Chapter LXXVI.—From other passages the same majesty and government of
Christ are proved.
“For when Daniel speaks of ‘one like unto the Son of man’ who received the everlasting
kingdom, does he not hint at this very thing? For he declares that, in saying ‘like unto the
Son of man,’ He appeared, and was man, but not of human seed. And the same thing he
proclaimed in mystery when he speaks of this stone which was cut out without hands. For
the expression ‘it was cut out without hands’ signified that it is not a work of man, but [a
work] of the will of the Father and God of all things, who brought Him forth. And when
Isaiah says, ‘Who shall declare His generation?’ he meant that His descent could not be de-
clared. Now no one who is a man of men has a descent that cannot be declared. And when
Moses says that He will wash His garments in the blood of the grape, does not this signify
what I have now often told you is an obscure prediction, namely, that He had blood, but
not from men; just as not man, but God, has begotten the blood of the vine? And when
Isaiah calls Him the Angel of mighty counsel,470 did he not foretell Him to be the Teacher
of those truths which He did teach when He came [to earth]? For He alone taught openly
those mighty counsels which the Father designed both for all those who have been and shall
be well-pleasing to Him, and also for those who have rebelled against His will, whether men
or angels, when He said: ‘They shall come from the east [and from the west471], and shall
sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven: but the children
of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness.’472 And, ‘Many shall say to Me in that
day, Lord, Lord, have we not eaten, and drunk, and prophesied, and cast out demons in Thy
name? And I will say to them, Depart from Me.’473 Again, in other words, by which He shall
condemn those who are unworthy of salvation, He said, ‘Depart into outer darkness, which
the Father has prepared for Satan and his, angels.’474 And again, in other words, He said, ‘I
give unto you power to tread on serpents, and on scorpions, and on scolopendras, and on
all the might of the enemy.’475 And now we, who believe on our Lord Jesus, who was crucified
under Pontius Pilate, when we exorcise all demons and evil spirits, have them subjected to
us. For if the prophets declared obscurely that Christ would suffer, and thereafter be Lord
of all, yet that [declaration] could not be understood by any man until He Himself persuaded
the apostles that such statements were expressly related in the Scriptures. For He exclaimed
470 [Isa. ix. 6, according to LXX.]
471 Not in all edd.
472 Matt. viii. 11.
473 Matt. vii. 22.
474 Matt. xxv. 41.
475 Luke x. 19. [“And on scolopendras” (i.e. centipedes) not in the original.]
Chapter LXXVI.—From other passages the same majesty and government of Christ are proved.
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Chapter LXXVI.—From other passages the same majesty and government of Christ…