five loaves of bread, and twelve baskets of fragments remained over and above. Then, when
He had raised Lazarus from the dead, and plots were formed against Him by the Pharisees,
He withdrew to a city called Ephraim; and from that place, as it is written “He came to
Bethany six days before the passover,”482 and going up from Bethany to Jerusalem, He there
ate the passover, and suffered on the day following. Now, that these three occasions of the
passover are not included within one year, every person whatever must acknowledge. And
that the special month in which the passover was celebrated, and in which also the Lord
suffered, was not the twelfth, but the first, those men who boast that they know all things,
if they know not this, may learn it from Moses. Their explanation, therefore, both of the
year and of the twelfth month has been proved false, and they ought to reject either their
explanation or the Gospel; otherwise [this unanswerable question forces itself upon them],
How is it possible that the Lord preached for one year only?
4. Being thirty years old when He came to be baptized, and then possessing the full age
of a Master,483 He came to Jerusalem, so that He might be properly acknowledged484 by all
as a Master. For He did not seem one thing while He was another, as those affirm who de-
scribe Him as being man only in appearance; but what He was, that He also appeared to be.
Being a Master, therefore, He also possessed the age of a Master, not despising or evading
any condition of humanity, nor setting aside in Himself that law which He had485 appointed
for the human race, but sanctifying every age, by that period corresponding to it which be-
longed to Himself. For He came to save all through means of Himself—all, I say, who through
Him are born again to God486—infants,487 and children, and boys, and youths, and old
men. He therefore passed through every age, becoming an infant for infants, thus sanctifying
infants; a child for children, thus sanctifying those who are of this age, being at the same
time made to them an example of piety, righteousness, and submission; a youth for youths,
becoming an example to youths, and thus sanctifying them for the Lord. So likewise He was
an old man for old men, that He might be a perfect Master for all, not merely as respects
482 John xi. 54, John xii. 1.
483 Or, “teacher,” magistri.
484 Harvey strangely remarks here, that “the reading audiret, followed by Massuet, makes no sense.” He gives
audiretur in his text, but proposes to read ordiretur. The passage may, however, be translated as above, without
departing from the Benedictine reading audiret.
485 “Neque solvens suam legem in se humani generis.” Massuet would expunge “suam;” but, as Harvey well
observes, “it has a peculiar significance, nor abrogating his own law.”
486 “Renascuntur in Deum.” The reference in these words is doubtless to baptism, as clearly appears from
comparing book iii. 17, 1.
487 It has been remarked by Wall and others, that we have here the statement of a valuable fact as to the
baptism of infants in the primitive Church.
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Chapter XXII.—The thirty Æons are not typified by the fact that Christ was…