Chapter III.—Jesus Christ in His Incarnation and Work a More Imitable Example Thereof.

And this species of the divine patience indeed being, as it were, at a distance, may perhaps be esteemed as among “things too high for us;”13    So Mr. Dodgson; and La Cerda, as quoted by Oehler. See Ps. cxxxi. 1 in LXX., where it is Ps. cxxx. but what is that which, in a certain way, has been grasped by hand14    1 John i. 1. among men openly on the earth? God suffers Himself to be conceived in a mother’s womb, and awaits the time for birth; and, when born, bears the delay of growing up; and, when grown up, is not eager to be recognised, but is furthermore contumelious to Himself, and is baptized by His own servant; and repels with words alone the assaults of the tempter; while from being “Lord” He becomes “Master,” teaching man to escape death, having been trained to the exercise of the absolute forbearance of offended patience.15    I have followed Oehler’s reading of this very difficult and much disputed passage. For the expression, “having been trained,” etc., compare Heb. v. 8. He did not strive; He did not cry aloud; nor did any hear His voice in the streets.  He did not break the bruised reed; the smoking flax He did not quench: for the prophet—nay, the attestation of God Himself, placing His own Spirit, together with patience in its entirety, in His Son—had not falsely spoken. There was none desirous of cleaving to Him whom He did not receive. No one’s table or roof did He despise: indeed, Himself ministered to the washing of the disciples’ feet; not sinners, not publicans, did He repel; not with that city even which had refused to receive Him was He wroth,16    Luke ix. 51–56. when even the disciples had wished that the celestial fires should be forthwith hurled on so contumelious a town. He cared for the ungrateful; He yielded to His ensnarers. This were a small matter, if He had not had in His company even His own betrayer, and stedfastly abstained from pointing him out. Moreover, while He is being betrayed, while He is being led up “as a sheep for a victim,” (for “so He no more opens His mouth than a lamb under the power of the shearer,”)He to whom, had He willed it, legions of angels would at one word have presented themselves from the heavens, approved not the avenging sword of even one disciple. The patience of the Lord was wounded in (the wound of) Malchus. And so, too, He cursed for the time to come the works of the sword; and, by the restoration of health, made satisfaction to him whom Himself had not hurt, through Patience, the mother of Mercy. I pass by in silence (the fact) that He is crucified, for this was the end for which He had come; yet had the death which must be undergone need of contumelies likewise?17    Or, “yet had there been need of contumelies likewise for the undergoing of death?”Nay, but, when about to depart, He wished to be sated with the pleasure of patience. He is spitted on, scourged, derided, clad foully, more foully crowned.  Wondrous is the faith of equanimity!  He who had set before Him the concealing of Himself in man’s shape, imitated nought of man’s impatience! Hence, even more than from any other trait, ought ye, Pharisees, to have recognised the Lord. Patience of this kind none of men would achieve. Such and so mighty evidences—the very magnitude of which proves to be among the nations indeed a cause for rejection of the faith, but among us its reason and rearing—proves manifestly enough (not by the sermons only, in enjoining, but likewise by the sufferings of the Lord in enduring) to them to whom it is given to believe, that as the effect and excellence of some inherent propriety, patience is God’s nature.

CAPUT III.

Et haec quidem divinae patientiae species, quasi de longinquo fors, ut de supernis, aestimetur. Quid 1252B illa autem quae inter homines palam in terris quodammodo manu apprehensa est? Nasci se Deus in utero patitur matris, et exspectat, natus adolescere sustinet, et adultus non gestit agnosci, sed contumeliosus insuper sibi est , et a servo suo tingitur , et 1253A tentatoris congressus solis verbis repellit , cum de Domino fit magister, docens hominem evadere ad salutem, scilicet veniam offensae patientiae eruditus, non contendit, non reclamavit, nec quisquam in plateis vocem ejus audivit, arundinem quassatam non fregit, linum fumigans non restinxit (Is. XLII). Nec enim mentitus fuerat propheta, imo ipsius Dei contestatio, Spiritum suum in Filio cum tota patientia collocantis (Joan., XIII, Matth. IX, Luc. IX, Luc. XVII, Matth. XIV, Matth. XXVI, Is. LIII, Matth. XXIX, Joan. XVIII, Matth: XXVI, Matth. XXVII, Marc. XV, Luc. XXIII, Joan. XIX). Nullum volentem sibi adhaerere non suscepit; nullius mensam tectumve despexit: aquam ipse lavandis discipulorum pedibus ministravit. Non peccatores, non publicanos adspernatus est. Non illi saltim 1253B civitati quae eum recipere noluerat, iratus est, cum etiam discipuli tam contumelioso oppido coelestes ignes repraesentari voluissent. Ingratos curavit, insidiatoribus cessit. Parum hoc, si non etiam proditorem suum secum habuit, nec constanter denotavit. Cum vero traditur, cum adducitur ut pecus ad victimam, sic enim non magis aperit os, quam agnus sub tondentis potestate, ille, cui legiones angelorum, si voluisset, uno dicto de coelis adfuissent, 1254A ne unius quidem discentis gladium ultorem probavit. Patientia Domini in Malcho vulnerata est. Itaque et gladii opera maledixit in posterum, et sanitatis restitutione ei, quem non ipse vexaverat, satisfecit, per patientiam, misericordiae matrem. Taceo quod figitur, in hoc enim venerat. Numquid tamen subeundae morti etiam contumeliis opus fuerat? Sed saginari voluptate patientiae discessurus volebat. Despuitur, verberatur, deridetur, foedis vestitur, foedioribus coronatur. Mira aequanimitatis fides. Qui in hominis figura proposuerat latere, nihil de impatientia hominis imitatus est. Hinc vel maxime pharisaei Dominum agnoscere debuistis: patientiam hujusmodi nemo hominum perpetraret. Talia tantaque documenta, quorum magnitudo penes nationes quidem detrectatio fidei est, penes nos vero ratio et structio , satis aperte, non sermonibus modo in 1254B praecipiendo, sed etiam passionibus Domini sustinendo, probant his, quibus credere datum est, patientiam Dei esse naturam , effectum et praestantiam ingenitae cujusdam proprietatis.