Anf-03 v.iv.v.xxi Pg 44
Coagulatur. [Job x. 10.]
into human flesh in the womb of a woman, although a virgin; never grew from human seed, although only after the law of corporeal substance, from the fluids4299 4299 Ex feminæ humore.
of a woman; was never deemed flesh before shaped in the womb; never called fœtus4300 4300 Pecus. Julius Firmicus, iii. 1, uses the word in the same way: “Pecus intra viscera matris artuatim concisum a medicis proferetur.” [Jul. Firmicus Maternus, floruit circa, a.d. 340.]
after such shaping; was never delivered from a ten months’ writhing in the womb;4301 4301 Such is probably the meaning of “non decem mensium cruciatu deliberatus.” For such is the situation of the infant in the womb, that it seems to writhe (cruciari) all curved and contracted (Rigalt.). Latinius read delibratus instead of deliberatus, which means, “suspended or poised in the womb as in a scale.” This has my approbation. I would compare De Carne Christi, chap. iv. (Fr. Junius). Oehler reads deliberatus in the sense of liberatus.
was never shed forth upon the ground, amidst the sudden pains of parturition, with the unclean issue which flows at such a time through the sewerage of the body, forthwith to inaugurate the light4302 4302 Statim lucem lacrimis auspicatus.
of life with tears, and with that primal wound which severs the child from her who bears him;4303 4303 Primo retinaculi sui vulnere: the cutting of the umbilical nerve. [Contrast Jer. Taylor, on the Nativity, Opp. I. p. 34.]
never received the copious ablution, nor the meditation of salt and honey;4304 4304 Nec sale ac melle medicatus. Of this application in the case of a recent childbirth we know nothing; it seems to have been meant for the skin. See Pliny, in his Hist. Nat. xxii. 25.
nor did he initiate a shroud with swaddling clothes;4305 4305 Nec pannis jam sepulturæ involucrum initiatus.
nor afterwards did he ever wallow4306 4306 Volutatus per immunditias.
in his own uncleanness, in his mother’s lap; nibbling at her breast; long an infant; gradually4307 4307 Vix.
a boy; by slow degrees4308 4308 Tarde.
a man.4309 4309 Expositus.
But he was revealed4310 4310 i.e., he never passed through stages like these.
from heaven, full-grown at once, at once complete; immediately Christ; simply spirit, and power, and god. But as withal he was not true, because not visible; therefore he was no object to be ashamed of from the curse of the cross, the real endurance4311 4311 Veritate.
of which he escaped, because wanting in bodily substance. Never, therefore, could he have said, “Whosoever shall be ashamed of me.” But as for our Christ, He could do no otherwise than make such a declaration;4312 4312 Debuit pronuntiasse.
“made” by the Father “a little lower than the angels,”4313 4313
Treasury of Scriptural Knowledge, Chapter 10
VERSE (10) - Ps 139:14-16
