it in the body of our Saviour. But what the aspect of his outward appearance was, because the Scriptures are silent, we cannot now know and it is enough that we are assured, the state and condition of his life was in the eye of the Jews without honour and inglorious. For though, "being in the form of God he thought it not robbery to be equal with God; yet he made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant." (Phil. ii. 6, 7.) For thirty years he lived with his mother Mary and Joseph his reputed father, of a mean profession, and was "subject to them." (Luke ii. 51.) When he left his mother's house, and entered on his prophetical office, he passed from place to place, sometimes received into a house, other times lodging in the fields: for while the "foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, the Son of man had not where to lay his head." (Matt. viii. 20.) From this low estate of life and condition, seemingly inglorious, arose in the Jews a neglect of his works, and contempt of his doctrine. "Is not this the carpenter's son?" (Matt. xiii. 55.) nay, farther, "Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary ?* and they were offended at him." (Mark vi. 3.) Thus was it fulfilled in him, "he was despised and rejected of men, and they esteemed him not.” (Isa. liii. 3.) This contempt of his personage, condition, doctrine and works, was by degrees raised to hatred, detestation and persecution, to a cruel and ignominious death. All which if we look upon in the gross, we must acknowledge it fulfilled in quis ungue summo perstringere corpus novum, sputaminibus contaminare faciem nisi merentem?' De carne Christi, c. 9. And that we may be sure he pointed at that place in Isaiah, he says, that Christ was: Ne aspectu quidem honestus : Annunciavimus enim, inquit, de illo, sicut puerulus, sicut radix in terra sitienti, et non est species ejus neque gloria.' Adv. Marcion. I. iii. c. 17. and adv. Judæos, c. 14. This humility of Christ, in taking upon him the nature of man without the ordinary ornaments of man, at first acknowledged, was afterwards denied, as appears by St. Jerome, on Isaiah lvi. Inglorius erit inter homines aspectus ejus, non quo formæ significat fœditatem, sed quod in humilitate venerit et paupertate.' And Epist. 140. Absque passionibus crucis universis pulcrior est virgo de virgine, qui non ex voluntate Dei, sed ex Deo natus est. Nisi enim habuisset et in vultu quiddam oculisque sidereum, nunquam eum statim secuti fuissent Apostoli, nec qui ad comprehendendum eum venerant, corruissent.' So St. Chrysostom interprets the words of Isaiah of his Divinity, or humility, or his passion; but those of the Psalmist, of his native corporal beauty: Ovde yàg θαυματουργῶν ἦν θαυμαστὸς μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ φαινόμενος ἁπλῶς πολλῆς ἔγεμε χάριτος· καὶ τοῦτο ὁ προφήτης δηλῶν ἔλεγεν, ὡραῖος κάλλει παρὰ τοὺς υἱοὺς τῶν ἀνθρώπων. Homil. 28. in Matt. Afterwards they began to magnify the external beauty of his body, and confined themselves to one kind of picture or portraiture, with a zealous pretence of a likeness not to be denied, which eight hundred years since was known by none, every several country having a several image. Whence came that argument of the Iconoclastæ, by way of query, which of those images was the true: Πότερον ἡ παρὰ ̔Ρωμαίοις, ἢ ἥνπες Ἰνδοὶ γράφουσιν, ἢ ἡ παρ' Έλλησιν, ἢ ἡ παρ' Αἰγυπτίοις ; οὐχ ὅμοιαι ἀλλήλαις αὐταί. Photius Epist. 64. And well might none of these be like another, when every nation painted our Saviour in the nearest similitude to the people of their own country. Ἕλληνες μὲν αὑτοῖς ὅμοιον ἐπὶ γῆς φανῆναι τὸν Χριστὸν νομί ζουσι, Ῥωμαῖοι δὲ μᾶλλον ἑαυτοῖς ἐοικότα· Ινδοὶ δὲ πάλιν μορφῇ τῇ αὐτῶν, καὶ Αἰθίοπες dinov as saurois. Photius ibid. And the difference of opinions in this kind is sufficiently apparent out of those words in Suidas : Ιστέον δὲ ὅτι φασὶν οἱ ἀκριβέστατοι τῶν ἱστορικῶν, ὡς τὸ οὔλον καὶ ὀλιγότριχον οἰκειότερόν ἐστι γράφειν ἐπὶ τῆς εἰκόνος τοῦ Χριστοῦ. * Καὶ τέκτονος νομιζομένου· ταῦτα γὰρ τὰ τεκτονικὰ ἔργα εἰργάζετο ἐν ἀνθρώποις ὧν, ἄροтра xai (vyá. Just. Mart. Dial. cum Tryph. p. 316. him to the highest degree imaginable, that he was "a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief." (Isa. liii. 3.) But if we compare the particular predictions with the bistorical passages of his sufferings; if we join the prophets and evangelists together, it will most manifestly appear the Messias was to suffer nothing which Christ hath not suffered. If Zachary "they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver;" (Zech. xi. 12.) St. Matthew will shew that Judas sold Jesus at the same rate; for the chief priests "covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver." (Matt. xxvi. 15.) If Isaiah say, that "he was wounded;" (Isa. liii. 5.) if Zachary," they shall look upon me whom they have pierced;" (Zech. xii. 10.) if the prophet David, yet more particularly," they pierced my hands and my feet;" (Psal. xxii. 16.) the evangelists will shew how he was fastened to the cross, and Jesus himself" the print of the nails." (John xx. 25.) If the Psalmist tells us, they should "laugh him to scorn, and shake their head, saying, He trusted in the Lord that he would deliver him, let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him;" (Psal. xxii. 7, 8.) St. Matthew will describe the same action, and the same expression; for "they that passed by reviled him, wagging their heads, and saying, He trusted in God, let him deliver him now, if he will have him; for he said I am the Son of God." (Matt. xxvii. 39. 43.) Let David say, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" (Psal. xxii. 1.) and the Son of David will shew in whose person the Father spake it, "Eli, Eli, lama sabacthani." (Matt. xxvii. 46.) Let Isaiah foretell, "he was numbered with the transgressors;" (Isa. liii. 12.) and you shall find him "crucified between two thieves, one on his right hand, the other on his left." (Mark xv. 27.) Read in the Psalmist, "in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink;" (Psal. Ixix. 21.) and you shall find in the evangelist, "Jesus, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, I thirst and they took a sponge, and filled it with_vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave it him to drink." (John xix. 28. Matt. xxvii. 48.) Read farther yet, "they part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture;" (Psal. xxii. 18.) and, to fulfil the prediction, the soldiers shall make good the distinction, "who took his garments, and made four parts, to every soldier a part, and also his coat: now the coat was without seam, woven from the top throughout. They said therefore among themselves, Let us not rend it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be." (John xix. 23, 24.) Lastly, let the prophets teach us, that "he shall be brought like a lamb to the slaughter, and be cut off out of the land of the living;" (Isa. liii. 7, 8.) all the evangelists will declare how like a lamb he suffered, and the very Jews will acknowledge, that he was cut off: and now may we well conclude, "Thus it is written, and thus it behoveth the Christ to suffer;" (Luke xxiv. 46.) and what it so behoved him to suffer that he suffered. Neither only in his passion, but after his death, all things were fulfilled in Jesus which were prophesied concerning the Messias. "He made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death," (Isa. liii. 9.) saith the prophet of the Christ to come and as the thieves were buried with whom he was crucified, so was Jesus, but laid in the tomb of "Joseph of Arimathea, an honourable counsellor." (Mark xv. 43.) "After two days will he revive us, in the third day he will raise us up," saith Hosea (vi. 2.) of the people of Israel; in whose language they were the type of Christ; (Hos. xi. 1.) and the third day Jesus rose from the dead. "The Lord said unto my Lord, (saith David) Sit thou at my right hand." (Psal. cx. 1.) Now "David is not ascended into the heavens," (Acts ii. 34.) and consequently cannot be set at the right hand of God; but Jesus is already ascended and set down at the right hand of God: and so "all the house of Israel might know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom they crucified, both Lord and Christ." (Acts ii. 36.) (Acts ii. 36.) For he who taught whatsoever the Messias, promised by God, foretold by the prophets, expected by the people of God, was to teach; he who did all which that Messias was by virtue of that office to do; he which suffered all those pains and indignities which that Messias was to suffer; he to whom all things happened after his death, the period of his sufferings, which were according to the divine predictions to come to pass: he, I say, must infallibly be the true Messias. But Jesus alone taught, did, suffered, and obtained all these things, as we have shewn. Therefore we may again infallibly conclude, that our Jesus is the Christ. Fourthly, If it were the proper note and character of the Messias, that all nations should come in to serve him; if the doctrine of Jesus hath been preached and received in all parts of the world, according to that character so long before delivered; if it were absolutely impossible that the doctrine revealed by Jesus should have been so propagated as it hath been, had it not been divine; then must this Jesus be the Messias; and when we have proved these three particulars, we may safely conclude he is the Christ. That all nations were to come in to the Messias, and so the distinction between the Jew and Gentile to cease at his coming, is the most universal description in all the prophecies. God speaks to him thus, as to his Son; "Ask of me, and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession." (Psal. ii. 8.) It was one greater than Solomon of whom these words were spoken, All kings shall fall down before him, all nations shall serve him." (Psal. lxxii. 11.) "It shall come to pass in the last days, (saith Isaiah ii. 2.) that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow unto it." And again, "In that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek." (Isa. xi. 10.) And in general all the prophets were but instruments to deliver the same message, which Malachi concludes, from God: "From the rising of the sun, even to the going down of the same, my name shall be great among the Gentiles, and in every place incense shall be offered unto my name, and a pure offering: for my name shall be great among the heathen, saith the Lord of Hosts." (Mal. i. 11.) Now being the bounds of Judea were settled, being the promise of God was to bring all nations in at the coming of the Messias, being this was it which the Jews so much opposed, as loath to part from their ancient and peculiar privilege; he which actually wrought this work must certainly be the Messias: and that Jesus did it, is most evident. en That all nations did thus come in to the doctrine preached by Jesus, cannot be denied. For although he "were not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel;" (Matt. xv. 24.) although of those many Israelites, which believed on him while he lived, very few were left immediately after his death; yet when the apostles had received their commission from him to "go teach all nations," (Matt. xxviii. 19.) and were dued with power from on high" (Luke xxiv. 49.) by the plentiful effusion of the Holy Ghost; the first day there was an accession of "three thousand souls;" (Acts ii. 41.) immediately after we find "the number of the men, beside women, was about five thousand;" (Acts. iv. 4.) and still "believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women." (Acts v. 14.) Upon the persecution at Jerusalem, they went through the "regions of Judea, Galilee, and Samaria," (Acts ix. 31.) and so the Gospel spread; insomuch that St. James the bishop of Jerusalem spake thus unto St. Paul," Thou seest, brother, how many thousands (or rather how many myriads, that is, ten thousands) of the Jews there are which believe." (Acts xxi. 20.) Beside, how great was the number of the believing Jews, strangers scattered through Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, Bithynia, and the rest of the Roman provinces, will appear out of the epistles of St. Peter, St. James, and St. John. And yet all these are nothing to the fulness of the Gentiles which came after. First, those which were before Gentile worshippers, acknowledging the same God with the Jews, but not receiving the Law; who had before abandoned their old idolatry, and already embraced the true doctrine of one God, and did confess the Deity which the Jews did worship to be that only true God; but yet refused to be circumcised, and so to oblige themselves to the keeping of the whole Law. Now the apostles preaching the same God with Moses whom they all acknowledged, and teaching that * Πόσαι μυριάδες. circumcision and the rest of the legal ceremonies were now abrogated, which those men would never admit, they were with the greatest facility converted to the Christian faith. For being present at the synagogues of the Jews, and understanding much of the Law, they were of all the Gentiles readiest to hear, and most capable of the arguments which the apostles produced out of the Scriptures to prove that Jesus was the Christ. Thus many of the "Greeks that came up to worship" at Jerusalem, (John xii. 20.) "devout men out of every nation under heaven," (Acts ii. 5.) not men of Israel, but yet fearing God, did first embrace the Christian faith. After them the rest of the Gentiles left the idolatrous worship of their heathen gods, and in a short time in infinite multitudes received the Gospel. How much did Jesus work by one St. Paul to the "obedience of the Gentiles by word and deed?" How did he pass from Jerusalem round about through Phonice, Syria, and Arabia, through Asia, Achaia, and Macedonia, even to Illyricum, "fully preaching the Gospel of Christ?" (Rom. xv. 18, 19.) How far did others pass beside St. Paul, that he should speak even of his time, that the "Gospel was preached to every creature under heaven?" (Col. i. 23.) Many were the nations, innumerable the people, which received the faith in the apostles' days: and in not many years after, notwithstanding millions were cut off in their bloody persecutions, yet did their numbers equalize half the Roman empire:* and little above two ages after the death of the last apostle, the emperors of the world gave their names to Christ, and submitted their sceptres to his laws, that the "Gentiles might come to his light, and kings to the brightness of his rising;” (Isa. lx. 3.) that "kings might become the nursing fathers, and queens the nursing mothers," of the Church. (Isa. xlix. 23.) From hence it came to pass, that according to all the pre 'Visa est mihi res digna consultatione, maxime propter periclitantium, numerum. Multi enim omnis ætatis, omnis ordinis, utriusque sexus etiam, vocantur in periculum et vocabuntur. Neque enim civitates tantum, sed vicos etiam atque agros, superstitionis istius contagio pervagata est.' Plin. Epist. ad Trajanum, 1. x. ep. 97. Tanta hominum multitudo, pars pene major civitatis cujusque, in silentio et modestia agimus.' Tertull. ad Scapul. c. 2. Si hostes exsertos, non tantum vindices occultos agere vellemus, deesset nobis vis numerorum et copiarum? Plures nimirum Mauri et Marcomanni, ipsique Parthi, vel quantææcunque unius tamen loci et suorum finium gentes, quam totius orbis. Hesterni sumus, et vestra omnia implevimus, urbes, insulas, castella, municipia, conciliabula, castra ipsa, tribus, decurias, palatium, senatum, forum.' Id. Apolog. c. 37. Potuimus et inermes, nec rebelles, sed tantummodo discordes, solius divortii invidia adversus vos dimicasse. Si enim tanta vis hominum in aliquem orbis remoti sinum abrupissemus a vobis, suffudisset utique dominationem vestram tot qualiumcunque amissio civium, imo etiam et ipsa destitutione punisset: proculdubio expavissetis ad solitudinem vestram, ad silentium rerum, et stuporem quendam quasi mortuæ urbis ; quæsissetis quibus in ea imperassetis.' Id. ibid. And Irenæus, who wrote before Tertullian, and is mentioned by him, speaks of the Christians in his time living in the Court of Rome: 'Quid autem et hi qui in regali aula sunt fideles? nonne ex eis, quæ Cæsaris sunt, habent utensilia, et his, qui non habent, unusquisque secundum suam virtutem præstat?' |
