[3940] Ps. xlv. 1. [dvr mvv, Hebrew. logon, Sept. Verbum, Vulg. Matter, Eng. and Angl. Psalter.]
[3941] Ps. xxxiii. 6.
[3942] Isa. x. 23.
[3943] Ps. cvii. 20.
[3944] John i. 1-5.
[3945] Rev. xix. 11-13.
4. That Christ is the Hand and Arm of God. [3946]
In Isaiah: "Is God's Hand not strong to save? or has He made His ear heavy, that He cannot hear? But your sins separate between you and God; and on account of your sins He turns His face away from you, that He may not pity. For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with sins. Moreover, your lips have spoken wickedness, and your tongue meditates unrighteousness. No one speaketh truth, nor is there true judgment: they trust in vanity, and speak emptiness, who conceive sorrow, and bring forth wickedness." [3947] Also in the same place: "Lord, who hath believed our report? and to whom is the Arm of God revealed?" [3948] Also in the same: "Thus saith the Lord, Heaven is my throne, and the earth is the support of my feet. What house will ye build unto me? or what is the place for my rest? For all these things hath mine hand made." [3949] Also in the same: "O Lord God, Thine Arm is high, and they knew it not; but when they know it, they shall be confounded." [3950] Also in the same: "The Lord hath revealed His Arm, that holy Arm, in the sight of all nations; all nations, even the ends of the earth, shall see salvation from God." [3951] Also in the same place: "Behold, I have made thee as the wheels of a thrashing chariot, new and turned back upon themselves;" [3952] and thou shalt thrash the mountains, and shalt beat the hills small, and shalt make them as chaff, and shall winnow them; and the wind shall seize them, and the whirlwind shall scatter them: but thou shalt rejoice in the saints of Israel; and the poor and needy shall exult. For they shall seek water, and there shall be none. For their tongue shall be dry for thirst. I the Lord God, I the God of Israel, will hear them, and will not forsake them; but I will open rivers in the mountains, and fountains in the midst of the fields. I will make the wildernesses watery groves, and a thirsty land into watercourses. I will establish in the land of drought the cedar-tree and the box-tree, and the myrtle and the cypress, and the elm [3953] and the poplar, that they may see and acknowledge, and know and believe together, that the Hand of the Lord hath done these things, and the Holy One of Israel hath shown them."
[3946] [Hence the Spirit, "the finger of God." Luke xi. 20.]
[3947] Isa. lix. 1-4.
[3948] Isa. liii. 1.
[3949] Isa. lxvi. 1, 2.
[3950] Isa. xxvi. 11.
[3951] Isa. lii. 10.
[3952] Original: "Rotas vehiculi triturantis novas in se retornatas." The Oxford edition reads the three last words, "in serras formatas:" and the translator gives, "the wheels of a thrashing instrument made with new teeth."
[3953] Some editions omit "and the elm."
[3954] Isa. xli. 15-20. [Irenæus, vol. i. p. 487. "Word and Wisdom = hands."]
5. That Christ is at once Angel and God. [3955]
In Genesis, to Abraham: "And the Angel of the Lord called him from heaven, and said unto him, Abraham, Abraham! And he said, Here am I. And He said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him. For now I know that thou fearest thy God, and hast not spared thy son, thy beloved son, for my sake." [3956] Also in the same place, to Jacob: "And the Angel of the Lord spake unto me in dreams, I am God, whom thou sawest in the place of God [3957] where thou anointedst me a pillar of stone, and vowedst to me a vow." [3958] Also in Exodus: "But God went before them by day indeed in a pillar of cloud, to show them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire." [3959] And afterwards, in the same place: "And the Angel of God moved forward, which went before the army of the children of Israel." [3960] Also in the same place: "Lo, I send my Angel before thy face, to keep thee in the way, that He may lead thee into the land which I have prepared for thee. Observe Him, and obey Him, and be not disobedient to Him, and He will not be wanting to thee. For my Name is in Him." [3961] Whence He Himself says in the Gospel: "I came in the name of my Father, and ye received me not. When another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive." [3962] And again in the cxviith Psalm: "Blessed is He who cometh in the name of the Lord." [3963] Also in Malachi: "My covenant of life and peace was with Levi; [3964] and I gave him fear, that he should fear me, that he should go from the face of my name. The law of truth was in his mouth, and unrighteousness was not found in his lips. In the peace of the tongue correcting, he walked with us, and turned many away from unrighteousness. Because the lips of the priests shall keep knowledge, and they shall seek the law at His mouth; for He is the Angel of the Almighty." [3965]
[3955] [i.e., the Jehovah-Angel. See Tertullian, vol. iii. p. 335.]
[3956] Gen. xxii. 11, 12.
[3957] Scil. "Beth-el," "the house of God."
[3958] Gen. xxxi. 13.
[3959] Ex. xiii. 21.
[3960] Ex. xiv. 19.
[3961] Ex. xxiii. 20, 21. [See Tertullian, vol. iii. p. 335, a valuable passage. De Maistre has something to say on this, quite to the purpose. See Bull passim: e.g., vol. v. pp. 21-26, 33, 40; 745-760.]
[3962] John v. 43.
[3963] Ps. cxviii. 26.
[3964] Otherwise, "My covenant was with life and peace."
[3965] Mal. ii. 5-7.
6. That Christ is God.
In Genesis: "And God said unto Jacob, Arise, and go up to the place of Bethel, and dwell there; and make there an altar to that God who appeared unto thee when thou fleddest from the face of thy brother Esau." [3966] Also in Isaiah: "Thus saith the Lord, the God of Sabaoth, Egypt is wearied; and the merchandise of the Ethiopians, and the tall men of the Sabeans, shall pass over unto Thee, and shall be Thy servants; and shall walk after Thee bound with chains; and shall worship Thee, and shall pray to Thee, because God is in Thee, and there is no other God beside Thee. For Thou art God, and we knew it not, O God of Israel, our Saviour. They shall all be confounded and fear who oppose Thee, and shall fall into confusion." [3967] Likewise in the same: "The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight the paths of our God. Every channel shall be filled up, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and all crooked places shall be made straight, and rough places plain; and the glory of the Lord shall be seen, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God, because the Lord hath spoken it." [3968] Moreover, in Jeremiah: This is our God, and no other shall be esteemed beside Him, who hath found all the way of knowledge, and hath given it to Jacob His son, and to Israel His beloved. After this He was seen upon earth, and He conversed with men." [3969] Also in Zechariah God says: "And they shall cross over through the narrow sea, and they shall smite the waves in the sea, and they shall dry up all the depths of the rivers; and all the haughtiness of the Assyrians shall be confounded, and the sceptre of Egypt shall be taken away. And I will strengthen them in the Lord their God, and in His name shall they glory, saith the Lord." [3970] Moreover, in Hosea the Lord saith: "I will not do according to the anger of mine indignation, I will not allow Ephraim to be destroyed: for I am God, and there is not a holy man in thee: and I will not enter into the city; I will go after God." [3971] Also in the forty-fourth Psalm: "Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: the sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of Thy kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity: wherefore God, Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows." [3972] So, too, in the forty-fifth Psalm: "Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, and I will be exalted in the earth." [3973] Also in the eighty-first Psalm: "They have not known, neither have they understood: they will walk on in darkness." [3974] Also in the sixty-seventh Psalm: "Sing unto God, sing praises unto His name: make a way for Him who goeth up into the west: God is His name." [3975] Also in the Gospel according to John: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word." [3976] Also in the same: "The Lord said to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands: and be not faithless, but believing. Thomas answered and said unto Him, My Lord and my God. Jesus saith unto him, Because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they who have not seen, and yet have believed." [3977] Also Paul to the Romans: "I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren and my kindred according to the flesh: who are Israelites: whose are the adoption, and the glory, and the covenant, and the appointment of the law, and the service (of God), and the promises; whose are the fathers, of whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, who is God over all, blessed for evermore." [3978] Also in the Apocalypse: "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end: I will give to him that is athirst, of the fountain of living water freely. He that overcometh shall possess these things, and their inheritance; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son." [3979] Also in the eighty-first Psalm: "God stood in the congregation of gods, and judging gods in the midst." [3980] And again in the same place: "I have said, Ye are gods; and ye are all the children of the Highest: but ye shall die like men." [3981] But if they who have been righteous, and have obeyed the divine precepts, may be called gods, how much more is Christ, the Son of God, God! Thus He Himself says in the Gospel according to John: "Is it not written in the law, that I said, Ye are gods? If He called them gods to whom the word of God was given, and the Scripture cannot be relaxed, do ye say to Him whom the Father hath sanctified and sent into the world, that thou blasphemest, because I said, I am the Son of God? But if I do not the works of my Father, believe me not; but if I do, and ye will not believe me, believe the works, and know that the Father is in me, and I in Him." [3982] Also in the Gospel according to Matthew: "And ye shall call His name Emmanuel, which is, being interpreted, God with us."
[3966] Gen. xxxv. 1.
[3967] Isa. xlv. 14-16.
[3968] Isa. xl. 3-5.
[3969] Baruch iii. 35-37.
[3970] Zech. x. 11, 12.
[3971] Hos. xi. 9, 10.
[3972] Ps. xlv. 6, 7.
[3973] Ps. xlv. 10.
[3974] Ps. lxxxii. 5.
[3975] Ps. lxviii. 4.
[3976] John i. 1.
[3977] John xx. 27-29.
[3978] Rom. ix. 3-5.
[3979] Rev. xxi. 6, 7.
[3980] Ps. lxxxii. 1.
[3981] Ps. lxxxii. 6, 7.
[3982] John x. 34-38.
[3983] Matt. i. 23.
7. That Christ our God should come, the Enlightener and Saviour of the human race.
In Isaiah: "Be comforted, ye weakened hands; and ye weak knees, be strengthened. Ye who are of a timorous heart, fear not. Our God will recompense judgment, He Himself will come, and will save us. Then shall be opened the eyes of the blind, and the ears of the deaf shall hear. Then the lame man shall leap as a stag, and the tongue of the dumb shall be intelligible; because in the wilderness the water is broken forth, and the stream in the thirsty land." [3984] Also in that place: "Not an elder nor an angel, but the Lord Himself shall deliver them; because He shall love them, and shall spare them, and He Himself shall redeem them." [3985] Also in the same place: "I the Lord God have called Thee in righteousness, that I may hold Thine hand, and I will comfort Thee; and I have given Thee for a covenant of my people, for a light of the nations; to open the eyes of the blind, to bring forth them that are bound from chains, and those who sit in darkness from the prison-house. I am the Lord God, that is my name. I will not give my glory to another, nor my powers to graven images." [3986] Also in the twenty-fourth Psalm: "Show me Thy ways, O Lord, and teach me Thy paths, and lead me unto Thy truth, and teach me; for Thou art the God of my salvation." [3987] Whence, in the Gospel according to John, the Lord says: "I am the light of the world. He that will follow me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." [3988] Moreover, in that according to Matthew, the angel Gabriel says to Joseph: "Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife. For that which shall be born to her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call His name Jesus; for He shall save His people from their sins." [3989] Also in that according to Luke: "And Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost, and prophesied, saying, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who hath foreseen redemption for His people, and hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David." [3990] Also in the same place, the angel said to the shepherds: "Fear not; for, behold, I bring you tidings that unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ Jesus." [3991]