Chapter 20

§ 1.

Thus we see that God was forbearing when Man fell away: foreseeing that he would have restored to him that victory which should be wrought by the Word.¹ For when strength was made perfect in weakness, it exhibited the benignity of God, and His most admirable power.² Thus, as He patiently endured Jonas’ being swallowed up by the whale, not that being swallowed he should perish for ever, but that being vomited forth, he might the more submit himself to God, and give more glory to Him Who had bestowed on him safety beyond hope; and might cause steady penitence in the Ninevites, they turning to the Lord for deliverance from death, in alarm at the sign which was wrought about Jonas;—as the Scripture saith of them,³ And they turned back every one from his evil way and from the iniquity which was in their hands, saying, Who knoweth if God will repent, and turn His anger away from us, that we perish not?—so also in the beginning God patiently endured that man should be swallowed up by the great whale, who was the author of transgression:—not that he might be swallowed up and perish entirely, but it was in providing and preparing for the discovery of salvation, which was made by the Word through the sign of Jonas, to such as had the same mind as Jonas concerning the Lord; who confessed and said,⁴ I am a Servant of the Lord, and I worship the Lord God of Heaven Who made the sea and the dry land. And so men, receiving of God salvation beyond hope, might rise from the dead and glorify God, and utter the saying which Jonas prophetically spake,⁵ I cried unto the Lord my God in my tribulation, and He heard me from the belly of Hell. So may he always continue glorifying God, and incessantly giving thanks for the salvation which he hath obtained from Him:⁶ That no flesh may glory before the Lord, nor man ever entertain the contrary thought concerning God, so as to account the incorruption which he has to be his own by nature, and to be tossed about by empty arrogance, not holding the truth,—as though he by nature resembled God. For this, rather making him ungrateful to his Maker, did both obscure the love which God had towards man and blind his understanding that he might not think worthily of God; comparing and judging himself equal to God.

§ 2.

This therefore was God’s long suffering,⁷ in order that Man passing through all things, and acquiring moral knowledge,⁸ and so coming to the resurrection from the dead, and learning by actual assay what he was delivered from, might ever be grateful to the Lord: having won of Him the gift of incorruption, that he might love Him more;⁹ (for he to whom more is forgiven loveth more:)—again, that he might know himself, his mortality and weakness, and might understand concerning God, how that He is in such sort immortal and powerful, as to give both immortality to the mortal being, and to the temporal eternity: and that he might understand also the other powers of God, as displayed all of them towards himself: and being thereby fully instructed, might understand concerning God, how great a God He is. For as the Glory of Man is God, so the sum of the works of God, and the recipient of all His Wisdom and Power, is Man. As the physician is proved in such as are sick, so is God made manifest in men. For which cause Paul also saith,¹⁰ God hath shut up all in unbelief, that He may have mercy upon all:¹¹ and this He saith, not of spiritual Æons, but of Man, who having been disobedient to God, and cast out of immortality, did afterwards obtain mercy, receiving through the Son of God the adoption which is by Him.

For such an one, holding without elation and vain glory, the true opinion both of the Creatures, and of the Creator, (Who is God mighty over all, and Who gave being to all,) abiding also in His Love, and in submission to Him, and in thanksgiving, will obtain more glory from Him, receiving continual increase, until he become like unto Him Who died for him. Since He for His part was made in the likeness of sinful flesh,¹² that He might condemn sin, and so cast it out, as a condemned thing, from the flesh; and might provoke man to resemble Himself, appointing him to be the Imitator of God, and inserting him in His Father’s List, that he might see God, and granting unto him to comprehend the Father:—He the Word of God Which dwelt in man, and was made Son of Man, that He might inure man to receive God, and God to dwell in Man:—according to the good pleasure of the Father.

§ 3.

To this end accordingly that sign of our salvation, which is Emmanuel born of the Virgin, is the Lord Himself: since it was the Lord Himself Who was saving those who of themselves had no means to be saved. And therefore Paul setting forth the infirmity of man saith, For I know that in my flesh dwelleth no good thing:¹³ implying that not of ourselves but of God cometh the blessing of our Salvation.¹⁴ And again, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Then he introduces the Deliverer;¹⁵ The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

And so too Esaias saith,¹⁶ Be comforted, ye weak hands, and ye feeble knees; be encouraged, ye of timorous heart, be strong, fear not: behold, our God repayeth judgement, and will recompense, Himself will come and save us: i.e., that we had not salvation of ourselves, but of God’s help.

§ 4.

Again, to shew that He Who saveth us is neither to be a mere man, nor yet without flesh (for Angels are without flesh) He hath proclaimed it, you see, as follows:¹⁷ Neither elder, nor Angel, but the Lord Himself shall save them, because He loveth them and will spare them, He will deliver them. And as concerning that this same Person should begin to be a true visible man, while He is the Saving Word,¹⁸ Esaias saith again, Behold, thou city Sion, thine eyes shall see our salvation. And that He was not only Man Who died for us, Esaias saith, And¹⁹ the holy Lord of Israel remembered His dead, who had slept in the land of burial; and went down to them to preach the good tidings of the salvation which is of Him, that He might save them. And this same thing the Prophet Amos saith also:²⁰ Himself will turn and have mercy upon us: He will do away our iniquities, and cast our sins into the depth of the sea. And again, signifying the place of His advent,²¹ he saith, The Lord spake from Sion, and from Jerusalem He uttered His voice. And to shew that from the southern part of the heritage of Judah will come the Son of God, Who is God; and that He Who was of Bethlehem (where the Lord was born) shall send forth His praise into all the Earth: as saith the Prophet Habakkuk,²² God shall come from the South wind, and the Holy One from Mount Ephraim. His Power covered the Heavens, and the earth is full of His praise. Before His Face shall go forth the Word,²³ and His Feet shall go forth in the fields. Evidently meaning that He is God, and that His coming is unto Bethlehem, and from Mount Ephraim, which is part of the inheritance towards the South, and that He is Man. For His Feet, saith He, shall go forth in the fields: now this is the proper mark of a man.