[3340] Ps. lxix. 21
[3341] Deut. xxxii. 32
[3342] Deut. xxxii. 6
[3343] Cant. v. 1
27. Next it is written that "He gave up the ghost." [3344] This also had been foretold, by the Prophet, who says, addressing the Father in the Person of the Son, "Into Thy hands I commend My Spirit." [3345] He is related also to have been buried, and a great stone laid at the door of the sepulchre. Hear what the word of prophecy foretold by Jeremiah concerning this also, "They have cut off my life in the pit, and have laid a stone upon Me." [3346] These words of the Prophet point most plainly to His burial. Here are yet others, "The righteous hath been taken away from beholding iniquity, and his place is in peace." [3347] And in another place, "I will give the malignant for his burial;" [3348] and yet once more, "He hath lain down and slept as a lion, and as a lion's whelp; who shall rouse Him up?" [3349]
[3344] Mark xv. 37
[3345] Ps. xxxi. 5
[3346] Lam. iii. 53
[3347] Isa. lvii. 1, 2
[3348] Isa. liii. 9, LXX.
[3349] Gen. xlix. 9
28. That He descended into hell is also evidently foretold in the Psalms, where it is said, "Thou hast brought Me also into the dust of the death." [3350] And again, "What profit is there in my blood, when I shall have descended into corruption?" [3351] And again, "I descended into the deep mire, where there is no bottom." [3352] Moreover, John says, "Art Thou He that shall come (into hell, without doubt), or do we look for another?" [3353] Whence also Peter says that "Christ being put to death in the flesh, but quickened in the Spirit which dwells in Him, descended to the spirits who were shut up in prison, who in the days of Noah believed not, to preach unto them;" [3354] where also what He did in hell is declared. Moreover, the Lord says by the Prophet, as though speaking of the future, "Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt Thou suffer Thy Holy One to see corruption." [3355] Which again, in prophetic language he speaks of as actually fulfilled, "O Lord, Thou hast brought my soul out of hell: Thou hast saved me from them that go down into the pit." [3356] There follows next,--
[3350] Ps. xxii. 15
[3351] Ps. xxx. 9
[3352] Ps. lxix. 2
[3353] Luke vii. 20
[3354] 1 Pet. iii. 10-20
[3355] Ps. xvi. 10
[3356] Ps. xxx. 3
29. The Third Day He Rose Again from the Dead. The glory of Christ's resurrection threw a lustre upon everything which before had the appearance of weakness and frailty. If a while since it seemed to you impossible that an immortal Being could die, you see now that He who has overcome death and is risen again cannot be mortal. But understand herein the goodness of the Creator, that so far as you by sinning have cast yourself down, so far has He descended in following you. And do not impute lack of power to God, the Creator of all things, by imagining his work to have ended in the fall into an abyss which He in His redemptive purpose was unable to reach. We speak of infernal and supernal, because we are bounded by the definite circumference of the body, and are confined within the limits of the region prescribed to us. But to God, Who is present everywhere and absent nowhere, what is infernal and what supernal? Notwithstanding, through the assumption of a body there is room for these also. The flesh which had been deposited in the sepulchre, is raised, that that might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Prophet, "Thou wilt not suffer Thy Holy One to see corruption." [3357] He returned, therefore, a victor from the dead, leading with Him the spoils of hell. For He led forth those who were held in captivity by death, as He Himself had foretold, when He said, "When I shall be lifted up from the earth I shall draw all unto Me." [3358] To this the Gospel bears witness, when it says, "The graves were opened, and many bodies of saints which slept arose, and appeared unto many, and entered into the holy City," [3359] that city, doubtless, of which the Apostle says, "Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the Mother of us all." [3360] As also he says again to the Hebrews, "It became Him, for Whom are all things, and by Whom are all things, Who had brought many sons into glory, to make the Author of their salvation perfect through suffering." [3361] Sitting, therefore, on the right hand of God in the highest heavens, He placed there that human flesh, made perfect through sufferings, which had fallen to death by the lapse of the first man, but was now restored by the virtue of the resurrection. Whence also the Apostle says, "Who hath raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places." [3362] For He was the potter, Who, as the Prophet Jeremiah teaches, "took up again with His hands, and formed anew, as it seemed good to Him, the vessel which had fallen from His hands and was broken in pieces." [3363] And it seemed good to Him that the mortal and corruptible body which He had assumed, this body raised from the rocky sepulchre and rendered immortal and incorruptible, He should now place not on the earth but in heaven, and at His Father's right hand. The Scriptures of the Old Testament are full of these mysteries. No Prophet, no Lawgiver, no Psalmist is silent, but almost every one of the sacred pages speaks of them. It seems superfluous, therefore, to linger in collecting testimonies; yet we will cite some few, remitting those who desire to drink more largely to the well-springs of the divine volumes themselves.
[3357] Ps. xvi. 10
[3358] John xii. 32
[3359] Matt. xxvii. 52, 53
[3360] Gal. iv. 23
[3361] Heb. ii. 10
[3362] Eph. ii. 6
[3363] Jerem. xviii. 4
30. It is said then in the Psalms, "I laid me down and slept, and rose up again, because the Lord sustained me." [3364] Again, in another place, "Because of the wretchedness of the needy and the groaning of the poor, now will I arise, saith the Lord." [3365] And elsewhere, as we have said above, "O Lord, thou hast brought my soul out of hell; Thou hast saved me from them that go down into the pit." [3366] And in another place, "Because Thou hast turned and quickened me, and brought me out of the deep of the earth again." [3367] In the 87th Psalm He is most evidently spoken of: "He became as a man without help, free among the dead." [3368] It is not said "a man," but "as a man." For in that He descended into hell, He was "as a man:" but He was "free among the dead," because He could not be detained by death. And therefore in the one nature the power of human weakness, in the other the power of divine majesty is exhibited. The Prophet Hosea also speaks most manifestly of the third day in this wise, "After two days He will heal us; but on the third day we shall rise and shall live in His presence." [3369] This he says in the person of those who, rising with Him on the third day, are recalled from death to life. And they are the same persons who say, "On the third day we shall rise again, and shall live in His presence." But Isaiah says plainly, "Who brought forth from the earth the great Shepherd of the sheep." [3370] Then, that the women were to see His resurrection, while the Scribes and Pharisees and the people disbelieved, this also Isaiah foretold in these words, "Ye women, who come from beholding, come: for it is a people that hath no understanding." [3371] But as to the women who are related to have gone to the sepulchre after the resurrection, and to have sought Him without finding, as Mary Magdalene, who is related to have come to the sepulchre before it was light, and not finding Him, to have said, weeping, to the angels who were there, "They have taken away the Lord, and I know not where they have laid Him" [3372] --even this is foretold in the Canticles: "On my bed I sought Him Whom my soul loveth; I sought Him in the night, and found Him not." [3373] Of those also who found Him, and held Him by the feet, it is foretold, in the same book, "I will hold Him Whom my soul loveth, and will not let Him go." [3374] Take these passages, a few of many; for being intent on brevity we cannot heap together more.
[3364] Ps. iii. 5
[3365] Ps. xii. 5
[3366] Ps. xxx. 3
[3367] Ps. lxxi. 10
[3368] Ps. lxxxviii. 4, 5
[3369] Hosea vi. 2
[3370] Heb. xiii. 20
[3371] Isa. xxvii. 11, LXX.
[3372] John xx. 13
[3373] Cant. iii. 1
[3374] Cant. iii. 4
31. He Ascended into Heaven, and Sitteth on the Right Hand of the Father: from Thence He Shall Come to Judge the Quick and the Dead. These clauses follow with suitable brevity at the end of this part of the Creed which treats of the Son. What is said is plain, but the question is how and in what sense it is to be understood. For to "ascend," and to "sit," and to "come," unless you understand the words in accordance with the dignity of the divine nature, appear to point to something of human weakness. For having consummated what was to be done on earth, and having recalled souls from the captivity of hell, He is spoken of as ascending up to heaven, as the Prophet had foretold, "Ascending up on high He led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men," [3375] those gifts, namely, which Peter, in the Acts of the Apostles, spoke of concerning the Holy Ghost, "Being therefore by the right hand of God exalted, He hath shed forth this gift which ye do see and hear." [3376] He gave the gift of the Holy Ghost to men, because the captives, whom the devil had before carried into hell through sin, Christ by His resurrection from death recalled to heaven. He ascended therefore into heaven, not where God the Word had not been before, for He was always in heaven, and abode in the Father, but where the Word made flesh had not been seated before. Lastly, since this entrance within the gates of heaven seemed new to its ministers and princes, they say to one another, on seeing the nature of flesh penetrating into the secret recesses of heaven, as David full of the Holy Ghost, declares, "Lift up your gates, ye princes, and be ye lift up ye everlasting gates, and the King of glory shall enter in. Who is the King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle." [3377] Which words are spoken not with reference to the power of the divine nature, but with reference to the novelty of flesh ascending to the right hand of God. The same David says elsewhere, "God hath ascended jubilantly, and the Lord with the sound of the trumpet." [3378] For conquerors are wont to return from battle with the sound of the trumpet. Of Him also it is said, "Who buildeth up His ascent in heaven." [3379] And again, "Who hath ascended above the cherubims, flying upon the wings of the winds." [3380]
[3375] Ps. lxviii. 18
[3376] Acts ii. 33
[3377] Ps. xxiv. 7, LXX.
[3378] Ps. xlviii. 5
[3379] Ps. lxxxix. 2
[3380] Ps. xviii. 10
32. To sit at the right hand of the Father is a mystery belonging to the Incarnation. For it does not befit that incorporeal nature without the assumption of flesh; neither is the excellency of a heavenly seat sought for the divine nature, but for the human. Whence it is said of Him, "Thy seat, O God, is prepared from thence forward; Thou art from everlasting." [3381] The seat, then, whereon the Lord Jesus was to sit, was prepared from everlasting, "in whose name every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things on earth, and things under the earth; and every tongue shall confess to Him that Jesus is Lord in the glory of God the Father;" [3382] of Whom also David thus speaks, "The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit Thou on my right hand until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool." [3383] Referring to which words the Lord in the Gospel said to the Pharisees, "If therefore David in spirit calleth Him Lord, how is He his Son?" [3384] By which He shewed that according to the Spirit He was the Lord, according to the flesh He was the Son, of David. Whence also the Lord Himself says in another place, "Verily I say unto you, henceforth ye shall see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the power of God." [3385] And the Apostle Peter says of Christ, "Who is on the right hand of God, seated in the heavens." [3386] And Paul also, writing to the Ephesians, "According to the working of the might of His power, which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and seated Him on His right hand." [3387]