Nor ought any one to be ignorant of this, that He Himself, speaking before of His passion, also made it known that He had the power, when He willed it, of laying down His life and of taking it again. Therefore, because He had laid down His life while fastened to the cross, His executioners did not think it necessary to break His bones (as was their prevailing custom), but they only pierced His side. Thus His unbroken body was taken down from the cross, and carefully enclosed in a tomb. Now all these things were done lest His body, being injured and broken, should be rendered unsuitable [851] for rising again. That also was a principal cause why God chose the cross, because it was necessary that He should be lifted up on it, and the passion of God become known to all nations. For since he who is suspended upon a cross is both conspicuous to all and higher than others, the cross was especially chosen, which might signify that He would be so conspicuous, and so raised on high, that all nations from the whole world should meet together at once to know and worship Him. Lastly, no nation is so uncivilized, no region so remote, to which either His passion or the height of His majesty would be unknown. Therefore in His suffering He stretched forth His hands and measured out the world, that even then He might show that a great multitude, collected together out of all languages and tribes, from the rising of the sun even to his setting, was about to come under His wings, and to receive on their foreheads that great and lofty sign. [852] And the Jews even now exhibit a figure of this transaction when they mark their thresholds with the blood of a lamb. For when God was about to smite the Egyptians, to secure the Hebrews from that infliction He had enjoined them to slay a white [853] lamb without spot, and to place on their thresholds a mark from its blood. And thus, when the first-born of the Egyptians had perished in one night, the Hebrews alone were saved by the sign of the blood: not that the blood of a sheep had such efficacy in itself as to be the safety of men, but it was an image of things to come. For Christ was the white lamb without spot; that is, He was innocent, and just, and holy, who, being slain by the same Jews, is the salvation of all who have written on their foreheads the sign of blood--that is, of the cross, on which He shed His blood. For the forehead is the top of the threshold in man, and the wood sprinkled with blood is the emblem [854] of the cross. Lastly, the slaying of the lamb by those very persons who perform it is called the paschal feast, from the word "paschein," [855] because it is a figure of the passion, which God, foreknowing the future, delivered by Moses to be celebrated by His people. But at that time the figure was efficacious at the present for averting the danger, that it may appear what great efficacy the truth itself is about to have for the protection of God's people in the extreme necessity of the whole world. But in what manner or in what region all will be safe who have marked on the highest part of their body this sign of the true and divine blood, [856] I will show in the last book.
[834] i.e., was shown by the event to be true, not doubtful or deceptive.
[835] Inania, "empty."
[836] Figuram.
[837] Hactenus operata est.
[838] In eloquium solvit.
[839] See Matt. ix. 33, "The dumb spake, and the multitudes marvelled;" Mark vii. 37, "They were beyond measure astonished, saying, He hath done all things well: He maketh both the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak."
[840] Inerat huic virtuti.
[841] In usu suo non est.
[842] Elephantiaci, those afflicted with "elephantiasis," a kind of leprosy, covering the skin with incrustations resembling the hide of an elephant.
[843] Resignasse, "to have unsealed or opened."
[844] Figuram gerebant.
[845] [It is undoubtedly true that all our Lord's miracles are also parables. Such also is the entire history of the Hebrews.]
[846] Acerbitates et amaritudines.
[847] The word "corona" denotes a "crown," and also, as here, a "ring" of persons standing around. The play on the word cannot be kept up in English. [Thus "corona tibi et judices defuerunt." Cicero, Nat. Deor., ii. 1. So Ignatius, ste'phanon tou presbuteri'ou = corona presbyterii, vol. i. [64]p. 64, this series."]
[848] Præsentibus.
[849] The cross was the usual punishment of slaves.
[850] Integrum.
[851] A weak and senseless reason. The true cause is given by St. John xix. 36: "These things were done that the scripture should be fulfilled, A bone of Him shall not be broken." [The previous question, however, remains: Why was the Paschal lamb to be of unbroken bones, and why the special providence that fulfilled the type? Doubtless He who raised up His body could have restored it, had the bones also been broken; but the preciousness of Christ's body was thus indicated as in the new tomb, the fine linen and spices, and the ministry of "the rich in his death, because He had done no violence," etc.--Isa. liii. 9.]
[852] The sign of the cross used in baptism.
[853] The account, Ex. xii., makes no mention of colour. "Without spot" is equivalent to "without blemish." [But the whiteness implied. "Without spot" excludes "the ring-streaked and speckled," and a black lamb a fortiori --1 Pet. i. 19. "Without spot" settles the case. Isa. i. 18 proves that the normal wool is white.]
[854] Significatio.
[855] a`po tou pa'schein, "from suffering" The word "pascha" is not derived from Greek, as Lactantius supposes, but from the Hebrew "pasach," to pass over.
[856] [See book vii., and the Epitome, cap. li., infra.]
Chap. XXVII.--Of the Wonders Effected by the Power of the Cross, and of Demons.
At present it is sufficient to show what great efficacy the power of this sign has. How great a terror this sign is to the demons, he will know who shall see how, when adjured by Christ, they flee from the bodies which they have besieged. For as He Himself, when He was living among men, put to flight all the demons by His word, and restored to their former senses the minds of men which had been excited and maddened by their dreadful attacks; so now His followers, in the name of their Master, and by the sign of His passion, banish the same polluted spirits from men. And it is not difficult to prove this. For when they sacrifice to their gods, if any one bearing a marked forehead stands by, the sacrifices are by no means favourable. [857]
"Nor can the diviner, when consulted, give answers." [858]
And this has often been the cause of punishment to wicked kings. For when some of their attendants who were of our religion [859] were standing by their masters as they sacrificed, having the sign placed on their foreheads, they caused the gods of their masters to flee, that they might not be able to observe [860] future events in the entrails of the victims. And when the soothsayers understood this, at the instigation of the same demons to whom they had sacrificed, [861] complaining that profane men were present at the sacrifices, they drove their princes to madness, so that they attacked the temple of the god, and contaminated themselves by true sacrilege, which was expiated by the severest punishments on the part of their persecutors. Nor, however, are blind men able to understand even from this, either that this is the true religion, which contains such great power for overcoming, or that that is false, which is not able to hold its ground or to come to an engagement.
But they say that the gods do this, not through fear, but through hatred; as though it were possible for any one to hate another, unless it be him who injures, or has the power of injuring. Yea, truly, it would be consistent with their majesty to visit those whom they hated with immediate punishment, [862] rather than to flee from them. But since they can neither approach those in whom they shall see the heavenly mark, nor injure those whom the immortal sign [863] as an impregnable wall protects, they harass them by men, and persecute them by the hands of others: and if they acknowledge the existence of these demons, we have overcome; for this must necessarily be the true religion, which both understands the nature of demons, and understands their subtlety, and compels them, vanquished and subdued, to yield to itself. If they deny it, they will be refuted by the testimonies of poets and philosophers. But if they do not deny the existence and malignity of demons, what remains except that they affirm that there is a difference between gods and demons? [864] Let them therefore explain to us the difference between the two kinds, that we may know what is to be worshipped and what to be held in execration; whether they have any mutual agreement, or are really opposed to one another. If they are united by some necessity, how shall we distinguish them? or how shall we unite the honour and worship of each kind? If, on the other hand, they are enemies, how is it that the demons do not fear the gods, or that the gods cannot put to flight the demons? Behold, some one excited by the impulse of the demon is out of his senses, raves, is mad: let us lead him into the temple of the excellent and mighty Jupiter; or since Jupiter knows not how to cure men, into the fane of Æsculapius or Apollo. Let the priest of either, in the name of his god, command the wicked spirit to come out of the man: that can in no way come to pass. What, then, is the power of the gods, if the demons are not subject to their control? But, in truth, the same demons, when adjured by the name of the true God, immediately flee. What reason is there why they should fear Christ, but not fear Jupiter, unless that they whom the multitude esteem to be gods are also demons? Lastly, if there should be placed in the midst one who is evidently suffering from an attack of a demon, and the priest of the Delphian Apollo, they will in the same manner dread the name of God; and Apollo will as quickly depart from his priest as the spirit of the demon from the man; and his god being adjured and put to flight, the priest will be for ever silent. [865] Therefore the demons, whom they acknowledge to be objects of execration, are the same as the gods to whom they offer supplications.
If they imagine that we are unworthy of belief, let them believe Homer, who associated the supreme Jupiter [866] with the demons; and also other poets and philosophers, who speak of the same beings at one time as demons, and at another time as gods,--of which names one is true, and the other false. For those most wicked spirits, when they are adjured, then confess that they are demons; when they are worshipped, then falsely say that they are gods; in order that they may lead men into errors, [867] and call them away from the knowledge of the true God, by which alone eternal death can be escaped. They are the same who, for the sake of overthrowing man, have founded various systems of worship for themselves through different regions, [868] --under false and assumed names, however, that they might deceive. For because they were unable by themselves to aspire to divinity, they took to themselves the names of powerful kings, under whose titles they might claim for themselves divine honours; which error may be dispelled, and brought to the light of truth. For if any one desires to inquire further into the matter, let him assemble those who are skilled in calling forth spirits from the dead. Let them call forth [869] Jupiter, Neptune, Vulcan, Mercury, Apollo, and Saturnus the father of all. All will answer from the lower regions; and being questioned they will speak, and confess respecting themselves and God. After these things let them call up Christ; He will not be present, He will not appear, for He was not more than two days in the lower regions. What proof can be brought forward more certain than this? I have no doubt that Trismegistus arrived at the truth by some proof of this kind, who spoke many things [870] respecting God the Son which are contained in the divine secrets.
[857] Litant, a word peculiar to the soothsayers, used when the sacrifices are auspicious.
[858] Virg., Georg., iii. 491.
[859] Nostri, i.e., Christians.
[860] Depingere; to make observations on the entrails of the victims, so as to foretell future events.