On the Incarnation of the Word.

 On the Incarnation of the Word.

 §2. Erroneous views of Creation rejected. (1) Epicurean (fortuitous generation). But diversity of bodies and parts argues a creating intellect. (2.) P

 §3. The true doctrine. Creation out of nothing, of God’s lavish bounty of being. Man created above the rest, but incapable of independent perseverance

 §4. Our creation and God’s Incarnation most intimately connected. As by the Word man was called from non-existence into being, and further received th

 §5. For God has not only made us out of nothing but He gave us freely, by the Grace of the Word, a life in correspondence with God. But men, having r

 §6. The human race then was wasting, God’s image was being effaced, and His work ruined. Either, then, God must forego His spoken word by which man ha

 §7. On the other hand there was the consistency of God’s nature, not to be sacrificed for our profit. Were men, then, to be called upon to repent? But

 §8. The Word, then, visited that earth in which He was yet always present and saw all these evils. He takes a body of our Nature, and that of a spot

 §9. The Word, since death alone could stay the plague, took a mortal body which, united with Him, should avail for all, and by partaking of His immort

 § 10. By a like simile, the reasonableness of the work of redemption is shewn. How Christ wiped away our ruin, and provided its antidote by His own te

 §11. Second reason for the Incarnation. God, knowing that man was not by nature sufficient to know Him, gave him, in order that he might have some pro

 §12. For though man was created in grace, God, foreseeing his forgetfulness, provided also the works of creation to remind man of him. Yet further, He

 § 13. Here again, was God to keep silence? to allow to false gods the worship He made us to render to Himself? A king whose subjects had revolted woul

 §14. A portrait once effaced must be restored from the original. Thus the Son of the Father came to seek, save, and regenerate. No other way was possi

 §15. Thus the Word condescended to man’s engrossment in corporeal things, by even taking a body. All man’s superstitions He met halfway whether men w

 §16. He came then to attract man’s sense-bound attention to Himself as man, and so to lead him on to know Him as God.

 §17. How the Incarnation did not limit the ubiquity of the Word, nor diminish His Purity. (Simile of the Sun.)

 § 18. How the Word and Power of God works in His human actions: by casting out devils, by Miracles, by His Birth of the Virgin.

 §19. Man, unmoved by nature, was to be taught to know God by that sacred Manhood, Whose deity all nature confessed, especially in His Death.

 §20. None, then, could bestow incorruption, but He Who had made, none restore the likeness of God, save His Own Image, none quicken, but the Life, non

 §21. Death brought to nought by the death of Christ. Why then did not Christ die privately, or in a more honourable way? He was not subject to natural

 §22. But why did He not withdraw His body from the Jews, and so guard its immortality? (1) It became Him not to inflict death on Himself, and yet not

 §23. Necessity of a public death for the doctrine of the Resurrection.

 §24. Further objections anticipated. He did not choose His manner of death for He was to prove Conqueror of death in all or any of its forms: (simile

 §25. Why the Cross, of all deaths? (1) He had to bear the curse for us. (2) On it He held out His hands to unite all, Jews and Gentiles, in Himself. (

 §26. Reasons for His rising on the Third Day. (1) Not sooner for else His real death would be denied, nor (2) later to (a) guard the identity of His

 §27. The change wrought by the Cross in the relation of Death to Man.

 §28. This exceptional fact must be tested by experience. Let those who doubt it become Christians.

 §29. Here then are wonderful effects, and a sufficient cause, the Cross, to account for them, as sunrise accounts for daylight.

 §30. The reality of the resurrection proved by facts: (1) the victory over death described above: (2) the Wonders of Grace are the work of One Living,

 §31. If Power is the sign of life, what do we learn from the impotence of idols, for good or evil, and the constraining power of Christ and of the Sig

 §32. But who is to see Him risen, so as to believe? Nay, God is ever invisible and known by His works only: and here the works cry out in proof. If yo

 §33. Unbelief of Jews and scoffing of Greeks. The former confounded by their own Scriptures. Prophecies of His coming as God and as Man.

 §34. Prophecies of His passion and death in all its circumstances.

 §35. Prophecies of the Cross. How these prophecies are satisfied in Christ alone.

 §36. Prophecies of Christ’s sovereignty, flight into Egypt, &c.

 §37. Psalm xxii. 16 , &c. Majesty of His birth and death. Confusion of oracles and demons in Egypt.

 §38. Other clear prophecies of the coming of God in the flesh. Christ’s miracles unprecedented.

 §39. Do you look for another? But Daniel foretells the exact time. Objections to this removed.

 §40. Argument (1) from the withdrawal of prophecy and destruction of Jerusalem, (2) from the conversion of the Gentiles, and that to the God of Moses.

 §41. Answer to the Greeks. Do they recognise the Logos? If He manifests Himself in the organism of the Universe, why not in one Body? for a human body

 §42. His union with the body is based upon His relation to Creation as a whole. He used a human body, since to man it was that He wished to reveal Him

 §43. He came in human rather than in any nobler form, because (I) He came to save, not to impress (2) man alone of creatures had sinned. As men woul

 §44. As God made man by a word, why not restore him by a word? But (1) creation out of nothing is different from reparation of what already exists. (2

 §45. Thus once again every part of creation manifests the glory of God. Nature, the witness to her Creator, yields (by miracles) a second testimony to

 §46. Discredit, from the date of the Incarnation, of idol-cultus, oracles, mythologies, demoniacal energy, magic, and Gentile philosophy. And whereas

 §47. The numerous oracles,—fancied apparitions in sacred places, &c., dispelled by the sign of the Cross. The old gods prove to have been mere men. Ma

 §48. Further facts. Christian continence of virgins and ascetics. Martyrs. The power of the Cross against demons and magic. Christ by His Power shews

 §49. His Birth and Miracles. You call Asclepius, Heracles, and Dionysus gods for their works. Contrast their works with His, and the wonders at His de

 §50. Impotence and rivalries of the Sophists put to shame by the Death of Christ. His Resurrection unparalleled even in Greek legend.

 §51. The new virtue of continence. Revolution of Society, purified and pacified by Christianity.

 §52. Wars, &c., roused by demons, lulled by Christianity.

 §53. The whole fabric of Gentilism levelled at a blow by Christ secretly addressing the conscience of Man.

 §54. The Word Incarnate, as is the case with the Invisible God, is known to us by His works. By them we recognise His deifying mission. Let us be cont

 §55. Summary of foregoing. Cessation of pagan oracles, &c.: propagation of the faith. The true King has come forth and silenced all usurpers.

 §56. Search then, the Scriptures, if you can, and so fill up this sketch. Learn to look for the Second Advent and Judgment.

 §57. Above all, so live that you may have the right to eat of this tree of knowledge and life, and so come to eternal joys. Doxology.

§13. Here again, was God to keep silence? to allow to false gods the worship He made us to render to Himself? A king whose subjects had revolted would, after sending letters and messages, go to them in person. How much more shall God restore in us the grace of His image. This men, themselves but copies, could not do. Hence the Word Himself must come (1) to recreate, (2) to destroy death in the Body.

So then, men having thus become brutalized, and demoniacal deceit thus clouding every place, and hiding the knowledge of the true God, what was God to do? To keep still silence at so great a thing, and suffer men to be led astray by demons and not to know God? 2. And what was the use of man having been originally made in God’s image? For it had been better for him to have been made simply like a brute animal, than, once made rational, for him to live46    The Bened. text is corrected here on the ground (1) of ms. evidence, (2) of construction (for which see 6, 7, and c. Gent. 20. 3). the life of the brutes. 3. Or where was any necessity at all for his receiving the idea of God to begin with? For if he be not fit to receive it even now, it were better it had not been given him at first. 4. Or what profit to God Who has made them, or what glory to Him could it be, if men, made by Him, do not worship Him, but think that others are their makers? For God thus proves to have made these for others instead of for Himself. 5. Once again, a merely human king does not let the lands he has colonized pass to others to serve them, nor go over to other men; but he warns them by letters, and often sends to them by friends, or, if need be, he comes in person, to put them to rebuke in the last resort by his presence, only that they may not serve others and his own work be spent for naught. 6. Shall not God much more spare His own creatures, that they be not led astray from Him and serve things of nought? especially since such going astray proves the cause of their ruin and undoing, and since it was unfitting that they should perish which had once been partakers of God’s image. 7. What then was God to do? or what was to be done save the renewing of that which was in God’s image, so that by it men might once more be able to know Him? But how could this have come to pass save by the presence of the very Image of God, our Lord Jesus Christ? For by men’s means it was impossible, since they are but made after an image; nor by angels either, for not even they are (God’s) images. Whence the Word of God came in His own person, that, as He was the Image of the Father, He might be able to create afresh the man after the image. 8. But, again, it could not else have taken place had not death and corruption been done away. 9. Whence He took, in natural fitness, a mortal body, that while death might in it be once for all done away, men made after His Image might once more be renewed. None other then was sufficient for this need, save the Image of the Father.

Οὕτω τοίνυν ἀλογωθέντων τῶν ἀνθρώπων, καὶ οὕτως τῆς δαιμονικῆς πλάνης ἐπισκιαζούσης τὰ πανταχοῦ καὶ κρυπτούσης τὴν περὶ τοῦ ἀληθινοῦ Θεοῦ γνῶσιν, τί τὸν Θεὸν ἔδει ποιεῖν; σιωπῆσαι τὸ τηλικοῦτον, καὶ ἀφεῖναι τοὺς ἀνθρώπους ὑπὸ δαιμόνων πλανᾶσθαι, καὶ μὴ γινώσκειν αὐτοὺς τὸν Θεόν; Καὶ τίς ἡ χρεία τοῦ καὶ ἐξ ἀρχῆς κατ' εἰκόνα Θεοῦ γενέσθαι τὸν ἄνθρωπον; ἔδει γὰρ αὐτὸν ἁπλῶς ὡς ἄλογον γενέσθαι, ἢ γενόμενον λογικὸν τὴν τῶν ἀλόγων ζωὴν μὴ βιοῦν. Τίς δὲ ὅλως ἦν χρεία ἐννοίας αὐτὸν λαβεῖν περὶ Θεοῦ ἐξ ἀρχῆς; Εἰ γὰρ οὐδὲ νῦν ἄξιός ἐστι λα βεῖν, ἔδει μηδὲ κατὰ τὴν ἀρχὴν αὐτῷ δοθῆναι. Τί δὲ καὶ ὄφελος τῷ πεποιηκότι Θεῷ, ἢ ποία δόξα αὐτῷ ἂν εἴη, εἰ οἱ ὑπ' αὐτοῦ γενόμενοι ἄνθρωποι οὐ προσκυνοῦσιν αὐτῷ, ἀλλ' ἑτέρους εἶναι τοὺς πεποιηκότας αὐτοὺς νομίζουσιν; Εὑρίσκεται γὰρ ὁ Θεὸς ἑτέροις καὶ οὐχ ἑαυτῷ τούτους δημιουργήσας. Εἶτα βασιλεὺς μὲν ἄνθρωπος ὢν τὰς ὑπ' αὐτοῦ κτισθείσας χώρας οὐκ ἀφίησιν ἐκδότους ἑτέροις δου λεύειν, οὐδὲ πρὸς ἄλλους καταφεύγειν· ἀλλὰ γράμμασιν αὐ τοὺς ὑπομιμνήσκει, πολλάκις δὲ καὶ διὰ φίλων αὐτοῖς ἐπιστέλλει, εἰ δὲ καὶ χρεία γένηται, αὐτὸς παραγίνεται, τῇ παρουσίᾳ λοιπὸν αὐτοὺς δυσωπῶν· μόνον ἵνα μὴ ἑτέροις δουλεύσωσι, καὶ ἀργὸν αὐτοῦ τὸ ἔργον γένηται. Οὐ πολλῷ πλέον ὁ Θεὸς τῶν ἑαυτοῦ κτισμάτων φείσεται πρὸς τὸ μὴ πλανηθῆναι ἀπ' αὐτοῦ, καὶ τοῖς οὐκ οὖσι δουλεύειν; Μάλιστα ὅτι ἡ τοιαύτη πλάνη ἀπωλείας αὐτοῖς αἰτία καὶ ἀφανισμοῦ γίνεται, οὐκ ἔδει δὲ τὰ ἅπαξ κοινωνήσαντα τῆς τοῦ Θεοῦ Εἰκόνος ἀπολέσθαι. Τί οὖν ἔδει ποιεῖν τὸν Θεόν; Ἢ τί ἔδει γενέσθαι, ἀλλ' ἢ τὸ κατ' εἰκόνα πάλιν ἀνανεῶσαι, ἵνα δι' αὐτοῦ πάλιν αὐτὸν γνῶναι δυνηθῶσιν οἱ ἄνθρωποι; Τοῦτο δὲ πῶς ἂν ἐγεγόνει, εἰ μὴ αὐτῆς τῆς τοῦ Θεοῦ εἰκόνος παραγενομένης τοῦ Σωτῆρος ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ; ∆ι' ἀνθρώπων μὲν γὰρ οὐκ ἦν δυνατόν, ἐπεὶ καὶ αὐτοὶ κατ' εἰκόνα γεγόνασιν· ἀλλ' οὐδὲ δι' ἀγγέλων· οὐδὲ γὰρ οὐδὲ αὐτοί εἰσιν εἰκόνες. Ὅθεν ὁ τοῦ Θεοῦ Λόγος δι' ἑαυτοῦ παρεγένετο, ἵνα ὡς Εἰκὼν ὢν τοῦ Πατρὸς τὸν κατ' εἰκόνα ἄνθρωπον ἀνακτίσαι δυνηθῇ. Ἄλλως δὲ πάλιν οὐκ ἂν ἐγεγόνει, εἰ μὴ ὁ θάνατος ἦν καὶ ἡ φθορὰ ἐξαφανισθεῖσα. Ὅθεν εἰκότως ἔλαβε σῶμα θνητόν, ἵνα καὶ ὁ θάνατος ἐν αὐτῷ λοιπὸν ἐξαφανισθῆναι δυνηθῇ, καὶ οἱ κατ' εἰκόνα πάλιν ἀνακαινισθῶσιν ἄνθρωποι. Οὐκοῦν ἑτέρου πρὸς ταύτην τὴν χρείαν οὐκ ἦν, εἰ μὴ τῆς Εἰκόνος τοῦ Πατρός.