Chap. XLV.—The Power and Works of Christ are Proved from the Scriptures.

We have spoken of His nativity; now let us speak of His power and works, which, when He wrought them among men, the Jews, seeing them to be great and wonderful, supposed that they were done by the influence of magic, not knowing that all those things which were done by Him had been foretold by the prophets. He gave strength to the sick, and to those languishing under various diseases, not by any healing remedy, but instantaneously, by the force and power of His word; He restored the weak, He made the lame to walk, He gave sight to the blind, He made the dumb to speak, the deaf to hear; He cleansed the polluted and unclean, He restored their right mind to those who were maddened with the attack of demons, He recalled to life and light those who were dead or now buried. He also fed and satisfied1510    Saturavit.   five thousand men with five loaves and two fishes. He also walked upon the sea. He also in a tempest commanded the wind to be still, and immediately there was a calm; all which things we find predicted both in the books of the prophets and in the verses of the Sibyls.  

When a great multitude resorted to Him on account of these miracles, and, as He truly was, believed Him to be the Son of God, and sent from God, the priests and rulers of the Jews, filled with envy, and at the same time excited with anger, because He reproved their sins and injustice, conspired to put Him to death; and that this would happen, Solomon had foretold a little more than a thousand years before, in the book of Wisdom, using these words:1511    Wisd. ii. 12–22. See Instit., iv. 16, p. 117, supra.   “Let us defraud the righteous, for he is unpleasant to us, and upbraideth us with our offences against the law. He maketh his boast that he has the knowledge of God, and he calleth himself the Son of God. He is made to reprove our thoughts: it grieveth us even to look upon him; for his life is not like the life of others, his ways are of another fashion. We are counted by him as triflers; he withdraweth himself from our ways, as from filthiness; he commendeth greatly the latter end of the just, and boasteth that he has God for his father. Let us see, therefore, if his words be true; let us prove what end he shall have; let us examine him with rebukes and torments, that we may know his meekness and prove his patience; let us condemn him to a shameful death. Such things have they imagined, and have gone astray; for their own folly hath blinded them, and they do not understand the mysteries of God.”  

Therefore, being unmindful of these writings which they read, they incited the people as though against an impious man, so that they seized and led Him to trial, and with impious words demanded His death. But they alleged against Him as a crime this very thing, that He said that He was the Son of God, and that by healing on the Sabbath He broke the law, which He said that He did not break, but fulfilled. And when Pontius Pilate, who then as legate had authority in Syria, perceived that the cause did not belong to the office of the Roman judge, he sent Him to Herod the Tetrarch, and permitted the Jews themselves to be the judges of their own law: who, having received the power of punishing His guilt, sentenced1512    Addixerunt. Some read “affixerunt,” affixed Him to the cross.   Him to the cross, but first scourged and struck him with their hands, put on Him a crown of thorns, spat upon His face, gave Him gall and vinegar to eat and drink; and amidst these things no word was heard to fall from His lips. Then the executioners, having cast lots over His tunic and mantle, suspended Him on the cross, and affixed Him to it, though on the next day they were about to celebrate the Passover, that is, their festival. Which crime was followed by prodigies, that they might understand the impiety which they had committed; for at the same moment in which He expired, there was a great earthquake, and a withdrawing1513    Deliquium solis. [Elucidation IV.]   of the sun, so that the day was turned into night.  

CAPUT XLV. (Div. Inst. lib. IV, c. 14.) Christi virtus et opera probantur ex Scripturis.

Diximus de nativitate; nunc de virtute operibusque dicamus: quae cum magna inter homines ac mirabilia faceret, videntes illa Judaei, magica potentia fieri putabant, ignorantes ea omnia, quae fiebant ab eo, praedicta 1052A esse a prophetis. Aegros et vario morborum genere languentes non medela aliqua, sed vi ac potestate verbi sui protinus roborabat, debiles resanabat, claudos ad gressum erigebat, caecis visum restituebat, mutis eloquium dabat, surdos inauribat, pollutos maculatosque purgabat, furiatis daemonum incursu mentem propriam reponebat, mortuos aut jam sepultos ad vitam lucemque revocabat. Idem quinque millia hominum quinque panibus et duobus piscibus saturavit. Idem supra mare ambulavit. Idem in tempestate praecepit vento, ut conquiesceret, statimque tranquillitas facta est: quae omnia, et in prophetarum libris, et in carminibus Sibyllinis praedicta invenimus.

Ob haec miracula cum ad eum magna concurreret multitudo, et, ut erat, Dei filium, et a Deo missum 1052B crederet, repleti invidia sacerdotes ac principes Judaeorum, simul ira concitati, quod eorum peccata et injustitiam coarguebat, coierunt ut eum occiderent. Quod futurum ante annos mille paulo amplius Salomon in Sapientia pronuntiaverat his verbis: Circumveniamus justum, quoniam insuavis est nobis, et exprobrat nobis peccata legis. Promittit scientiam Dei se habere, et filium Dei se nominat. Factus est nobis in traductionem cogitationum nostrarum; gravis est nobis etiam ad videndum, quoniam dissimilis est aliis vita illius, et mutatae sunt vioe illius. Tanquam nugaces aestimati sumus ab illo. Continet se a viis nostris, quasi ab immunditiis, et praefert novissima justorum, et gloriatur patrem Dominum. Videamus ergo si sermones illius veri sunt, et tentemus quae eventura sunt illi. Contumeliis 1052Cet tormentis interrogemus eum, ut sciamus reverentiam illius, et probemus patientiam illius. Morte turpissima condemnemus eum. Haec cogitaverunt, et erraverunt. Excaecavit enim illos stultitia eorum, et nescierunt sacramenta Dei.

Harum igitur litterarum immemores, quas legebant, incitaverunt populum tanquam adversus impium, ut eum comprehensum ad judicium ducerent, mortemque ejus impiis vocibus flagitarent. Intentabant 1053A autem pro crimine id ipsum, quod se Dei filium diceret, et quod legem solveret, curando homines in Sabbato, quam ille se non solvere, sed implere dicebat. Cumque Pontius Pilatus, qui tum legatus in Syria 1053A judicabat, perspiceret causam illam ad officium romani judicis non pertinere, misit eum ad Herodem Tetrarcham, permisitque Judaeis, ut ipsi legis suae disceptatores essent: qui, accepta sceleris potestate, addixerunt eum cruci, sed prius flagellis et palmis verberaverunt, spinis coronarunt, faciem conspuerunt, in cibum et potum dederunt ei fel et acetum; et inter haec nulla vox ejus audita est. Tunc carnifices sortiti de tunica ejus et pallio, suspenderunt eum patibulo atque affixerunt, cum postridie Pascha, id est, festum diem suum celebraturi essent. 1053B Quod facinus prodigia secuta sunt, ut intelligerent nefas quod admiserant. Eodem namque momento, quo spiritum posuit, et terrae motus magnus, et deliquium solis fuit, ut in noctem dies verteretur.