while the Church is scattered throughout all the world, and the “pillar and ground”802 of
the Church is the Gospel and the spirit of life; it is fitting that she should have four pillars,
breathing out immortality on every side, and vivifying men afresh. From which fact, it is
evident that the Word, the Artificer of all, He that sitteth upon the cherubim, and contains
all things, He who was manifested to men, has given us the Gospel under four aspects, but
bound together by one Spirit. As also David says, when entreating His manifestation, “Thou
that sittest between the cherubim, shine forth.”803 For the cherubim, too, were four-faced,
and their faces were images of the dispensation of the Son of God. For, [as the Scripture]
says, “The first living creature was like a lion,”804 symbolizing His effectual working, His
leadership, and royal power; the second [living creature] was like a calf, signifying [His]
sacrificial and sacerdotal order; but “the third had, as it were, the face as of a man,”—an
evident description of His advent as a human being; “the fourth was like a flying eagle,”
pointing out the gift of the Spirit hovering with His wings over the Church. And therefore
the Gospels are in accord with these things, among which Christ Jesus is seated. For that
according to John relates His original, effectual, and glorious generation from the Father,
thus declaring, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word
was God.”805 Also, “all things were made by Him, and without Him was nothing made.”
For this reason, too, is that Gospel full of all confidence, for such is His person.806 But that
according to Luke, taking up [His] priestly character, commenced with Zacharias the priest
offering sacrifice to God. For now was made ready the fatted calf, about to be immolated
for807 the finding again of the younger son. Matthew, again, relates His generation as a man,
saying, “The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham;”808
and also, “The birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise.” This, then, is the Gospel of His hu-
manity;809 for which reason it is, too, that [the character of] a humble and meek man is kept
up through the whole Gospel. Mark, on the other hand, commences with [a reference to]
the prophetical spirit coming down from on high to men, saying, “The beginning of the
Gospel of Jesus Christ, as it is written in Esaias the prophet,”—pointing to the winged aspect
of the Gospel; and on this account he made a compendious and cursory narrative, for such
802 1 Tim. iii. 15.
803 Ps. lxxx. 1.
804 Rev. iv. 7.
805 John i. 1.
806 The above is the literal rendering of this very obscure sentence; it is not at all represented in the Greek
here preserved.
807 The Greek is ὑπέρ: the Latin, “pro.”
808 Matt. i. 1, 18.
809 The Greek text of this clause, literally rendered, is, “This Gospel, then, is anthropomorphic.”
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Chapter XI—Proofs in continuation, extracted from St. John’s Gospel. The…