Chapter 22.—Of the Six Ages of the World.

39. “Five ages of the world, accordingly, having been now completed (there has entered the sixth). Of these ages the first is from the beginning of the human race, that is, from Adam, who was the first man that was made, down to Noah, who constructed the ark at the time of the flood.134    Gen. vi. 22 Then the second extends from that period on to Abraham, who was called135    Instead of dictus est the mss. give also electus est = was chosen to be. the father indeed of all nations136    Gen. xvii. 4 which should follow the example of his faith, but who at the same time in the way of natural descent from his own flesh was the father of the destined people of the Jews; which people, previous to the entrance of the Gentiles into the Christian faith, was the one people among all the nations of all lands that worshipped the one true God: from which people also Christ the Saviour was decreed to come according to the flesh. For these turning-points137    articuli = articles. of those two ages occupy an eminent place in the ancient books. On the other hand, those of the other three ages are also declared in the Gospel,138    Matt. i. 17 where the descent of the Lord Jesus Christ according to the flesh is likewise mentioned. For the third age extends from Abraham on to David the king; the fourth from David on to that captivity whereby the people of God passed over into Babylonia; and the fifth from that transmigration down to the advent of our Lord Jesus Christ. With His coming the sixth age has entered on its process; so that now the spiritual grace, which in previous times was known to a few patriarchs and prophets, may be made manifest to all nations; to the intent that no man should worship God but freely,139    Gratis. fondly desiring of Him not the visible rewards of His services and the happiness of this present life, but that eternal life alone in which he is to enjoy God Himself: in order that in this sixth age the mind of man may be renewed after the image of God, even as on the sixth day man was made after the image of God.140    Gen. i. 27 For then, too, is the law fulfilled, when all that it has commanded is done, not in the strong desire for things temporal, but in the love of Him who has given the commandment. Who is there, moreover, who should not be earnestly disposed to give the return of love to a God of supreme righteousness and also of supreme mercy, who has first loved men of the greatest unrighteousness and the loftiest pride, and that, too, so deeply as to have sent in their behalf His only Son, by whom He made all things, and who being made man, not by any change of Himself, but by the assumption of human nature, was designed thus to become capable not only of living with them, but also of dying at once for them and by their hands?

40. “Thus, then, showing forth the New Testament of our everlasting inheritance, wherein man was to be renewed by the grace of God and lead a new life, that is, a spiritual life; and with the view of exhibiting the first one as an old dispensation, wherein a carnal people acting out the old man (with the exception of a few patriarchs and prophets, who had understanding, and some hidden saints), and leading a carnal life, desiderated carnal rewards at the hands of the Lord God, and received in that fashion but the figures of spiritual blessings;—with this intent, I say, the Lord Christ, when made man, despised all earthly good things, in order that He might show us how these things ought to be despised; and He endured all earthly ills which He was inculcating as things needful to be endured; so that neither might our happiness be sought for in the former class, nor our unhappiness be apprehended in the latter. For being born of a mother who, although she conceived without being touched by man and always remained thus untouched, in virginity conceiving, in virginity bringing forth, in virginity dying, had nevertheless been espoused to a handicraftsman, He extinguished all the inflated pride of carnal nobility. Moreover, being born in the city of Bethlehem, which among all the cities of Judæa was so insignificant that even in our own day it is designated a village, He willed not that any one should glory in the exalted position of any city of earth. He, too, whose are all things and by whom all things were created, was made poor, in order that no one, while believing in Him, might venture to boast himself in earthly riches. He refused to be made by men a king, because He displayed the pathway of humility to those unhappy ones whom pride had separated from Him;141    Reading ab eo; for which some editions give ab ea = from that humility. and yet universal creation attests the fact of His everlasting kingdom. An hungered was He who feeds all men; athirst was He by whom is created whatsoever is drunk, and who in a spiritual manner is the bread of the hungry and the fountain of the thirsty; in journeying on earth, wearied was He who has made Himself the way for us into heaven; as like one dumb and deaf in the presence of His revilers was He by whom the dumb spoke and the deaf heard; bound was He who freed us from the bonds of infirmities; scourged was He who expelled from the bodies of man the scourges of all distresses; crucified was He who put an end to our crucial pains;142    There is a play in the words here: crucifixus est qui cruciatus nostros finivit. dead did He become who raised the dead. But He also rose again, no more to die, so that no one should from Him learn so to contemn death as if he were never to live again.

CAPUT XXII.

39. Aetates mundi sex. Sexta aetas ex adventu Christi. Christus Novum Testamentum sempiternae haereditatis manifestans, terrena contemnere exemplo docet. Nativitas ejus, vita et mors. Peractis ergo quinque aetatibus saeculi, quarum prima est ab initio generis humani, id est, ab Adam, qui primus homo factus est, usque ad Noe, qui fecit arcam in diluvio (Gen. VI); inde secunda est usque ad Abraham, qui pater dictus est omnium quidem gentium (Id. XVII, 4), quae fidem ipsius imitarentur; sed tamen ex propagine carnis suae futuri populi Judaeorum: qui ante fidem christianam gentium, unus inter omnes omnium terrarum populus unum verum Deum coluit, ex quo populo salvator Christus secundum carnem veniret. Isti enim articuli duarum aetatum eminent in veteribus Libris: reliquarum autem trium in Evangelio etiam declarantur, cum carnalis origo Domini Jesu Christi commemoratur (Matth. I, 17). Nam tertia est ab Abraham usque ad David regem: quarta a David usque ad illam captivitatem qua populus Dei in Babyloniam transmigravit: quinta ab illa transmigratione usque ad adventum Domini nostri Jesu Christi; ex cujus adventu sexta aetas agitur: ut jam spiritualis gratia, quae paucis tunc Patriarchis et Prophetis nota erat, manifestaretur omnibus gentibus: ne quisquam Deum nisi gratis coleret, non visibilia praemia servitutis suae et praesentis vitae felicitatem, sed solam vitam aeternam, in qua ipso Deo frueretur, ab illo desiderans; ut hac sexta aetate mens humana renovetur ad imaginem Dei, sicut sexta die homo factus est ad imaginem Dei (Gen. I, 27). Tunc enim et lex impletur, dum non cupiditate rerum temporalium, 0339 sed charitate illius qui praecepit, fiunt quaecumque praecepit. Quis autem non redamare affectet justissimum et misericordissimum Deum, qui prior sic amavit injustissimos et superbissimos homines, ut propter eos mitteret unicum Filium, per quem fecit omnia; qui non sui mutatione, sed hominis assumptione homo factus, non solum cum eis vivere, sed etiam pro eis et ab eis posset occidi?

40. Itaque novum testamentum haereditatis sempiternae manifestans, in quo renovatus homo per gratiam Dei ageret novam vitam, hoc est vitam spiritualem; ut vetus ostenderet primum, in quo carnalis populus agens veterem hominem, exceptis paucis intelligentibus Patriarchis et Prophetis et nonnullis latentibus sanctis, carnaliter vivens carnalia praemia desiderabat a Domino Deo, et in figura spiritualium bonorum accipiebat: omnia ergo bona terrena contempsit homo factus Dominus Christus, ut contemnenda monstraret; et omnia terrena sustinuit mala, quae sustinenda praecipiebat: ut neque in illis quaereretur felicitas, neque in istis infelicitas timeretur. Natus enim de matre quae quamvis a viro intacta conceperit, semperque intacta permanserit, virgo concipiens, virgo pariens, virgo moriens, tamen fabro desponsata erat, omnem typhum carnalis nobilitatis exstinxit. Natus etiam in civitate Bethlehem, quae inter omnes Judaeae civitates ita erat exigua, ut hodieque villa appelletur, noluit quemquam de cujusquam terrenae civitatis sublimitate gloriari. Pauper etiam factus est, cujus sunt omnia, et per quem creata sunt omnia; ne quisquam cum in eum crederet, de terrenis divitiis auderet extolli. Noluit rex ab hominibus fieri; quia humilitatis ostendebat viam miseris, quos ab eo superbia separaverat: quamvis sempiternum ejus regnum universa creatura testetur. Esurivit, qui omnes pascit; sitivit, per quem creatur omnis potus, et qui spiritualiter panis est esurientium fonsque sitientium: ab itinere terrestri fatigatus est, qui se ipsum nobis viam fecit in coelum: velut obmutuit et obsurduit coram conviciantibus, per quem mutus locutus est et surdus audivit: vinctus est, qui de infirmitatum vinculis solvit: flagellatus est, qui omnium dolorum flagella de hominum corporibus expulit: crucifixus est, qui cruciatus nostros finivit: mortuus est, qui mortuos suscitavit. Sed et resurrexit nunquam moriturus, ne ab illo quisquam sic disceret mortem contemnere, quasi nunquam victurus .