The smelling of the Lord--His delight in the prayers or works of the saints. In Genesis: "And the Lord smelled an odour of sweetness."
The mouth of the Lord--His Son, or word addressed to men. In the prophet, "The mouth of the Lord hath spoken;" [3646] and elsewhere, "They provoked His mouth to anger." [3647]
The tongue of the Lord--His Holy Spirit. In the Psalm: "My tongue is a pen." [3648]
The face of the Lord--His manifestation. In Exodus, "My face shall go before thee;" [3649] and in the prophet, "The face of the Lord divided them." [3650]
The word of the Lord--His Son. In the Psalm: "My heart hath uttered a good word." [3651]
The arm of the Lord--His Son, by whom He hath wrought all His works. In the prophet Isaiah: "And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?"
The right hand of the Lord--that is, His Son; as also above in the Psalm: "The right hand of the Lord hath done valiantly." [3653]
The right hand of the Lord--electio omnis. As in Deuteronomy: "In His right hand is a fiery law." [3654]
The wings of the Lord--Divine protection. In the Psalm: "In the shadow of Thy wings will I hope." [3655]
The shoulder of the Lord--the Divine power, by which He condescends to carry the feeble. In Deuteronomy: "He took them up, and put them on His shoulders." [3656]
The hand of the Lord--Divine operation. In the prophet: "Have not my hands made all these things?" [3657]
The finger of the Lord--the Holy Spirit, by whose operation the tables of the law in Exodus are said to have been written; [3658] and in the Gospel: "If I by the finger of God cast out demons" [3659]
The fingers of the Lord--The lawgiver Moses, or the prophets. In the Psalm: "I will regard the heavens," that is, the books of the Law and the Prophets, "the works of Thy fingers." [3660]
The wisdom of the Lord--His Son. In the apostle: "Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God;" [3661] and in Solomon: "The wisdom of the Lord reacheth from one end to the other mightily." [3662]
The womb of the Lord--the hidden recess of Deity out of which He brought forth His Son. In the Psalm: "Out of the womb, before Lucifer, have I borne Thee." [3663]
The feet of the Lord--His immoveableness and eternity. In the Psalm: "And thick darkness was under His feet." [3664]
The throne of the Lord--angels, or saints, or simply sovereign dominion. [3665] In the Psalm: "Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever." [3666]
Seat--the same as above, angels or saints, because the Lord sits upon these. In the Psalm: "The Lord sat upon His holy seat." [3667]
The descent of the Lord--His visitation of men. As in Micah: "Behold, the Lord shall come forth from His place; He shall come down trampling under foot the ends of the earth." [3668] Likewise in a bad sense. In Genesis: "The Lord came down to see the tower." [3669]
The ascent of the Lord--the raising up of man, who is taken from earth to heaven. In the Psalm: "Who ascendeth above the heaven of heavens to the east." [3670]
The standing of the Lord--the patience of the Deity, by which He bears with sinners that they may come to repentance. As in Habakkuk: "He stood and measured the earth; [3671] and in the Gospel: "Jesus stood, and bade him be called," [3672] that is, the blind man.
The transition of the Lord--His assumption of our flesh, through which by His birth, His death, His resurrection, His ascent into heaven, He made transitions, so to say. In the Song of Songs: "Behold, He cometh, leaping upon the mountains, bounding over the hills." [3673]
The going [3674] of the Lord--His coming or visitation. In the Psalm.
The way of the Lord--the operation of the Deity. As in Job, in speaking of the devil: "He is the beginning of the ways of the Lord."
Again: The ways of the Lord--His precepts. In Hosea: "For the ways of the Lord are straight, and the just shall walk in them." [3676]
The footsteps of the Lord--the signs of His secret operations. As in the Psalm: "And Thy footsteps shall not be known." [3677]
The knowledge of the Lord--that which makes men to know Him. To Abraham He says: "Now I know that thou fearest the Lord;" [3678] that is, I have made thee to know.
The ignorance of God [3679] is His disapproval. In the Gospel: "I know you not." [3680]
The remembrance of God--His mercy, by which He rejects and has mercy on whom He will. So in Genesis: "The Lord remembered Noah;" [3681] and in another passage: "The Lord hath remembered His people." [3682]
The repentance of the Lord--His change of procedure. [3683] As in the book of Kings: "It repented me that I have made Saul king." [3684]
The anger and wrath of the Lord--the vengeance of the Deity upon sinners, when He bears with them with a view to punishment, does not at once judge them according to strict equity. As in the Psalm: "In His anger and in His wrath will He trouble them." [3685]
The sleeping of the Lord--when, in the thoughts of some, His faithfulness is not sufficiently wakeful. In the Psalm: "Awake, why sleepest Thou, O Lord?" [3686]
The watches of the Lord--in the guardianship of His elect He is always at hand by the presence of His Deity. In the Psalm: "Lo! He will not slumber nor sleep." [3687]
The sitting of the Lord--His ruling. In the Psalm: "The Lord sitteth upon His holy seat." [3688]
The footstool of the Lord--man assumed by the Word; or His saints, as some think. In the Psalm: "Worship ye His footstool, for it is holy."
The walking of the Lord--the delight of the Deity in the walks of His elect. In the prophet: "I will walk in them, and will be their Lord."
The trumpet of the Lord--His mighty voice. In the apostle: "At the command, and at the voice of the archangel, and at the trumpet of God, shall He descend from heaven." [3690]
------------------------
[3641] From The Key.
[3642] Dan. vii. 9, 13, 22.
[3643] Heb. iv. 13.
[3644] Ps. xi. 4.
[3645] Gen. viii. 21.
[3646] Isa. i. 20.
[3647] Lam. i. 18.
[3648] Ps. xlv. 1.
[3649] Ex. xxxiii. 14.
[3650] Lam. iv. 16.
[3651] Ps. xlv. 1.
[3652] Isa. liii. 1.
[3653] Ps. cxviii. 16.
[3654] Deut. xxxiii. 2.
[3655] Ps. lvii. 1.
[3656] Deut. xxxiii. 12.
[3657] Isa. lxvi. 2.
[3658] Ex. xxxiv. 1.
[3659] Luke xi. 20.
[3660] Ps. viii. 3.
[3661] 1 Cor. i. 24.
[3662] Sap. viii. 1.
[3663] Ps. cx. 3.
[3664] Ps. xviii. 9.
[3665] Ipsa regnandi potestas.
[3666] Ps. xlv. 6; comp. Ps. v., xxix.
[3667] Ps. xlvii. 8.
[3668] Mic. i. 3.
[3669] Gen. xi. 3.
[3670] Ps. lxviii. 33.
[3671] Hab. iii. 6.
[3672] Mark x. 49.
[3673] Cant. Cant. ii. 8.
[3674] Gressus.
[3675] Job xl. 19.
[3676] Hos. xiv. 10.
[3677] Ps. lxxvii. 19.
[3678] Gen. xxii. 12.
[3679] Nescire Dei.
[3680] Luke xiii. 25.
[3681] Gen. viii. 1.
[3682] Esther x. 12.
[3683] Rerum mutatio.
[3684] 1 Sam. xv. 11.
[3685] Ps. ii. 5.
[3686] Ps. xliv. 23.
[3687] Ps. cxxi. 4.
[3688] Ps. xlvii. 8.
[3689] Ezek. xxxvii. 27.
[3690] 1 Thess. iv. 15. [The above has been shown to have no claim to be the work of Melito. It is a compilation of the sixth century, in all probability.]
Hegesippus. [3691]
[a.d. 170.] One of the sub-Apostolic age, a contemporary of Justin and of the martyrs of "the good Aurelius," we must yet distinguish Hegesippus [3692] from the apologists. He is the earliest of the Church's chroniclers--we can hardly call him a historian. His aims were noble and his character was pure; nor can we refuse him the credit due to a foresight of the Church's ultimate want of historical material, which he endeavoured to supply.
What is commonly regarded as his defect is in reality one of his greatest merits as a witness: he was a Hebrew, and looks at the Church from the stand-point of "James the Lord's brother." When we observe his Catholic spirit, therefore, as well as his Catholic orthodoxy; his sympathy with the Gentile Church and Pauline faith of the Corinthians; his abhorrence of "the Circumcision" so far as it bred sects and heresies against Christ; and when we find him confirming the testimony of the Apostolic Fathers, and sustaining the traditions of Antioch by those of Jerusalem,--we have double reason to cherish his name, and to treasure up "the fragments that remain" of his works. That touching episode of the kindred of Christ, as they appeared before Domitian, has always impressed my imagination as worthy to be classed with the story of St. John and the robber, as one of the most suggestive incidents of early Christian history. We must lament the loss of other portions of the Memoirs which were known to exist in the seventeenth century. He was a traveller, and must have seen much of the Apostolic churches in the East and West; and the mere scraps we have of his narrative concerning Corinth and Rome excite a natural curiosity as to the rest, which may lead to gratifying discoveries.
[3691] Westcott, Canon, p. 228.
[3692] Routh, Rel. Sac., vol. i. pp. 205-219. Lightfoot is culpably lax in calling Rome "the Papal throne" (temp. Anicet.), and mistaking alike the testimony of Irenæus and of our author. Ap. F., part ii. vol. i. p. 435.
Fragments from His Five Books of Commentaries on the Acts of the Church.
I.
Concerning the Martyrdom of James, the Brother of the Lord, from Book V. [3693]
James, the Lord's brother, succeeds to the government of the Church, in conjunction with the apostles. He has been universally called the Just, from the days of the Lord down to the present time. For many bore the name of James; but this one was holy from his mother's womb. He drank no wine or other intoxicating liquor, [3694] nor did he eat flesh; no razor came upon his head; he did not anoint himself with oil, nor make use of the bath. He alone was permitted to enter the holy place: [3695] for he did not wear any woollen garment, but fine linen only. He alone, I say, was wont to go into the temple: and he used to be found kneeling on his knees, begging forgiveness for the people--so that the skin of his knees became horny like that of a camel's, by reason of his constantly bending the knee in adoration to God, and begging forgiveness for the people. Therefore, in consequence of his pre-eminent justice, he was called the Just, and Oblias, [3696] which signifies in Greek Defence of the People, and Justice, in accordance with what the prophets declare concerning him.
Now some persons belonging to the seven sects existing among the people, which have been before described by me in the Notes, asked him: "What is the door of Jesus?" And he replied that He was the Saviour. In consequence of this answer, some believed that Jesus is the Christ. But the sects before mentioned did not believe, either in a resurrection or in the coming of One to requite every man according to his works; but those who did believe, believed because of James. So, when many even of the ruling class believed, there was a commotion among the Jews, and scribes, and Pharisees, who said: "A little more, and we shall have all the people looking for Jesus as the Christ.
They came, therefore, in a body to James, and said: "We entreat thee, restrain the people: for they are gone astray in their opinions about Jesus, as if he were the Christ. We entreat thee to persuade all who have come hither for the day of the passover, concerning Jesus. For we all listen to thy persuasion; since we, as well as all the people, bear thee testimony that thou art just, and showest partiality to none. Do thou, therefore, persuade the people not to entertain erroneous opinions concerning Jesus: for all the people, and we also, listen to thy persuasion. Take thy stand, then, upon the summit [3697] of the temple, that from that elevated spot thou mayest be clearly seen, and thy words may be plainly audible to all the people. For, in order to attend the passover, all the tribes have congregated hither, and some of the Gentiles also."
The aforesaid scribes and Pharisees accordingly set James on the summit of the temple, and cried aloud to him, and said: "O just one, whom we are all bound to obey, forasmuch as the people is in error, and follows Jesus the crucified, do thou tell us what is the door of Jesus, the crucified." And he answered with a loud voice: "Why ask ye me concerning Jesus the Son of man? He Himself sitteth in heaven, at the right hand of the Great Power, and shall come on the clouds of heaven."