come as if they were already past. For just as it is impossible that things which have happened should not have happened, so is it impossible that this should not happen, although it be future. On this account they predict things to come under the semblance of past time, indic- ating by this means the impossibility of their failure, the certainty of their coming to pass. So also spake David, signifying the cross; “They pierced my hands and my feet.”637 He did not say they “shall pierce” but “they pierced” “they counted all my bones.”638 And not only does he say this, but he also describes the things which were done by the soldiers. “They parted my garments among themselves, and upon my vesture did they cast lots.”639 And not only this but he also relates they gave Him gall to eat, and vinegar to drink. For he says “they gave me gall for my food, and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.”640 And again another one says that they smote him with a spear, for “they shall look on Him whom they pierced.”641 Esaias again in another fashion predicting the cross said “He was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before his shearer is dumb, so openeth he not his mouth.” “In his humiliation his judgment was taken away.”642 2. Now observe I pray how each one of these writers speaks as if concerning things already past, signifying by the use of this tense the absolute inevitable certainty of the event. So also David, describing this tribunal, said, “Why did the heathen rage and the people imagine vain things? The Kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ.”643 And not only does he mention the trial, and the cross, and the incidents on the cross, but also him who betrayed him, declaring that he was his familiar companion and guest. “For,” he saith, “he that eateth bread with me did magnify his heel against me.”644 Thus also does he foretell the voice which Christ was to utter on the cross saying “My God, My God why hast thou forsaken me?”645 and the burial also does he describe: “They laid me in the lowest pit, in dark places, and in the shadow of death.”646 And the resurrection: “thou shalt not leave my soul in hell, neither shalt thou suffer thy Holy One to see corruption;”647 and the ascension: “God has gone up with a merry noise, 637 Ps. xxii. 17. 638 Ps. xxii. 18. 639 Ps. xxii. 19. 640 Ps. lxix. 22. 641 Zech. xii. 10. 642 Isa. liii. 7, 8. 643 Ps. ii. 1, 2. 644 Ps. xli. 9. 645 Ps. xxii. 1. 646 Ps. lxxxviii. 5. 647 Ps. xvi. 11. 278 Against Marcionists and Manichæans.