On the Flesh of Christ.

 V.

 Chapter II.—Marcion, Who Would Blot Out the Record of Christ’s Nativity, is Rebuked for So Startling a Heresy.

 Chapter III.—Christ’s Nativity Both Possible and Becoming. The Heretical Opinion of Christ’s Apparent Flesh Deceptive and Dishonourable to God, Even o

 Chapter IV.—God’s Honour in the Incarnation of His Son Vindicated.  Marcion’s Disparagement of Human Flesh Inconsistent as Well as Impious. Christ Has

 Chapter V.—Christ Truly Lived and Died in Human Flesh. Incidents of His Human Life on Earth, and Refutation of Marcion’s Docetic Parody of the Same.

 Chapter VI.—The Doctrine of Apelles Refuted, that Christ’s Body Was of Sidereal Substance, Not Born. Nativity and Mortality are Correlative Circumstan

 Chapter VII.—Explanation of the Lord’s Question About His Mother and His Brethren. Answer to the Cavils of Apelles and Marcion, Who Support Their Deni

 Chapter VIII.—Apelles and His Followers, Displeased with Our Earthly Bodies, Attributed to Christ a Body of a Purer Sort. How Christ Was Heavenly Even

 Chapter IX.—Christ’s Flesh Perfectly Natural, Like Our Own. None of the Supernatural Features Which the Heretics Ascribed to It Discoverable, on a Car

 Chapter X.—Another Class of Heretics Refuted. They Alleged that Christ’s Flesh Was of a Finer Texture, Animalis, Composed of Soul.

 Chapter XI.—The Opposite Extravagance Exposed.  That is Christ with a Soul Composed of Flesh—Corporeal, Though Invisible. Christ’s Soul, Like Ours, Di

 Chapter XII.—The True Functions of the Soul. Christ Assumed It in His Perfect Human Nature, Not to Reveal and Explain It, But to Save It. Its Resurrec

 Chapter XIII.—Christ’s Human Nature.  The Flesh and the Soul Both Fully and Unconfusedly Contained in It.

 Chapter XIV.—Christ Took Not on Him an Angelic Nature, But the Human. It Was Men, Not Angels, Whom He Came to Save.

 Chapter XV.—The Valentinian Figment of Christ’s Flesh Being of a Spiritual Nature, Examined and Refuted Out of Scripture.

 Chapter XVI.—Christ’s Flesh in Nature, the Same as Ours, Only Sinless. The Difference Between Carnem Peccati and Peccatum Carnis: It is the Latter Whi

 Chapter XVII.—The Similarity of Circumstances Between the First and the Second Adam, as to the Derivation of Their Flesh. An Analogy Also Pleasantly T

 Chapter XVIII.—The Mystery of the Assumption of Our Perfect Human Nature by the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity. He is Here Called, as Often Else

 Chapter XIX.—Christ, as to His Divine Nature, as the Word of God, Became Flesh, Not by Carnal Conception, Nor by the Will of the Flesh and of Man, But

 Chapter XX.—Christ Born of a Virgin, of Her Substance. The Physiological Facts of His Real and Exact Birth of a Human Mother, as Suggested by Certain

 Chapter XXI.—The Word of God Did Not Become Flesh Except in the Virgin’s Womb and of Her Substance. Through His Mother He is Descended from Her Great

 Chapter XXII.—Holy Scripture in the New Testament, Even in Its Very First Verse, Testifies to Christ’s True Flesh.  In Virtue of Which He is Incorpora

 Chapter XXIII.—Simeon’s “Sign that Should Be Contradicted,” Applied to the Heretical Gainsaying of the True Birth of Christ. One of the Heretics’ Para

 Chapter XXIV.—Divine Strictures on Various Heretics Descried in Various Passages of Prophetical Scripture. Those Who Assail the True Doctrine of the O

 Chapter XXV.—Conclusion. This Treatise Forms a Preface to the Other Work, “On the Resurrection of the Flesh,” Proving the Reality of the Flesh Which W

Chapter II.—Marcion, Who Would Blot Out the Record of Christ’s Nativity, is Rebuked for So Startling a Heresy.

Clearly enough is the nativity announced by Gabriel.9    Luke i. 26–38. But what has he to do with the Creator’s angel?10    This is said in opposition to Marcion, who held the Creator’s angel, and everything else pertaining to him, to be evil. The conception in the virgin’s womb is also set plainly before us. But what concern has he with the Creator’s prophet, Isaiah?11    A reference to Isa. vii. 14. He12    Marcion. will not brook delay, since suddenly (without any prophetic announcement) did he bring down Christ from heaven.13    See also our Anti-Marcion, iv. 7. “Away,” says he, “with that eternal plaguey taxing of Cæsar, and the scanty inn, and the squalid swaddling-clothes, and the hard stable.14    Luke ii. 1–7. We do not care a jot for15    Viderit. that multitude of the heavenly host which praised their Lord at night.16    Luke ii. 13. Let the shepherds take better care of their flock,17    Luke ii. 8. and let the wise men spare their legs so long a journey;18    Matt. ii. 1. let them keep their gold to themselves.19    Matt. ii. 11. Let Herod, too, mend his manners, so that Jeremy may not glory over him.20    Matt. ii. 16–18, and Jer. xxxi. 15. Spare also the babe from circumcision, that he may escape the pain thereof; nor let him be brought into the temple, lest he burden his parents with the expense of the offering;21    Luke ii. 22–24. nor let him be handed to Simeon, lest the old man be saddened at the point of death.22    Luke ii. 25–35. Let that old woman also hold her tongue, lest she should bewitch the child.”23    Luke ii. 36–38. After such a fashion as this, I suppose you have had, O Marcion, the hardihood of blotting out the original records (of the history) of Christ, that His flesh may lose the proofs of its reality. But, prithee, on what grounds (do you do this)? Show me your authority. If you are a prophet, foretell us a thing; if you are an apostle, open your message in public; if a follower of apostles,24    Apostolicus. side with apostles in thought; if you are only a (private) Christian, believe what has been handed down to us: if, however, you are nothing of all this, then (as I have the best reason to say) cease to live.25    Morere. For indeed you are already dead, since you are no Christian, because you do not believe that which by being believed makes men Christian,—nay, you are the more dead, the more you are not a Christian; having fallen away, after you had been one, by rejecting26    Rescindendo. what you formerly believed, even as you yourself acknowledge in a certain letter of yours, and as your followers do not deny, whilst our (brethren) can prove it.27    Compare our Anti-Marcion, i. 1, iv. 4 and de Præscr. Hær. c. xxx. Rejecting, therefore, what you once believed, you have completed the act of rejection, by now no longer believing:  the fact, however, of your having ceased to believe has not made your rejection of the faith right and proper; nay, rather,28    Atquin. by your act of rejection you prove that what you believed previous to the said act was of a different character.29    Aliter fuisse. What you believed to be of a different character, had been handed down just as you believed it. Now30    Porro. that which had been handed down was true, inasmuch as it had been transmitted by those whose duty it was to hand it down.  Therefore, when rejecting that which had been handed down, you rejected that which was true. You had no authority for what you did. However, we have already in another treatise availed ourselves more fully of these prescriptive rules against all heresies.  Our repetition of them hereafter that large (treatise) is superfluous,31    Ex abundanti. [Dr. Holmes, in this sentence actually uses the word lengthy, for which I have said large.] when we ask the reason why you have formed the opinion that Christ was not born.

CAPUT II.

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Plane nativitas a Gabriele annuntiatur: quid illi eum angelo Creatoris? Et in virginis uterum conceptus inducitur: quid illi cum Esaia propheta Creatoris? Odit moras, qui subito Christum de coelis deferebat. «Aufer hinc, inquit , molestos semper Caesaris census, et diversoria angusta, et sordidos pannos, et dura praesepia. Viderit angelica multitudo, Dominum suum noctibus honorans. Servent potius pecora pastores. Et Magi ne fatigentur de longinquo; dono illis aurum suum. Melior sit et Herodes, ne Hieremias glorietur . Sed nec circumcidatur infans, ne doleat; nec ad templum deferatur, ne parentes suos oneret sumptu oblationis ; nec in manus tradatur Simeoni , ne senem moriturum 0755B exinde contristet . Taceat et anus illa, ne fascinet puerum.» His, opinor, consiliis tot originalia instrumenta Christi delere Marcion ausus est , ne caro ejus probaretur. Ex qua, oro te , auctoritate? Si propheta es, praenuntia aliquid; si apostolus, praedica publice; si apostolicus, cum apostolis senti; si tantum christianus es, crede quod traditum est ; si nihil istorum es, merito dixerim, morere: nam et mortuus es, qui non es christianus, non credendo quod traditum christianos facit. Et eo magis mortuus es, quo magis non es christianus: qui cum fuisses, excidisti, rescindendo quod retro credidisti; sicut et ipse confiteris in quadam epistola, et tui non negant, et nostri probant. Igitur rescindens 0756A quod credidisti, jam non credens rescidisti: non tamen quia credere desiisti, recte rescidisti. Atque in rescindendo quod credidisti, probas, antequam rescinderes, aliter fuisse quod credidisti. Aliter illud, ita erat traditum: porro, quod traditum erat, id erat verum, ut ab eis traditum, quorum fuit tradere; ergo quod erat traditum rescindens, quod erat verum rescidisti, nullo jure fecisti. Sed plenius ejusmodi praescriptionibus adversus omnes haereses, alibi jam usi sumus . Post quas nunc ex abundanti retractamus desiderantes rationem, qua non putaveris natum esse Christum.