Chapter VII.—Prophecy Sets Forth Two Different Conditions of Christ, One Lowly, the Other Majestic. This Fact Points to Two Advents of Christ.

Our heretic will now have the fullest opportunity of learning the clue859    Rationem. of his errors along with the Jew himself, from whom he has borrowed his guidance in this discussion. Since, however, the blind leads the blind, they fall into the ditch together. We affirm that, as there are two conditions demonstrated by the prophets to belong to Christ, so these presignified the same number of advents; one, and that the first, was to be in lowliness,860    Humilitate. when He had to be led as a sheep to be slain as a victim, and to be as a lamb dumb before the shearer, not opening His mouth, and not fair to look upon.861    A reference to, rather than quotation from, Isa. liii. 7. For, says (the prophet), we have announced concerning Him: “He is like a tender plant,862    Sicut puerulus, “like a little boy,” or, “a sorry slave.” like a root out of a thirsty ground; He hath no form nor comeliness; and we beheld Him, and He was without beauty:  His form was disfigured;”863    Isa. liii. 2, 3, according to the Septuagint. “marred more than the sons of men; a man stricken with sorrows, and knowing how to bear our infirmity;”864    See Isa. lii. 14; liii. 3, 4. “placed by the Father as a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence;”865    Isa. viii. 14. “made by Him a little lower than the angels;”866    Ps. viii. 6. declaring Himself to be “a worm and not a man, a reproach of men, and despised of the people.”867    Ps. xxii. 7. Now these signs of degradation quite suit His first coming, just as the tokens of His majesty do His second advent, when He shall no longer remain “a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence,” but after His rejection become “the chief corner-stone,” accepted and elevated to the top place868    Consummationem: an allusion to Zech. iv. 7. of the temple, even His church, being that very stone in Daniel, cut out of the mountain, which was to smite and crush the image of the secular kingdom.869    See Dan. ii. 34. Of this advent the same prophet says: “Behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days; and they brought Him before Him, and there was given Him dominion and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away; and His kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.”870    Dan. vii. 13, 14. Then indeed He shall have both a glorious form, and an unsullied beauty above the sons of men. “Thou art fairer,” says (the Psalmist), “than the children of men; grace is poured into Thy lips; therefore God hath blessed Thee for ever. Gird Thy sword upon Thy thigh, O most mighty, with Thy glory and Thy majesty.”871    Ps. xlv. 2, 3. For the Father, after making Him a little lower than the angels, “will crown Him with glory and honour, and put all things under His feet.”872    Ps. viii. 5, 6. “Then shall they look on Him whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for Him, tribe after tribe;”873    Zech. xii. 10, 12. because, no doubt, they once refused to acknowledge Him in the lowliness of His human condition. He is even a man, says Jeremiah, and who shall recognise Him.  Therefore, asks Isaiah, “who shall declare His generation?”874    Isa. liii. 8. So also in Zechariah, Christ Jesus, the true High Priest of the Father, in the person of Joshua, nay, in the very mystery of His name,875    Joshua, i.e., Jesus. is portrayed in a twofold dress with reference to both His advents. At first He is clad in sordid garments, that is to say, in the lowliness of suffering and mortal flesh: then the devil resisted Him, as the instigator of the traitor Judas, not to mention his tempting Him after His baptism: afterwards He was stripped of His first filthy raiment, and adorned with the priestly robe876    Podere. and mitre, and a pure diadem;877    Cidari munda. in other words, with the glory and honour of His second advent.878    See Zech. iii. If I may offer, moreover, an interpretation of the two goats which were presented on “the great day of atonement,”879    Jejunio, see Lev. xvi. 5, 7, etc. do they not also figure the two natures of Christ? They were of like size, and very similar in appearance, owing to the Lord’s identity of aspect; because He is not to come in any other form, having to be recognised by those by whom He was also wounded and pierced. One of these goats was bound880    Circumdatus. with scarlet,881    Perhaps in reference to Heb. ix. 19. and driven by the people out of the camp882    Civitatem, “city.” into the wilderness,883    In perditionem. amid cursing, and spitting, and pulling, and piercing,884    This treatment of the scape-goat was partly ceremonial, partly disorderly. The Mischna (Yoma vi. 4–6) mentions the scarlet ribbon which was bound round the animal’s head between the horns, and the “pulling” (rather plucking out of its hair); but this latter was an indignity practised by scoffers and guarded against by Jews. Tertullian repeats the whole of this passage, Adv. Jud. xiv. Similar use is made of the type of the scape-goat by other fathers, as Justin Martyr (Dial. cum Tryph.) and Cyril of Alex. (Epist. ad Acacium). In this book ix. Against Julian, he expressly says: “Christ was described by the two goats,—as dying for us in the flesh, and then (as shown by the scape-goat) overcoming death in His divine nature.”  See Tertullian’s passages illustrated fully in Rabbi Chiga, Addit. ad Cod. de die Expiat. (in Ugolini, Thes. i. 88). being thus marked with all the signs of the Lord’s own passion; while the other, by being offered up for sins, and given to the priests of the temple for meat, afforded proofs of His second appearance, when (after all sins have been expiated) the priests of the spiritual temple, that is, the church, are to enjoy the flesh, as it were,885    Quasi visceratione. [See Kaye’s important comment, p. 426.] of the Lord’s own grace, whilst the residue go away from salvation without tasting it.886    Jejunantibus. Since, therefore, the first advent was prophetically declared both as most obscure in its types, and as deformed with every kind of indignity, but the second as glorious and altogether worthy of God, they would on this very account, while confining their regards to that which they were easily able both to understand and to believe, even the second advent, be not undeservedly deceived respecting the more obscure, and, at any rate, the more lowly first coming.  Accordingly, to this day they deny that their Christ has come, because He has not appeared in majesty, while they ignore the fact that He was to come also in lowliness.

CAPUT VII.

Discat nunc haereticus ex abundanti cum ipso licebit Judaeo, rationem quoque errorum ejus, a quo ducatum mutuatus, in hac argumentatione, caecus a caeco in eamdem decidit foveam. Duos dicimus Christi habitus, a Prophetis demonstratos, totidem adventus ejus praenotasse: unum in humilitate, utique primum; 0329C cum (Is. XLIII, 7 et seq.) tanquam ovis ad victimam deduci habeat, et tanquam agnus ante tondentem sine voce, ita non aperiens os suum; nec adspectu quidem honestus. Annuntiavimus enim, inquit, de illo; sicut puerulus, sicut radix in terra sitienti; et non est species ejus, neque gloria. Et vidimus eum, et non habebat speciem, neque decorem; sed species ejus inhonorata, deficiens citra filios hominum; homo in plagit, et sciens ferre infirmitatem, ut (Is. LIII, 14) positus 0330A a Patre in lapidem offensionis et petram scandali; minoratus (Ps. VIII, 6) ab eo modicum citra angelos; vermem se pronuntians (Ps. XXI, 6), et non hominem; ignominiam hominis, et nullificamen populi. Quae ignobilitatis argumenta primo adventui competunt, sicut sublimitatis secundo; cum fiet jam non lapis offensionis, nec petra scandali; sed lapis summus angularis, post reprobationem assumptus, et sublimatus in consummationem templi, Ecclesiae scilicet; et petra sane illa, apud Danielem (c. II), de monte praecisa, quae imaginem saecularium regnorum comminuet et conteret. De quo secundo adventu idem prophetes (Dan, VII, 13): Et ecce cum nubibus coeli tanquam filius hominis veniens, venit usque ad veterem dierum, et aderat in conspectu ejus: et qui assistebant, 0330B adduxerunt illum, et data est ei potestas regia, et omnes nationes terrae secundum genera, et omnis gloria famulabunda; et potestas ejus usque in aevum, quae non auferetur; et regnum ejus, quod non vitabitur. Tunc scilicet habiturus et speciem honorabilem, et decorem indeficientem supra filios hominum. Tempestivus enim, inquit (Ps. XLIV, 3), decore citra filios hominum; effusa est gratia in labiis tuis: propterea benedixit te Deus in aevum. Accingere ensem super femur tuum, potens, tempestivitate tua et pulchritudine tua; cum et Pater, posteaquam (Ps. VIII, 6) diminuit eum modicum quid citra angelos, gloria et honore coronabit illum, et subjiciet omnia sub pedibus ejus. Tunc et (Zach. XII, 10) cognoscent eum, qui compugerunt; et caedent pectora sua tribus ad tribum; utique 0330C quod retro non agnoverunt cum in humilitate conditionis humanae constitutum . Et homo est, inquit Hieremias (Jerem. XVII, 9); et quis cognoscet illum? quia et, Nativitatem ejus, inquit Isaias (Is. LIII, 8), quis enarrabit? Sic et apud Zachariam (Zach. III), in persona Jesu, imo et in ipsius hominis sacramento verus summus sacerdos Patris Christus Jesus, duplici habitu in duos adventus deliniatur. Primo, sordidis indutus, id est, carnis passibilis et mortalis 0331A indignitate, cum et diabolus adversabatur ei, auctor scilicet Judae traditoris, ne dicam etiam post baptisma tentator. Dehinc (Zach. III, 5), despoliatus pristinas sordes, et exornatus podere, et mitra, et cidari munda, id est, secundi adventus gloria et honore. Si enim (Levit. XVI) et duorum hircorum qui jejunio offerebantur faciam interpretationem, nonne et illi utrumque ordinem Christi figurant? Pares quidem atque consimiles propter eumdem Dominum conspectum, quia non in alia venturus est forma, ut qui agnosci habeat, a quibus et laesus est. Alter autem eorum circumdatus coccino, maledictus, et consputatus , et convulsus, et compunctus a populo extra civitatem abjiciebatur in perditionem, manifestis notatus insignibus dominicae passionis. 0331B Alter vero pro delictis oblatus, et sacerdotibus templi in pabulum datus, secundae repraesentationis argumenta signabat, qua, delictis omnibus expiatis, sacerdotes templi spiritalis, id est Ecclesiae, dominicae gratiae quasi visceratione quadam fruerentur, jejunantibus caeteris a salute. Igitur, quoniam primus adventus, et plurimum figuris obscuratus, et omni inhonestate prostratus canebatur; secundus vero et manifestus, et Deo condignus; idcirco, quem facile et intelligere et credere potuerunt , eum solum intuentes, id est secundum, qui est in honore et gloria , non immerito decepti sunt circa obscuriorem, certe indigniorem, id est primum. Atque ita in hodiernum negant venisse Christum suum, quia non in sublimitate venerit, dum ignorant etiam in humilitate 0331C fuisse venturum.