Chapter 2.—How We are Rendered Apt for the Perception of Truth Through the Incarnate Word.

4. But “the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not.” Now the “darkness” is the foolish minds of men, made blind by vicious desires and unbelief. And that the Word, by whom all things were made, might care for these and heal them, “The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.” For our enlightening is the partaking of the Word, namely, of that life which is the light of men. But for this partaking we were utterly unfit, and fell short of it, on account of the uncleanness of sins. Therefore we were to be cleansed. And further, the one cleansing of the unrighteous and of the proud is the blood of the Righteous One, and the humbling of God Himself;441    John i. 1, 14    Esse    1 Cor. i. 24 that we might be cleansed through Him, made as He was what we are by nature, and what we are not by sin, that we might contemplate God, which by nature we are not. For by nature we are not God: by nature we are men, by sin we are not righteous. Wherefore God, made a righteous man, interceded with God for man the sinner. For the sinner is not congruous to the righteous, but man is congruous to man. By joining therefore to us the likeness of His humanity, He took away the unlikeness of our unrighteousness; and by being made partaker of our mortality, He made us partakers of His divinity. For the death of the sinner springing from the necessity of comdemnation is deservedly abolished by the death of the Righteous One springing from the free choice of His compassion, while His single [death and resurrection] answers to our double [death and resurrection].442    [This singleness and doubleness is explained in chapter 3.—W.G.T.S.]    Ex. iii. 14 For this congruity, or suitableness, or concord, or consonance, or whatever more appropriate word there may be, whereby one is [united] to two, is of great weight in all compacting, or better, perhaps, co-adaptation, of the creature. For (as it just occurs to me) what I mean is precisely that co-adaptation which the Greeks call ἁρμονία. However this is not the place to set forth the power of that consonance of single to double which is found especially in us, and which is naturally so implanted in us (and by whom, except by Him who created us?), that not even the ignorant can fail to perceive it, whether when singing themselves or hearing others. For by this it is that treble and bass voices are in harmony, so that any one who in his note departs from it, offends extremely, not only trained skill, of which the most part of men are devoid, but the very sense of hearing. To demonstrate this, needs no doubt a long discourse; but any one who knows it, may make it plain to the very ear in a rightly ordered monochord.

CAPUT II.

4. Quomodo per Verbum incarnatum reddimur habiles percipiendae veritati.---Sed lux in tenebris lucet, et tenebrae eam non comprehenderunt. Tenebrae autem sunt stultae mentes hominum, prava cupiditate atque infidelitate caecatae. Has ut curaret atque sanaret Verbum, per quod facta sunt omnia, caro factum est, et habitavit in nobis (Joan. I, 1-14). Illuminatio quippe nostra participatio Verbi est, illius scilicet vitae quae lux est hominum. Huic autem participationi prorsus inhabiles, et minus idonei eramus, propter immunditiam peccatorum. Mundandi ergo eramus. Porro iniquorum et superborum una mundatio est sanguis justi, et humilitas Dei: ut ad contemplandum Deum quod natura non sumus, per eum mundaremur factum quod natura sumus, et quod peccato non sumus. Deus enim natura non sumus: homines natura sumus, justi peccato non sumus. Deus itaque factus homo justus, intercessit Deo pro homine peccatore. Non enim congruit peccator justo, sed congruit homini homo. Adjungens ergo nobis similitudinem humanitatis suae, abstulit dissimilitudinem iniquitatis nostrae: et factus particeps mortalitatis nostrae, fecit nos participes divinitatis suae. Merito quippe mors peccatoris veniens ex damnationis necessitate, soluta est per mortem justi venientem ex misericordiae voluntate, dum simplum ejus congruit duplo nostro. Haec enim congrueniia, sive convenientia, vel concinentia, vel consonantia, vel si quid commodius dicitur, quod unum est ad duo, in omni compaginatione. vel, si melius dicitur, coaptatione creaturae, valet plurimum. Hanc enim coaptationem, sicut mihi nunc occurrit, dicere volui, quam Graeci ἁρμονὶαν vocant. Neque nunc locus est, ut ostendam quantum valeat consonantia simpli ad duplum, quae maxima in nobis reperitur , et sic nobis insita naturaliter, (a quo utique, nisi ab eo qui nos creavit?) ut nec imperiti possint eam non sentire, sive ipsi cantantes, sive alios audientes: per hanc quippe voces acutiores gravioresque concordant, ita ut quisquis ab ea dissonuerit, non scientiam, cujus expertes sunt plurimi, sed ipsum sensum auditus nostri vehementer offendat. Sed hoc ut demonstretur, longo sermone opus est: ipsis autem auribus exhiberi potest ab eo qui novit in regulari monochordo.