To tell: the washer [1521] of the flesh: the Lord's
Open forerunner; washer, [1522] too, of Christ,
Himself first born again from Him: the first
290 Of the new convenant, last of the old,
Was he; and for the True Way's sake he died,
The first slain victim.
See God-Christ! behold
Alike, His Twelve-Fold Warrior-Youth! [1523] in all
One faith, one dove, one power; the flower of men;
295 Lightening the world [1524] with light; comrades of Christ
And apostolic men; who, speaking truth,
Heard with their ears Salvation, [1525] with their eyes
Saw It, and handled with their hand the late
From death recovered body, [1526] and partook
300 As fellow-guests of food therewith, as they
Themselves bear witness.
Him did Paul as well
(Forechosen apostle, and in due time sent),
When rapt into the heavens, [1527] behold: and sent
By Him, he, with his comrade Barnabas,
305 And with the earlier associates
Joined in one league together, everywhere
Among the Gentiles hands the doctrine down
That Christ is Head, whose members are the Church,
He the salvation of the body, He
310 The members' life perennial;
He, made flesh, He, ta'en away for all, Himself first rose
Again, salvation's only hope; and gave
The norm to His disciples: they at once
All variously suffered, for His Name,
315 Unworthy penalties.
Such members bears
With beauteous body the free mother, since
She never her Lord's precepts left behind,
And in His home hath grown old, to her Lord
Ever most choice, having for His Name's sake
320 Penalties suffered. For since, barren once,
Not yet secure of her futurity,
She hath outgiven a people born of seed
Celestial, and [1528] been spurned, and borne the spleen [1529]
Of her own handmaid; now 'tis time to see
325 This former-barren mother have a son
The heir of her own liberty; not like
The handmaid's heir, yoked in estate to her,
Although she bare him from celestial seed
Conceived. Far be it that ye should with words
330 Unlawful, with rash voice, collectively
Without distinction, give men exemplary
(Heaven's glowing constellations, to the mass
Of men conjoined by seed alone or blood),
The rugged bondman's [1530] name; or that one think
335 That he may speak in servile style about
A People who the mandates followèd
Of the Lord's Law. No: but we mean the troop
Of sinners, empty, mindless, who have placed
God's promises in a mistrustful heart;
340 Men vanquisht by the miserable sweet
Of present life: that troop would have been bound
Capital slavery to undergo,
By their own fault, if sin's cause shall impose
Law's yoke upon the mass. For to serve God,
345 And be whole-heartedly intent thereon,
Untainted faith, and freedom, is thereto
Prepared spontaneous.
The just fathers, then,
And holy stainless prophets, many, sang
The future advent of the Lord; and they
350 Faithfully testify what Heaven bids
To men profane: with them the giants, [1531] men
With Christ's own glory satiated, made
The consorts of His virtue, filling up
The hallowed words, have stablished our faith;
355 By facts predictions proving.
Of these men
Disciples who succeeded them throughout
The orb, men wholly filled with virtue's breath,
And our own masters, have assigned to us
Honours conjoined with works.
Of whom the first
360 Whom Peter bade to take his place and sit
Upon this chair in mightiest Rome where he
Himself had sat, [1532] was Linus, great, elect,
And by the mass approved. And after him
Cletus himself the fold's flock undertook;
365 As his successor Anacletus was
By lot located: Clement follows him;
Well known was he to apostolic men: [1533]
Next Evaristus ruled without a crime
The law. [1534] To Sixtus Sextus Alexander
370 Commends the fold: who, after he had filled
His lustral times up, to Telesphorus
Hands it in order: excellent was he,
And martyr faithful. After him succeeds
A comrade in the law, [1535] and master sure:
375 When lo! the comrade of your wickedness,
Its author and forerunner--Cerdo hight--
Arrived at Rome, smarting with recent wounds:
Detected, for that he was scattering
Voices and words of venom stealthily:
380 For which cause, driven from the band, he bore
This sacrilegious brood, the dragon's breath
Engendering it. Blooming in piety
United stood the Church of Rome, compact
By Peter: whose successor, too, himself,
385 And now in the ninth place, Hyginus was,
The burden undertaking of his chair.
After him followed Pius--Hermas his
Own brother [1536] was; angelic "Pastor" he,
Because he spake the words delivered him: [1537]
390 And Anicetus [1538] the allotted post
In pious order undertook. 'Neath whom
Marcion here coming, the new Pontic pest,
(The secret daring deed in his own heart
Not yet disclosed,) went, speaking commonly,
395 In all directions, in his perfidy,
With lurking art. But after he began
His deadly arrows to produce, cast off
Deservedly (as author of a crime
So savage), reprobated by the saints,
400 He burst, a wondrous monster! on our view.
[1461] Isa. liv. 1; Gal. iv. 27.
[1462] Gal. iv. 19-31.
[1463] The Jewish people leaving Christ, "the fountain of living waters" (Jer. ii. 13; John vii. 37-39), is compared to Hagar leaving the well, which was, we may well believe, close to Abraham's tent.
[1464] Et tepidis errans ardenti sidere potat. See Gen. xxi. 12-20.
[1465] See Matt. xix. 27; Mark x. 28; Luke xviii. 28.
[1466] See Matt. xxiii. 35.
[1467] i.e., apparently the "giants;" see Gen. vi. 4; but there is no mention of them in Enoch's time (Migne).
[1468] i.e., over the general sinfulness.
[1469] I suggest "translatus" for "translatum" here.
[1470] See Gen. vii. 1.
[1471] Loosely; 120 years is the number in Gen. vi. 3.
[1472] Gente.
[1473] Speculo vultus. The two words seem to me to go together, and, unless the second be indeed redundant, to mean perhaps a small hand-mirror, which affords more facilities for minute examination of the face than a larger fixed one.
[1474] "Sortis;" lit. "lot," here ="the line or family chosen by lot." Compare the similar derivation of "clergy."
[1475] Lignum.
[1476] I have ventured to substitute "Christo" for "Christi;" and thus, for "Cum Christi populo manifeste multa locutus," read, "Cum Christo (populo manifeste) multa locutus." The reference is to the fact, on which such special stress is laid, of the Lord's "speaking to Moses face to face, as a man speaketh with his friend." See especially Num. xii. 5-8, Deut. xxxiv. 9-12, with Deut. xviii. 17-19, Acts iii. 22, 23, vii. 37.
[1477] The Latin in Oehler and Migne is thus: "Acceptam legem per paucos fudit in orbem;" and the reference seems to me to be to Ex. xxxii. 15-20, though the use of "orbem" for "ground" is perhaps strange; but "humum" would have been against the metre, if that argument be of any weight in the case of a writer so prolific of false quantities. Possibly the lines may mean that "he diffused through some few"--i.e., through the Jews, "few" as compared with the total inhabitants of the orb--"the Law which he had received;" but then the following line seems rather to favour the former view, because the tables of the Law--called briefly "the Law"--broken by Moses so soon after he had received them, were typical of the inefficacy of all Moses' own toils, which, after all, ended in disappointment, as he was forbidden, on account of a sin committed in the very last of the forty years, to lead the people into "the land," as he had fondly hoped to do. Only I suspect some error in "per paucos;" unless it be lawful to supply "dies," and take it to mean "received during but few days," i.e., "within few days," "only a few days before," and "accepted" or "kept" by the People "during but a few days." Would it be lawful to conjecture "perpaucis" as one word, with "ante diebus" to be understood?
[1478] i.e., the sign of the cross. See Tertullian, adv. Marc., l. iii. c. xviii. sub. fin.; also adv. Jud., c. x. med.
[1479] i.e., all the acts and the experiences of Moses.
[1480] Moses.
[1481] See Ex. xxiii. 20-23; and comp. adv. Marc., l. iii. c. xvi.
[1482] Legitima, i.e., reverent of law.
[1483] i.e., virtuous acts.
[1484] Or, "valour."
[1485] The Latin runs thus: "Acer in hostem. Non virtute sua tutelam acquirere genti." I have ventured to read "suæ," and connect it with "genti;" and thus have obtained what seems to me a probable sense. See Judg. viii. 22, 23.
[1486] I read "firmandus" for "firmatus."
[1487] Mundo.
[1488] I have again ventured a correction, "coarescere" for "coalescere." It makes at least some sense out of an otherwise (to me) unintelligible passage, the "palm" being taken as the well-known symbol of bloom and triumph. So David in Ps. xcii. 12 (xci. 13 in LXX.), "The righteous shall flourish like the palm-tree." To "dry" here is, of course, neuter, and means to "wither."
[1489] I have changed "eadem"--which must agree with "nocte," and hence give a false sense; for it was not, of course, on "the same night," but on the next, that this second sign was given--into "eodem," to agree with "liquore," which gives a true one, as the "moisture," of course, was the same,--dew, namely.
[1490] Equite. It appears to be used loosely for "men of war" generally.
[1491] Which is taken, from its form, as a sign of the cross; see below.
[1492] Refers to the "when" in 99, above.
[1493] Lychno. The "faces" are probably the wicks.
[1494] "Scilicet hoc testamen erat virtutis imago."
[1495] The text as it stands is, in Oehler:-- ..."Hic Baal Christi victoria signo Extemplo refugam devicit femina ligno;" which I would read:-- ..."Hunc Jael, Christi victoriæ signo, Extemplo," etc.
[1496] For "hic" I would incline to read "huic."
[1497] i.e., child.
[1498] i.e., instead of.
[1499] i.e., to his unshorn Nazarite locks.
[1500] Viros ostendere Christos.
[1501] See 1 Sam. xxviii. (in LXX. 1 Kings) 11-19.
[1502] i.e., to whom, to David.
[1503] "Ex utero:" a curious expression for a man; but so it is.
[1504] i.e., emulous of David's virtues.
[1505] Comp. especially 2 Chron. xxix.; xxx.; xxxi.
[1506] Our author is quite correct in his order. A comparison of dates as given in the Scripture history shows us that his reforms preceded his war with Sennacherib.
[1507] The "tactus" of the Latin is without sense, unless indeed it refer to his being twice "touched" by an angel. See 1 Kings (in LXX. 3 Kings) xix. 1-8. I have therefore substituted "raptus," there being no mention of the angel in the Latin.
[1508] "Aras" should probably be "aram."
[1509] See 2 Kings (in LXX. 4 Kings) i. 9-12.
[1510] For "transgressas et avia fecit," I read "transgressus avia fecit," taking "transgressus" as a subst.
[1511] Sortis.
[1512] Sortem.
[1513] Our author has somewhat mistaken Elisha's mission apparently; for as there is a significant difference in the meaning of their respective names, so there is in their works: Elijah's miracles being rather miracles of judgment, it has been remarked; Elisha's, of mercy.
[1514] The reference is to a famine in Elisha's days, which--2 Kings (in LXX. 4 Kings) viii. i.--was to last seven years; whereas that for which Elijah prayed, as we learn in Jas. v. 17., lasted three and six months. But it is not said that Elisha prayed for that famine.
[1515] We only read of one leprosy which Elisha cleansed--Naaman's. He inflicted leprosy on Gehazi, which was "to cleave to him and to his seed for ever."
[1516] Prætestata viam vitæ atque probata per ipsam est. I suspect we should read "via," quantity being of no importance with our author, and take "prætestata" as passive: "The way of life was testified before, and proved, through him."
[1517] This seems to be the meaning, and the reference will then be to Jer. xxxiv. 8-22 (in LXX. xli. 8-22); but the punctuation both in Oehler and Migne makes nonsense, and I have therefore altered it.
[1518] See the apocryphal "Susanna."
[1519] For "servatisque palam cunctis in pace quievit," which the edd. give, I suggest "servatusque," etc., and take "palam" for governing "cunctis."
[1520] Ignibus et multa consumpta volumina vatum. Multamust, apparently, be an error for some word signifying "mould" or the like; unless, with the disregard of construction and quantity observable in this author, it be an acc. pl. to agree with volumina, so that we must take "omnia multa volumina" together, which would alter the whole construction of the context.
[1521] Ablutor.
[1522] Ablutor.
[1523] Juventus.
[1524] Mundo.
[1525] Salutem =Christum. So Simeon, "Mine eyes have seen Thy salvation," where the Greek word should be noted and compared with its usage in the LXX., especially in the Psalms. See Luke ii. 30.
[1526] Comp. 1 John i. 1, 2.
[1527] See 2 Cor. xii. 1 sqq.
[1528] The common reading is, "Atque suæ famulæ portavit spreta dolorem," for which Oehler reads "portarit;" but I incline rather to suggest that "portavit" be retained, but that the "atque" be changed into "aeque," thus: "Aeque suæ famulæ portavit spreta dolorem;" i.e., Since, like Sarah, the once barren Christian church-mother hath had children, equally, like Sarah, hath she had to bear scorn and spleen at her handmaid's--the Jewish church-mother's--hands.