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.

§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, of One who is God: (3) if the gods be (as alleged) real and living, a fortiori He Who shatters their power is alive.

What we have so far said, then, is no small proof that death has been brought to naught, and that the Cross of the Lord is a sign of victory over him. But of the Resurrection of the body to immortality thereupon accomplished by Christ, the common Saviour and true Life of all, the demonstration by facts is clearer than arguments to those whose mental vision is sound. 2. For if, as our argument shewed, death has been brought to nought, and because of Christ all tread him under foot, much more did He Himself first tread him down with His own body, and bring him to nought. But supposing death slain by Him, what could have happened save the rising again of His body, and its being displayed as a monument of victory against death? or how could death have been shewn to be brought to nought unless the Lord’s body had risen? But if this demonstration of the Resurrection seem to any one insufficient, let him be assured of what is said even from what takes place before his eyes. 3. For whereas on a man’s decease he can put forth no power, but his influence lasts to the grave and thenceforth ceases; and actions, and power over men, belong to the living only; let him who will, see and be judge, confessing the truth from what appears to sight. 4. For now that the Saviour works so great things among men, and day by day is invisibly persuading so great a multitude from every side, both from them that dwell in Greece and in foreign lands, to come over to His faith, and all to obey His teaching, will any one still hold his mind in doubt whether a Resurrection has been accomplished by the Saviour, and whether Christ is alive, or rather is Himself the Life? 5. Or is it like a dead man to be pricking the consciences of men, so that they deny their hereditary laws and bow before the teaching of Christ? Or how, if he is no longer active (for this is proper to one dead), does he stay from their activity those who are active and alive, so that the adulterer no longer commits adultery, and the murderer murders no more, nor is the inflicter of wrong any longer grasping, and the profane is henceforth religious? Or how, if He be not risen but is dead, does He drive away, and pursue, and cast down those false gods said by the unbelievers to be alive, and the demons they worship? 6. For where Christ is named, and His faith, there all idolatry is deposed and all imposture of evil spirits is exposed, and any spirit is unable to endure even the name, nay even on barely hearing it flies and disappears. But this work is not that of one dead, but of one that lives—and especially of God. 7. In particular, it would be ridiculous to say that while the spirits cast out by Him and the idols brought to nought are alive, He who chases them away, and by His power prevents their even appearing, yea, and is being confessed by them all to be Son of God, is dead.

Τοῦ μὲν οὖν κατηργῆσθαι τὸν θάνατον, καὶ τρόπαιον εἶναι κατ' αὐτοῦ τὸν Κυριακὸν σταυρόν, οὐ μικρὸς ἔλεγχος τὰ προειρημένα. Τῆς δὲ γενομένης λοιπὸν ἀθανάτου ἀναστάσεως τοῦ σώματος παρὰ τοῦ κοινοῦ πάντων Σωτῆρος καὶ Ζωῆς ὄντως Χριστοῦ, ἐναργε στέρα τῶν λόγων ἡ διὰ τῶν φαινομένων ἀπόδειξίς ἐστι τοῖς τὸν ὀφθαλμὸν τῆς διανοίας ἔχουσιν ὑγιαίνοντα. Εἰ γὰρ κατήργηται ὁ θάνατος, ὡς ὁ λόγος ἔδειξε, καὶ διὰ τὸν Κύριον πάντες αὐτὸν καταπατοῦσι, πολλῷ πλέον αὐτὸς αὐτὸν πρῶτος κατεπάτησε τῷ ἰδίῳ σώματι καὶ κατήργησεν αὐτόν. Τοῦ δὲ θανάτου νεκρωθέντος ὑπ' αὐτοῦ, τί ἔδει γενέ σθαι ἢ τὸ σῶμα ἀναστῆναι, καὶ τοῦτο δειχθῆναι κατ' αὐτοῦ τρόπαιον; Ἢ πῶς γὰρ ἂν ἐφάνη καταργηθεὶς ὁ θάνα τος, εἰ μὴ τὸ σῶμα τὸ κυριακὸν ἦν ἀναστάν; εἰ δέ τῷ μὴ αὐτάρκης ἡ ἀπόδειξις αὕτη περὶ τῆς ἀναστάσεως αὐτοῦ, κἂν ἐκ τῶν ἐν ὄψει γενομένων πιστούσθω τὸ λεγόμενον. Εἰ γὰρ δὴ νεκρός τις γενόμενος οὐδὲν ἐνεργεῖν δύναται, ἀλλὰ μέχρι τοῦ μνήματός ἐστιν αὐτῷ ἡ χάρις, καὶ πέπαυται λοιπόν, μόνων δὲ τῶν ζώντων εἰσὶν αἱ πράξεις καὶ αἱ πρὸς τοὺς ἀνθρώπους ἐνέργειαι, ὁράτω δὴ ὁ βουλόμενος καὶ γενέσθω δικαστὴς ἐκ τῶν ὁρωμένων τὴν ἀλήθειαν ὁμολογῶν. Τοσαῦτα γὰρ τοῦ Σωτῆρος ἐνεργοῦντος ἐν ἀνθρώποις, καὶ καθ' ἡμέραν πανταχόθεν ἀπό τε τῶν τὴν Ἑλλάδα καὶ τὴν βάρβαρον οἰκούντων τοσοῦτον πλῆθος ἀοράτως πείθοντος εἰς τὴν ἑαυτοῦ πίστιν παρελθεῖν, καὶ πάντας ὑπακούειν τῇ αὐτοῦ διδασκαλίᾳ· ἆρ' ἔτι τις τὴν διάνοιαν ἀμφίβολον ἕξει εἰ γέγονεν ἀνάστασις ὑπὸ τοῦ Σωτῆρος, καὶ ζῇ ὁ Χριστός, μᾶλλον δὲ αὐτός ἐστιν ἡ Ζωή; Ἆρα δὲ νεκροῦ ἐστι τὰς μὲν διανοίας τῶν ἀνθρώπων κατανύττειν, ὥστε τοὺς πατρικοὺς ἀρνεῖσθαι νόμους, τὴν δὲ Χριστοῦ διδασκαλίαν προσκυνεῖν; ἢ πῶς, εἴπερ οὐκ ἔστιν ἐνεργῶν, νεκροῦ γὰρ ἴδιόν ἐστι τοῦτο, αὐτὸς τοὺς ἐνεργοῦντας καὶ ζῶντας τῆς ἐνεργείας παύει, ὥστε τὸν μὲν μοιχὸν μηκέτι μοιχεύειν, τὸν δὲ ἀνδροφόνον μηκέτι φονεύειν, τὸν δὲ ἀδικοῦντα μηκέτι πλεονεκτεῖν, καὶ τὸν ἀσεβῆ λοιπὸν εὐσεβεῖν; πῶς δὲ εἰ μὴ ἀνέστη, ἀλλὰ νεκρός ἐστι, τοὺς λεγομένους ὑπὸ τῶν ἀπίστων ζῆν ψευδοθέους καὶ θρησκευομένους δαίμονας αὐτὸς ἀπελαύνει καὶ διώκει καὶ καταβάλλει; Ἔνθα γὰρ ὀνομάζεται Χριστὸς καὶ ἡ τούτου πίστις, ἐκεῖθεν πᾶσα μὲν εἰδωλολατρία καθαιρεῖται, πᾶσα δὲ δαιμόνων ἀπάτη ἐλέγχεται, πᾶς δὲ δαίμων οὐδὲ τὸ ὄνομα ὑποφέρει· ἀλλὰ καὶ μόνον ἀκούσας φυγὰς οἴχεται. Τοῦτο δὲ οὐ νεκροῦ τὸ ἔργον, ἀλλὰ ζῶντος καὶ μάλιστα Θεοῦ. Ἄλλως τε καὶ γελοῖον ἂν εἴη, τοὺς μὲν διωκομένους ὑπ' αὐτοῦ δαίμονας καὶ τὰ καταργούμενα εἴδωλα λέγειν ζῶντας εἶναι, τὸν δὲ ἀπελαύνοντα καὶ τῇ ἑαυτοῦ δυνάμει μηδὲ φανῆναι ποιοῦντα τούτους, ἀλλὰ καὶ ὁμολογούμενον ὑπὸ πάντων εἶναι Θεοῦ Υἱόν, τοῦτον λέγειν εἶναι νεκρόν.