and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth.”656 If then it is the sign of the good shepherd to sacrifice himself, and of the hireling to be unwilling to undergo this, how can He who calls Himself the good shepherd beseech that he may not be sacrificed? And how could He say “I lay down my life of myself”? For if thou layest down thy life of thyself, how canst thou beseech another that thou mayest not lay it down? And how is it that Paul marvels at Him on account of this declaration, saying “Who being in the form of God counted it not a prize to be on an equality with God, but emptied Himself taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men, and being found in fashion as a man he humbled himself, becoming obedient even unto death, yea, the death of the cross.”657 And He Himself again speaks in this wise, “For this cause doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life that I may take it again.”658 For if He does not desire to lay it down, but deprecates the act, and beseeches the Father, how is it that He is loved on this account? For love is of those who are like minded. And how does Paul say again “Love one another even as Christ also loved us and gave Himself for us?”659 And Christ Himself when He was about to be crucified said “Father, the hour has come: glorify thy Son,”660 speaking of the cross as glory: and how then does He deprecate it here when He urges it there? For that the cross is glory listen to what the evangelist says “the Holy Ghost was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.”661 Now the hearing of this expression is “grace was not yet given because the enmity towards men was not yet destroyed by reason that the cross had not yet done its work.” For the cross destroyed the enmity of God towards man, brought about the reconciliation, made the earth Heaven, associated men with angels, pulled down the citadel of death, unstrung the force of the devil, extinguished the power of sin, delivered the world from error, brought back the truth, expelled the Demons, destroyed temples, overturned altars, suppressed the sacri- ficial offering, implanted virtue, founded the Churches. The cross is the will of the Father, the glory of the Son, the rejoicing of the Spirit, the boast of Paul, “for,” he says, “God forbid that I should boast save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.”662 The cross is that which is brighter than the sun, more brilliant than the sunbeam: for when the sun is darkened then the cross shines brightly: and the sun is darkened not because it is extinguished, but because it is overpowered by the brilliancy of the cross. The cross has broken our bond, it has made 656 John x. 12. 657 Phil. ii. 6–8. 658 John x. 17. 659 Ephes. v. 2. 660 John xvii. 1. 661 John vii. 39. 662 Gal. vi. 14. 280 Against Marcionists and Manichæans.