§ 1.
But in the last times, when the fulness of the time of liberty arrived, the Word Himself by His own Self washed away the filth of the daughter of Sion,1 with His own Hands washing the feet of His Disciples. For this is the end of mankind inheriting God: that as in the beginning by the first men we were all brought into slavery through the debt of death, so in the last time by the Last Man all who from the beginning are disciples, being cleansed and washed from that which is of death,2 may come to the life of God. Since He Who washed His Disciples’ feet sanctified the whole body and brought it unto cleanness.
Wherefore also to them as they lay He ministered meat, signifying such as lay in the earth, to whom He came to minister life. As saith Jeremiah, The holy Lord of Israel remembered His Dead, who were before asleep in the land of sepulture; and went down to them, that He might tell them the good news of His Salvation, to save them.
And for the same cause the Disciples also were heavy when Christ was coming to His Passion, and the Lord finding them asleep, at first indeed let it pass, signifying God’s patience in the slumbering of men; but coming the second time He awakened and raised them up, intimating that His Passion is the awakening of the sleeping Disciples,3 for whom also He went down into the lower parts of the earth,4 to behold with His eyes the unfinished part of Creation; of whom also He said to the disciples,5 Many Prophets and just men have desired to see and hear the things which ye see and hear.
§ 2.
For Christ came not on their account only, who believed on Him in the times of Tiberius Cæsar, neither did the Father make provision for those men alone, who now exist; but for all men altogether who from the beginning, because of their excellency in their generation, have both feared and loved God, and conversed justly and piously with their neighbours, and desired to see Christ and to hear His Voice. Wherefore all such He will raise from their sleep before the rest in His second coming, and will awaken both them, and the rest who shall be judged, and will give them a part in His Kingdom. Since undoubtedly there is one God, Who as He guided the Patriarchs along His own providential ways,6 so He justified the circumcision by faith, and the uncircumcision through faith. For as in those who came first we were prefigured and foretold, so they in their turn are completely drawn out7 in us; i.e., in the Church; and receive their reward for their labours.