Chap. XI.—Of the Cause of the Incarnation of Christ.

When the Jews often resisted wholesome precepts, and departed from the divine law, going astray to the impious worship of false gods, then God filled just and chosen men with the Holy Spirit, appointing them as prophets in the midst of the people, by whom He might rebuke with threatening words the sins of the ungrateful people, and nevertheless exhort them to repent of their wickedness; for unless they did this, and, laying aside their vanities, return to their God, it would come to pass that He would change His covenant,554    Testamentum, properly the solemn declaration of a will.   that is, bestow555    Converteret, “turn to.”   the inheritance of eternal life upon foreign nations, and collect to Himself a more faithful people out of those who were aliens556    Alienigenis. Comp. Eph. ii. 12: “Aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise.”   by birth. But they, when rebuked by the prophets, not only rejected their words; but being offended because they were upbraided for their sins, they slew the prophets themselves with studied557    Exquisitis.   tortures: all which things are sealed up and preserved in the sacred writings. For the prophet Jeremiah says:558    Jer. xxv. 4–6.   “I sent to you my servants the prophets; I sent them before the morning light; but ye did not hearken, nor incline your ears to hear, when I spake unto you: let every one of you turn from his evil way, and from your most corrupt affections; and ye shall dwell in the land which I gave to you and to your fathers for ever.559    From generation to generation.   Walk ye not after strange gods, to serve them; and provoke me not to anger with the works of your hands, that I should destroy you.” The prophet Ezra560    Neh. ix. 26. The book of Nehemiah is called by the Greek writers the second book of Ezra. The words quoted are spoken by the Levites.   also, who was in the times of the same Cyrus by whom the Jews were restored, thus speaks: “They rebelled against Thee, and cast Thy law behind their backs, and slew Thy prophets which testified against them, that they might turn unto Thee.”  

The prophet Elias also, in the third book of Kings:561    Kings xix. 10. The 1st and 2d Samuel are in the Septuagint 1st and 2d Kings, and 1st and 2d Kings are 3d and 4th.   “I have been very jealous562    I have been jealous with jealousy—Æmulando æmulatus sum,—a Hebraism. So Luke xxii. 15; John iii. 29.   for the Lord God of hosts, because the children of Israel have forsaken Thee, thrown down Thine altars, and slain Thy prophets with the sword; and I only am left, and they seek my life to take it away.” On account of these impieties of theirs He cast them off for ever;563    Fathers were said to disown (abdicare) and cast off degenerate sons.   and so He ceased to send to them prophets. But He commanded His own Son, the first-begotten,564    Thus Col. i. 18, “who is the beginning, the first-born from the dead.”   the maker of all things, His own counsellor, to descend from heaven, that He might transfer the sacred religion of God to the Gentiles,565    The nations.   that is, to those who were ignorant of God, and might teach them righteousness, which the perfidious people had cast aside. And He had long before threatened that He would do this, as the prophet Malachi566    Mal. i. 10, 11.   shows, saying: “I have no pleasure in you, saith the Lord, and I will not accept an offering from your hands; for from the rising of the sun even unto its setting, my name shall be great567    In the Septuagint δεδόξασται, “has been glorified.”   among the Gentiles.” David also in the seventeenth Psalm568    Ps. xviii. 43. The quotation is from the Septuagint, καταστήεις; our version reads, “Thou hast made me.”   says: “Thou wilt make me the head of the heathen; a people whom I have not known shall serve me.” Isaiah569    Isa. lxvi. 18, 19. The quotation is again taken from the Septuagint.   also thus speaks: “I come to gather all nations and tongues; and they shall come and see my glory; and I will send among them a sign, and I will send those that escape of them unto the nations which are afar off, which have not heard my fame; and they shall declare my glory among the Gentiles.” Therefore, when God wished to send to the earth one who should measure570    See Ezek. xli., where an angel measures the temple; and Rev. xi., where an angel directs John to measure it.   His temple, He was unwilling to send him with heavenly power and glory, that the people who had been ungrateful towards God might be led into the greatest error, and suffer punishment for their crimes, since they had not received their Lord and God, as the prophets had before foretold that it would thus happen. For Isaiah whom the Jews most cruelly slew, cutting him asunder with a saw,571    The Scriptures do not make mention of the death of Isaiah. It is supposed that there is an allusion to it in Heb. xi. 37.   thus speaks:572    Isa. i. 2, 3.   “Hear, O heaven; and give ear, O earth: for the Lord hath spoken, I have begotten sons, and lifted573    Filios genui et exaltavi. This is quoted from the Septuagint.   them up on high, and they have rejected me. The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s stall; but Israel hath not known, my people has not understood.” Jeremiah also says, in like manner:574    Jer. viii. 7–9.   “The turtle and the swallow hath known her time, and the sparrows of the field have observed575    This is quoted from the Septuagint; literally, have watched for, custodierunt.   the times of their coming: but my people have not known the judgment of the Lord. How do you say, We are wise, and the law of the Lord is with us? The meting out576    Metatura. There is considerable difference in the readings of this passage. The text, as given above, deviates considerably from the Septuagint, which is more nearly expressed by the reading of other editions: “Incassum facta est metatura falsa, scribæ confusi sunt.”   is in vain; the scribes are deceived and confounded: the wise men are dismayed and taken, for they have rejected the word of the Lord.”  

Therefore (as I had begun to say), when God had determined to send to men a teacher of righteousness, He commanded Him to be born again a second time in the flesh, and to be made in the likeness of man himself, to whom he was about to be a guide, and companion, and teacher. But since God is kind and merciful577    Pius. The word is often used to represent kindness.   to His people, He sent Him to those very persons whom He hated,578    Men are represented as being enemies to God. The enmity is on man’s side, but if persisted in, must make God his enemy. See Rom. v. 9, 10, and Isa. lxiii. 10.   that He might not close the way of salvation against them for ever, but might give them a free opportunity of following God, that they might both gain the reward of life if they should follow Him (which many of them do, and have done), and that they might incur the penalty of death by their fault if they should reject their King. He ordered Him therefore to be born again among them, and of their seed, lest, if He should be born of another nation, they might be able to allege a just excuse from the law for their rejection of Him; and at the same time, that there might be no nation at all under heaven to which the hope of immortality should be denied.  

CAPUT XI. De causa Incarnationis Christi.

Cum saepe Judaei praeceptis salutaribus repugnarent, atque a divina lege dosciscerent, aberrantes ad impios cultus deorum, tum Deus justos et electos viros Spiritu sancto implebat, prophetas in media plebe constituens, per quos peccata ingrati populi verbis minacibus increparet, et nihilominus hortaretur ad poenitentiam sceleris agendam, quam nisi egissent, atque abjectis vanitatibus ad Deum suum rediissent, fore, ut testamentum suum mutaret, id est, 0475B haereditatem vitae immortalis ad exteras converteret nationes, aliumque sibi populum fideliorem ex alienigenis congregaret. Illi autem a prophetis increpati, non modo verba eorum respuerunt, sed quod sibi peccata exprobrarentur offensi, eos ipsos exquisitis cruciatibus necaverunt: quae omnia divinae litterae signata conservant. Dicit enim propheta Jeremias: Misi ad vos servos meos prophetas: ante lucem mittebam, et non audiebatis me, neque intendebatis auribus vestris, cum dicerem vobis: «Convertatur unusquisque 0476A a via sua mala, et a nequissimis affectionibus vestris, et habitabitis in terra ista, quam dedi vobis et patribus vestris a saeculo usque in saeculum. Nolite ambulare post deos alienos ut serviatis eis, et ne incitetis me in operibus manuum vestrarum, ad disperdendos vos.» Esdras etiam propheta, qui fuit ejusdem Cyri temporibus, a quo Judaei sunt restituti, sic loquitur: Desciverunt a te, et abjecerunt legem tuam post corpus suum, et prophetas tuos interfecerunt, qui obtestabantur eos ut reverterentur ad te.

Item Helias in libro Βασιλεῶν tertio (cap. XIX): Aemulando aemulatus sum Domino Deo omnipotenti, quia dereliquerunt te filii Israel, et altaria tua demolierunt, et prophetas tuos interfecerunt gladio, et remansi ego solitarius, et quaerunt animam meam auferre a me. Propter has illorum impietates abdicavit eos in perpetuum: 0476B itaque desiit prophetas mittere ad eos. Sed illum filium suum primogenitum, illum opificem rerum, et consiliatorem suum delabi jussit e coelo, ut religionem sanctam Dei transferret ad gentes, id est, ad eos, qui Deum ignorabant; doceretque justitiam, quam perfidus populus abjecerat; quod jampridem denuntiaverat se esse facturum, sicut Malachias propheta indicat, dicens: Non est mihi voluntas circa vos, dicit Dominus, et sacrificium acceptum non habebo ex manibus vestris; quoniam a solis ortu usque ad occasum 0477A clarificabitur 0477A nomen meum apud gentes. Item David in psalmo XVII: Constitues me in caput gentium: populus, quem non cognovi, serviet mihi. Esaias quoque sic loquitur (scil. ult. cap.): Venio colligere omnes gentes, et linguas, et venient, et videbunt claritatem meam, et dimittam super eos signum, et mittam ex his conservatos in gentes quae longe sunt, quae non audierunt gloriam meam, et nuntiabunt claritatem meam in gentes. Volens igitur Deus metatorem templi sui mittere in terram (Ezech. XLI, Apoc. XI), noluit eum in potestate et claritate coelesti mittere, ut ingratus in Deum populus in errorem maximum induceretur, ac poenas pro facinoribus suis lueret, qui dominum ac Deum suum non recepisset; quod olim prophetae cecinerant, sic esse facturum. Esaias enim, quem ipsi 0477B Judaei serra confectum crudelissime necaverunt, ita dicit (cap. 1): Audi coelum, et percipe auribus terra, quoniam Dominus locutus est: Filios genui, et exaltavi; ipsi autem spreverunt me. Agnovit bos possessorem suum, et asinus praesepium domini sui; Israel autem me non cognovit, et populus meus me non intellexit.

Hieremias quoque similiter ait (cap. 8): Cognovit tempus suum turtur et hirundo, et ruris passeres custodierunt tempora introitus sui: populus autem meus non cognovit judicium Domini. Quomodo dicitis, sapientes sumus, et lex Domini nobiscum est? Incassum facta est metatura; falsi scribae, et confusi sunt; sapientes trepidaverunt, 0478A et capti sunt, quoniam verbum Domini reprobaverunt. Ergo (ut coeperam dicere) cum statuisset Deus doctorem virtutis mittere ad homines, renasci eum denuo in carne praecepit, et ipsi homini similem fieri, cui dux, et comes, et magister esset futurus. Sed tamen quoniam clemens est et pius erga suos Deus, ad eos ipsos eum misit, quos oderat, ne illis in perpetuum salutis viam clauderet; sed daret his liberam facultatem sequendi Deum, ut et praemium vitae adipiscerentur, si secuti fuissent, quod plurimi eorum faciunt, atque fecerunt, et culpa sua in poenam mortis incurrerent, si regem suum repudiassent. Apud illos igitur, et ex eorum semine regenerari eum jussit, ne, si fuisset alienigena, justam possent excusationem de lege praetendere, quod eum 0478B non suscepissent; simul, ut nulla omnino gens esset in terra, cui spes immortalitatis negaretur.