet hold that He is a new
God. But may it be far from the Catholic people of God, to seem either
to differ from the prophet or to agree with heretics: or perchance the
people who should be blessed may be involved in a curse, and be charged
with putting their hope in man. For whoever declares that the Lord
Jesus Christ was at His birth a mere man, is doubly liable to the
curse, whether he believes in Him or not. For if he believes,
“Cursed is he who puts his hope in man.”2525
But if he does not believe, nonetheless is
he still cursed, because though not believing in man, he still has
altogether denied God.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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