Book 2

The chapters of the second book, in which it is proved by testimonies of the Old Testament that the promised Messiah must be God.

The first chapter establishes the manner of speaking.

The second chapter shows that the Messiah, or Christ, must be God, from the literal sense of Psalm 2.

The third chapter shows from Psalm 84 and Isaiah chapter 45 that the Messiah is God.

The fourth chapter shows the same from Psalm [?].¹⁵

The fifth chapter shows the same from chapters 53 and 66 of Isaiah.

The sixth chapter shows the same from Psalm 71, "Give to the king thy judgment, O God."

The seventh chapter shows from Psalm 90,¹⁶ "He that dwelleth in the aid."

The eighth chapter shows the same from Psalm 18, "The heavens shew forth."

The ninth chapter shows the same from Psalm 23,¹⁷ "The earth is the Lord's."

The tenth chapter shows the same from Psalm 44, "My heart hath uttered."

The eleventh chapter shows the same from chapter 24¹⁸ of the book of Numbers, from the prophecy of Balaam.

The twelfth chapter shows the same from chapters 78 and 79 of the book of Isaiah.¹⁹

The thirteenth chapter shows the same from Isaiah, from chapters 48 and 64.

The fourteenth chapter shows the same from a saying of Isaiah in chapter 1 of his book.

The fifteenth chapter is to prove the same from a saying of Habakkuk in chapter 3 of his book.

The sixteenth chapter is to prove the same from another saying of Habakkuk in chapter 3 of his book.

The seventeenth chapter proves the same from a saying of Micah in chapter 5 of his book.

The eighteenth chapter proves the same from sayings of Zephaniah in chapter 3 of his book.

The nineteenth chapter proves the same from sayings of Zechariah in chapters 3, 9, 11 and 13 of his book.

The twentieth chapter proves the same from a saying of Malachi in chapter 3 of his book.

The twenty-first chapter contains six objections against what was shown before.

The twenty-second chapter contains the replies to those objections, by showing a threefold knowledge in Christ from the declaration of a threefold truth.

The twenty-third chapter contains a rejoinder to the objection concerning Christ's marvelling, and contains its solution.

The twenty-fourth contains many objections from the gospel and apostolic writings against the omnipotence of Christ.

The twenty-fifth chapter has the solution of those objections.

The twenty-sixth chapter contains an objection taken from the works common to Christ and his disciples.

The twenty-seventh chapter resolves that objection.

Book 2. Chapter 1.

John. Let these things suffice concerning the testimonies of the New Testament for proving that Christ, whom we worship, was and is God. Now let us make another beginning; and see whether you can show from the very Scripture of the Old Testament, according to its literal sense (since the Jews do not accept any other sense), that the Christ promised in the Old Testament must be God. And I mean, not as at times in Scripture men acceptable to God, or priests in the law, or demons, or good angels were called gods, according to that of the psalmist: "I have said: You are gods and all of you the sons of the most High," a manner of speaking which Jesus Christ elsewhere approves, John 10, when he says: "Is it not written in your law: I said, you are gods?"; and elsewhere in the psalm: "The God of gods hath spoken"; and Exodus 22: "Thou shalt not speak ill of the gods," and there before: "The cause of both parties shall come to the gods: and if they give judgment, he shall restore double to his neighbour"; and in Exodus 7 the Lord says to Moses: "Behold, I have appointed thee the god of Pharao"; and 2 Corinthians 4: "The god of this world hath blinded the minds of unbelievers"; but that he must be God essentially and properly, namely God almighty, as is said in Deuteronomy 8: "The Lord thy God is one";²⁰ and also Exodus 22: "He that sacrificeth to gods, shall be put to death, save only to the Lord"; and Exodus 15: "He is God, the Lord, and I will glorify him: the God of my father, and I will exalt him. The Lord is as a man of war, Almighty is his name"; and as the Apostle says, 1 Corinthians 8: "There is no God but one"; and Deuteronomy 4: "Know therefore this day, and think in thy heart that the Lord he is God in heaven above, and in the earth beneath, and there is no other." For this the Jews do not believe, or at least do not assert. Show, therefore, from this kind of sense of the Old Testament that the promised Christ must be true God.

Chapter 2.

Richard. The psalmist, speaking of Christ, says: "Why have the Gentiles raged, and the people devised vain things? The kings stood up," etc. (Psalms 2:1–2). This saying Peter and the other apostles, in the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 4, affirm to have been spoken of Jesus Christ, against whom Herod and Pilate came together in Jerusalem with the Gentiles and the peoples (Acts 4:25–27).¹ And to prove that this saying is about Christ and not about David: see, the text names Christ, "against his Christ." Again, what follows: "Ask of me, and I will give thee the Gentiles for thy inheritance, and the utmost parts of the earth for thy possession" (Psalms 2:8). This does not fit David himself, for he never received the Gentiles as an inheritance but only the Jews, nor did he ever possess the ends of the earth. Again, what follows, "Thou shalt rule them with a rod of iron, and shalt break them in pieces like a potter's vessel" (Psalms 2:9), does not suit King David, who was most kindly in his royal rule; indeed he never ruled the Gentiles. All these things, then, are said of Christ, or the Messiah; therefore of Christ, or in the person of Christ, this is said: "The Lord hath said to me: Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee" (Psalms 2:7).² The apostle uses this saying in Hebrews, chapter 1 (Hebrews 1:5), to prove what we intend to prove in this place. In this saying, if by "this day" we take eternity, it is evident that Christ was begotten in eternity. But his human generation without doubt had to be in time; therefore he had another generation, which took place in eternity, of which this prophet and Isaiah spoke, as will be clear just below. Now that whose generation is eternal is without doubt itself eternal too; and so it follows that Christ is eternal. And since nothing besides God is eternal, it follows that Christ is God.

But if anyone says that "this day" here denotes a temporal day, he is refuted in this way. For then either the day itself of Christ's conception in his mother's womb would have to be understood, or some other day following it.³ A following day cannot be understood, for then "this day have I begotten thee" would be false, since he had been begotten before; unless perhaps someone were to say that generation by grace, or adoption, ought to be understood. And even so the same follows, for since Jeremiah was sanctified in his mother's womb, no one can reasonably say that Christ was not sanctified by grace from his conception. Indeed Isaiah says this expressly in chapter 45 of his book: "Drop down dew, ye heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain the just: let the earth be opened, and bud forth a saviour: and let justice spring up together" (Isaiah 45:8). There it is evident, as will be shown more fully below, that Christ had to be just in his generation, or conception, and in his rising. So no temporal day can be understood except the day of his conception; and that cannot be understood either, for God would not say to a child in his mother's womb, not yet having the use of speech, "Ask of me, and I will give thee the Gentiles for thy inheritance," etc., to one who could not yet speak. Therefore the Holy Spirit so fits these words of the prophet that it is clear to one who considers more deeply that the Christ of whom he spoke beforehand must be God, etc.

Chapter 3.

Again, Psalm 84 speaks of him thus: "Truth is sprung out of the earth: and justice hath looked down from heaven. For the Lord will give goodness: and our earth shall yield her fruit. Justice shall walk before him: and he shall set his steps in the way" (Psalms 84:12–14). Isaiah says almost the same thing in similar words in chapter 45 of his book, thus: "Drop down dew, ye heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain the just: let the earth be opened, and bud forth a saviour: and let justice spring up together: because I have created him" (Isaiah 45:8).⁴ If these two prophetic sayings of one meaning are considered and handled together, it will appear that the Saviour, that is, the Christ so promised, must come from heaven and nonetheless must have his rising from the earth; and it is evident that he will not be, nor was, an angel; therefore it is God himself of whom they say that he must come from heaven and have his rising from the earth.

See how clearly Isaiah says, "Drop down dew, ye heavens, from above," speaking carnally to carnal men, wishing to convey that he whom he longs for comes from heaven above; and the other prophet, answering him, says thus: "Justice hath looked down from heaven, and the Lord will give goodness": in his goodness he will send from heaven him whom we await. Who and how great he is, both say plainly. The one says that he is truth: "Truth," he says, "is sprung out of the earth"; the other says that he is a saviour and just: "rain," he says, "the just," and "a saviour." As to his rising from the earth, the one says, "Truth is sprung out of the earth," and accordingly, "our earth shall yield her fruit"; the other expresses the same sense, "let the earth be opened, and bud forth a saviour," so that by the fruit of which the first prophet speaks we are to understand the Saviour, not a fig or an apple.

Again, both show him free from sin. The one says, "Justice shall walk before him," that is, from his first rising he will be just and innocent; "and he shall set," that is, rule, "his steps in the way," that is, all his works, so that he never actually transgresses. Hence of him it is said in the first psalm, "all whatsoever he shall do shall prosper" (Psalms 1:3).⁵ And the other says, "let justice spring up together, because I the Lord have created him." For justice does not spring up together with any [other] man, for otherwise he would not need cleansing, as Job says: "Who can make him clean that is conceived of unclean seed? is it not thou who only art?" (Job 14:4),⁶ a matter that will be treated in the eighth book. But because he himself created Christ according to his humanity, and his father was not [his father] through intercourse, he was therefore always without sin, and on this account just from his rising. Hence he says beautifully, "let justice spring up together, because I the Lord have created him." For he never so created anyone else except our first parents, namely without intercourse; and so he created them too just and innocent.

Again, that we may see what follows on this cause: Isaiah 45 continues, a few words between: "I have raised him up to justice, and I will direct all his ways: he shall build my city, and let go the captives, not for ransom, nor for presents, saith the Lord of hosts. Thus saith the Lord: The labour of Egypt, and the merchandise of Ethiopia, and of Sabaim, men of stature shall come over to thee, and shall be thine: they shall walk after thee, they shall go bound with manacles: and they shall worship thee, and shall make supplication to thee: only in thee is God, and there is no other besides thee. Verily thou art a hidden God, the God of Israel the saviour" (Isaiah 45:13–15).⁷ Now there is no doubt that what he says, "I have raised him up to justice," etc., as far as "Thus saith the Lord," must be understood of the Messiah, of whom he said before, "let the clouds rain the just." But what follows, in the person of God speaking, "Thus saith the Lord: The labour of Egypt, and the merchandise of Ethiopia, and of Sabaim, men of stature shall come over to thee, and shall be thine: they shall walk after thee, they shall go bound with manacles: and they shall worship thee, and shall make supplication to thee": either one must take it as said by God to the people of Israel, which cannot be said, because what immediately follows does not fit that people, "Only in thee is God, and there is no God besides thee," since it is evident from the sequence of the text that the whole is said to the same one; and it cannot truly be said to the people, "there is no God besides thee. Verily thou art a hidden God, the God of Israel the saviour." Or one must take this saying in the person of God speaking to the Messiah. Now God manifestly says that he to whom he speaks is God, besides whom there is no God, and calls him truly a hidden God; which I think is said because of the hiddenness of the divinity in his humanity, as Habakkuk says: "There is his strength hid" (Habakkuk 3:4).⁸ Hence it cannot be denied that the Messiah is God. Hence God says elegantly to him, "Only in thee is God," that is, by the hypostatic or personal union, and he adds, "Verily thou art a hidden God," that is, in the humanity, "the God of Israel the saviour"; for Scripture is wont to call the Messiah "saviour," etc.

Chapter 4.

Again, Psalm 110, which the apostle himself uses in Hebrews, chapter 1, to prove our proposition, says:⁹ "The Lord said to my Lord: Sit thou at my right hand: Until I make thy enemies thy footstool. The Lord will send forth the sceptre of thy power out of Sion: rule thou in the midst of thy enemies. With thee is the principality in the day of thy strength: in the brightness of the saints: from the womb before the day star I begot thee. The Lord hath sworn, and he will not repent: Thou art a priest for ever according to the order of Melchisedech. The Lord at thy right hand hath broken kings in the day of his wrath. He shall judge among nations, he shall fill ruins: he shall crush the heads in the land of many. He shall drink of the torrent in the way: therefore shall he lift up the head" (Psalms 109:1–7). If these things are considered, they cannot be taken of anyone other than God made man. For they cannot be understood of David, since he could not be lord to himself, when he says, "The Lord said to my Lord"; nor was he a priest according to the order of Melchisedech, since the law did not wish to offer bread and wine according to the order of Melchisedech.

Again, "With thee is the principality in the day of thy strength" fits God alone, who alone is the principle of things;¹⁰ and he adds "in the day of thy strength" so that the day of eternity may be understood. For the temporal day was, or will be, according to the Jews, a day of the Messiah's weakness, since on such a day he will die. Hence the day of his strength is the day of eternity. He explains this day further when he says, "from the womb before the day star I begot thee." And if anyone says that the begetting ought to be understood as predestination, the word "from the womb" stands against him. For no one was begotten or predestined from the womb before the day star except the Son of God, who was begotten before the day star from the substance of God the Father, which substance is, as it were, a womb to the Father for begetting the Son; whether Lucifer be taken as the angel, of whom Isaiah 14 says, "How art thou fallen, O Lucifer," etc. (Isaiah 14:12), or whether Lucifer be taken as the morning star, of which Job says, "Canst thou ever bring forth the day star in its time?" (Job 38:32).¹¹

It is evident, therefore, that David speaks of a lord, to which lord the Lord says, "Sit thou at my right hand." But what is it to sit at the right hand of God? What is it but to be enriched with the better goods of God, which no one has but God?¹² Hence all this must be taken of the Messiah promised to Abraham and to his seed, who was begotten by God before the day star, that is, in eternity, which is the day of his strength; and nonetheless, because "he shall drink of the torrent in the way: therefore shall he lift up the head."

Chapter 5.

To this Isaiah says something similar in chapter 53 of his book, first describing his passion most fully: "There is no beauty in him, nor comeliness," he says, and afterwards: "Surely he hath borne our infirmities and carried our sorrows: and we have thought him as it were a leper, and as one struck by God and afflicted. But he was wounded for our iniquities, he was bruised for our sins: the chastisement of our peace was upon him, by whose bruises we are healed"; and afterwards, "he is led as a sheep to the slaughter, and shall be dumb as a lamb before his shearer, and he shall not open his mouth. He was taken away from distress, and from judgment"; and then, according to every translation, he adds: "who shall declare his generation? because he is cut off out of the land of the living" (Isaiah 53:2–8). This is to have been begotten before the day star: to have a generation that cannot be declared, because he was cut off from the land of the living, that is, from heaven, not from the land of the dying, that is, begotten of his substantial Father. Hence in Daniel 2 he is said to be a stone "cut out of a mountain without hands" (Daniel 2:34), that is, of his most mighty Father, brought forth without a new action.

Stephen, in Acts 8, alleges, "His generation who shall declare, for his life shall be taken from the earth?" (Acts 8:33).¹³ This text does not sound the aforesaid sense so clearly; yet since this last clause is added as the reason of the first part, unless it be taken thus, that from the land of the living he will be taken away, that is, proscribed, or his life will go forth, it is not the reason of that preceding "his generation who shall declare."¹⁴ But if anyone says that this is irrelevant to what immediately precedes it, and is set down as the reason of what precedes it mediately, "In humility his judgment was taken away," according to Stephen's text, I grant that it can be so understood; but it is more probably said that it ought to be referred to what immediately precedes.

Of this begetting the same Isaiah says in chapter 66 of his book: "Before she was in labour, she brought forth; before her time came to be delivered, she brought forth a man child. Who hath ever heard such a thing? and who hath seen the like to this?" And it follows: "Shall not I that make others to bring forth children, myself bring forth, saith the Lord? shall I, that give generation to others, be barren, saith the Lord thy God?" (Isaiah 66:7–9).¹⁵ Although the first saying here could be understood of a birth from a mother, yet because the second part speaks expressly of birth and generation from the Father, I think the former is rather to be understood so, the sense of the whole being that God says that he is not barren but brings forth, and also that he does so without labour, that is, without mortal pain or suffering in bearing; and then that [he brought forth] a male,¹⁶ so that rightly that male is cut off from the land of the living, not from the land of the dying, not in time but in eternity. Hence Psalm 2 says, "this day have I begotten thee," that is, in the one eternal day of eternity; and Psalm 109, "from the womb before the day star I begot thee"; and in Micah, chapter 5, it is said of him, "and his going forth is from the days of his eternity" (Micah 5:2).¹⁷

See how the Scriptures agree about the eternal generation of this Messiah, who is David's lord and a priest for ever according to the order of Melchisedech, offered and suffering for us, according to Isaiah, and for the suffering crowned with glory and honour (Hebrews 2:9). Hence Isaiah 53 continues, "Because his soul hath laboured, he shall see and be filled" (Isaiah 53:11),¹⁸ which is the same as this saying, "He shall drink of the torrent in the way: therefore shall he lift up the head." And Isaiah says it in other words: "Therefore will I distribute to him very many, and he shall divide the spoils of the strong, because he hath delivered his soul unto death" (Isaiah 53:12).

But suppose someone says that the Hebrew text is not this, "With thee is the principality in the day of thy strength: in the brightness of the saints: from the womb before the day star I begot thee," but this: "Thy people are princes in the day of thy strength and in holy comeliness; from the womb [of the dawn] to thee the dew of thy youth";¹⁹ in which there is no mention of Christ's eternal generation, or begetting, but, as it seems, of his temporal generation from his mother, who in the Canticles is called the dawn (Canticle 6:9), and of the day of his ascension or resurrection, on which day his disciples were made princes over the earth "in holy comeliness," that is, in the enlightening of the Holy Spirit. For the matter of the day of the ascension comes before: "Sit thou at my right hand: Until I make thy enemies thy footstool," which is taken of Christ's ascension into heaven; "The Lord will send forth the sceptre of thy power out of Sion: rule thou in the midst of thy enemies," which is to be taken of his teaching, which was sent forth through the apostles at his ascension from Sion, where they were then staying. And so what follows, "With thee is the principality in the day of thy strength," etc., seems to be understood of the beginning of Christ's spiritual lordship among the Gentiles, and of the day of his strength, shown when he had been exalted and received the name which is above every name for the obedience of death, according to the apostle (Philippians 2:8–9);²⁰ and of his begetting from the womb of the Virgin his mother, who brought forth the sun of justice and on this account is rightly called the dawn; as the other text quoted above sounds.

Against this it has seemed to me, first, that "Before the day star I begot thee" does not fit this well, since his youth from his mother was in time; and approved translations must be judged not to differ in sense. Again, that clause, "from the womb of the dawn to thee the dew of thy youth," if it is understood of the Virgin's womb and the dew of the Holy Spirit, does not seem a sufficient reason for what precedes, namely that Christ's apostles were princes "in the day of thy strength, in holy comeliness"; for of Jeremiah and John it is true that from the womb there sprang up for them the dew of their youth, that is, the grace of the Holy Spirit, whose disciples nevertheless were not princes over all the earth as Christ's disciples were. That it may agree with our other translation, let this clause be understood thus:²¹ that from the womb, or matrix, of the dawn, that is, from the generative power of God the Father, who is the eternal light not wholly shining out to us and is therefore called the dawn, there sprang up for Christ the dew of youth, that is, of his birth, a most beautiful state, as youth is the state of beauty and vigour in man. For so Isaiah speaks: "Hearken unto me," he says, "O house of Jacob, all the remnant of the house of Israel, who are carried by my bowels, are borne up by my womb" (Isaiah 46:3). Then it is well given as the reason of what precedes, namely that with Christ is the principality of all things, or the principle of the perfecting of his disciples into princes, in the day of eternity, which is the day of his strength, that is, of Christ, who is in the glory of all the blessed: because, since Christ is begotten of God the Father, therefore with him is the principality, and he himself is the principle, etc. But whether these clauses are taken thus, or otherwise, of the day of the ascension or of the day of the giving of the Holy Spirit, the rest that follows in this psalm, about his eternal priesthood and about his exaltation after death, shows well enough that he must be God.

Chapter 6.

Again, Psalm 71 shows most clearly that he is God, saying: "Give to the king thy judgment, O God, and to the king's son thy justice" (Psalms 71:2). Here he calls Christ king and the king's son. For he is not speaking of Solomon, although the title of the psalm is "on Solomon" (Psalms 71:1), which must be taken according to the interpretation of the name, that is, of Christ, who is peaceable, or a rewarder; for so "Solomon" is interpreted.¹ For he goes on to add of him: "He shall judge the poor of the people, and he shall save the children of the poor: and he shall humble the oppressor. And he shall continue with the sun and before the moon, throughout all generations. He shall come down like rain upon the fleece; and as showers falling gently upon the earth" (Psalms 71:4–6). Now King Solomon does not remain at present, nor did he continue throughout all generations.²

Again, Solomon did not come down like rain upon the fleece. For this is said by reason of the prophetic deed of Gideon in Judges 6, where we read that Gideon received from the Lord this sign of Israel's deliverance: that when a fleece of wool was laid out on the threshing floor, the dew, or rain, was on the fleece only, and there was dryness on all the ground around (Judges 6:37–40). This deed most beautifully figures the conception of Christ in the Virgin's womb with fullness of grace and virtue, while the rest of the human race still remained in the bitterness of sin.

Again, what follows cannot be fitted to Solomon or to anyone but Christ: "In his days shall justice spring up, and abundance of peace, till the moon be taken away. And he shall rule from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth. Before him the Ethiopians shall fall down: and his enemies shall lick the ground. The kings of Tharsis and the islands shall offer presents: the kings of the Arabians and of Saba shall bring gifts: And all kings of the earth shall adore him: all nations shall serve him" (Psalms 71:7–11). For the peace and justice that arose in Solomon's time were soon broken off, namely in the time of Jeroboam his son, under whom there was such disturbance that the kingdom of the Jews was divided into two kingdoms, as we read in 3 Kings 12;³ and it did not last "till the moon be taken away." Again, it is nowhere found that the Ethiopians obeyed Solomon. Moreover, Solomon did not rule as far as the ends of the earth, nor did all nations ever serve Solomon, nor did all kings ever adore him.

Again, it is added of him next: "For he shall deliver the poor from the mighty: and the needy that had no helper. He shall spare the poor and needy: and he shall save the souls of the poor. He shall redeem their souls from usuries and iniquity," etc. (Psalms 71:12–14); and there follows of the same: "Let his name be blessed for evermore: his name continueth before the sun. And in him shall all the tribes of the earth be blessed: all nations shall magnify him" (Psalms 71:17). Did King Solomon, or anyone besides God, redeem souls from usuries and iniquity?⁴ Certainly not. But Christ redeemed the soul of Matthew the toll-collector from usuries, and the souls of the other apostles and prophets and the rest of the elect from iniquity; as will be shown below through Zechariah and other prophets, namely that Christ in his blood sent forth his prisoners out of the pit wherein is no water (Zechariah 9:11). Of him alone, too, and in him, is verified the promise made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, in Genesis 18, 26 and 28 (Genesis 18:18; 22:18; 26:4; 28:14),⁵ and repeated prophetically: "In him shall all the tribes of the earth be blessed: all nations shall magnify him." For it is evident that that blessing was to be fulfilled not in Solomon but in Christ.

And of him he affirms that "his name continueth before the sun," which cannot be true of any man unless he is God; namely, that he was begotten and made man after the sun, and nonetheless continues before the sun, which cannot be true of any man unless he is God. For this is what he says in another psalm, that he was begotten by God "before the day star" (Psalms 109:3); and in this psalm he says it in other words, that "he shall continue with the sun and before the moon." Again, he is affirmed to be God from this, that God redeems souls from usuries and iniquity, which he alone can do, because he has of himself an infinite price. It follows, therefore, that he to whom these things belong is God, etc.

Chapter 7.

Again, Psalm 90 speaks of him: "For he hath given his angels charge over thee; to keep thee in all thy ways. In their hands they shall bear thee up: lest thou dash thy foot against a stone" (Psalms 90:11–12). These words are not said of an angel, for God has not charged angels to guard any angel. Nor again of any man besides the said promised Christ,⁶ since no other man, in David's time or after, was David's lord or his hope; but here David sets down beforehand of him, "Thou art my hope: thou hast made the most High thy refuge" (Psalms 90:9). Nor does this fit anyone else: "There shall no evil come to thee: nor shall the scourge come near thy dwelling" (Psalms 90:10), since all others have sinned and on account of their sins have suffered the evil of punishment. Hence in Jerome's translation, "no evil shall come near thee, and leprosy shall not come near thy dwelling,"⁷ where by leprosy sin seems to be understood, from which no man but Christ was free. Therefore this must be taken of Christ, as the devil asserted when speaking to Christ: he set him on the pinnacle and said, "For it is written: That he hath given his angels charge over thee" (Matthew 4:5–6).

But it can be attributed to none but God alone that he was then David's lord. For if Christ did not then exist, why did David truly call him then his lord and his hope? Certainly not truly, nor prudently, but foolishly would he have said to one not existing, "Thou, O Lord, art my hope." Therefore he to whom he spoke in the spirit was then his lord and his hope; and therefore the promised Christ was God in David's time, since he was then his lord and his hope, and in him was his most high refuge; for it belongs to God alone to be the one in whom a man sets his most high refuge,⁸ and these two things he here attributes to Christ. Again, in God alone is a man's hope to be placed, according to that of the psalm: "For thou, O Lord, singularly hast settled me in hope" (Psalms 4:10). Therefore, since David, an eminent prophet, placed his hope in the Messiah, it follows that he must be God. But if anyone contends that this psalm was composed about the deliverance of Israel from Egypt, let him prove it from the text if he can; to me it seems to have been composed literally about Christ.

Chapter 8.

Again, Psalm 18, speaking of God, says: "The heavens shew forth the glory of God, and the firmament declareth the work of thy hands.⁹ Day to day uttereth speech, and night to night sheweth knowledge. There are no speeches nor languages, where their voices are not heard. He hath set his tabernacle in the sun: and he as a bridegroom coming out of his bridechamber,¹⁰ Hath rejoiced as a giant to run the way: His going out is from the end of heaven, And his circuit even to the end thereof: and there is no one that can hide himself from his heat" (Psalms 18:2–7).

If we first consider who these heavens are that shew forth the glory of God, whether we say they are the material heavens or heavenly, apostolic men, with this sense agree the words of Isaiah, saying in the person of God to Christ himself: "I have put my words in thy mouth, and have protected thee in the shadow of my hand, that thou mightest plant the heavens, and found the earth" (Isaiah 51:16).¹¹ There by heavens and earth he understands the same as is understood here by heavens and firmament, if [these are] men of heavenly life; for otherwise no one to whom God spoke planted the heavens on account of the words which God spoke to him, as he says here. With this sense the words that follow agree better: "There are no speeches nor languages," and "[Their sound] hath gone forth into [all] the earth," etc. (Psalms 18:4–5); for by those who told the glory of God through the world all kinds of languages were heard, and their teaching passed into every region of the world.

There is no doubt that what follows is said of him of whom the discourse went before there, namely of God: "He hath set his tabernacle in the sun," etc. What then shall we say is God's tabernacle, which he set in the sun, and how did he come out of the bridechamber as a bridegroom, unless we take this in another nature? For in the divine nature he set no tabernacle of his in the material sun, nor did he come out from there as a bridegroom from his bridechamber; for there he had no bride, since the holy souls, which were his, were then not there but in limbo, nor were they in his presence, since he and the holy angels are in the empyrean heaven.¹² Therefore he came out of the bridechamber there, and that was his tabernacle, where he had the bride, namely in the flesh of his mother, who was such to him that she, for her singular purity, may be called the sun, from whom he came out as a bridegroom from his bridechamber; or, as [?] rather, the tabernacle ought to be understood as his mother, and from her womb he came out like a bridegroom newly clothed.¹³ Hence another translation, Jerome's from the Hebrew, says: "For the sun he hath set a tabernacle in them."¹⁴ His going out was from the empyrean heaven into the earth, not by change of place, but in this way: that first he dwelt and appeared there, and afterwards appeared and dwelt and conversed on earth, as Baruch 3 says: "Afterwards he was seen upon earth, and conversed with men" (Baruch 3:38). And in the ascension his circuit was even to the summit of heaven, and he ascended even to the highest heaven. For I do not think this passage can be understood otherwise.

Hence it is evident that he who so came out of his bridechamber is God, for the prophet began his discourse about God and so continued it throughout, using the relative terms "his," "he" and "of him," and directing his discourse to the one of whom he began to speak above, "the heavens shew forth the glory of God." Again, there is no doubt that "His going out is from the end of heaven, And his circuit even to the end thereof" fits none but God or some angel. But there can be no talk of an angel here, for what precedes fits no angel: "He hath set his tabernacle in the sun: and he as a bridegroom coming out of his bridechamber"; nor does what follows fit any angel: "and there is no one that can hide himself from his heat." Therefore he of whom he speaks here had to be God.

But if we attend to the text of Jerome's translation in this place, in which it is written thus: "For the sun he hath set his tabernacle in them, and he as a bridegroom," etc., it appears well enough that "he hath set his tabernacle in them," that is, in the apostles, who are mentioned before there, fits neither an angel nor any man besides Christ.¹⁵ For none of them is called the sun; and if he were so called, it would still not fit him that he had a tabernacle in them. This fits the sun of justice alone, who was made flesh in his mother and dwelt among us, and conversed among his mortal disciples, men like us. The apostle used the testimony of part of this psalm in Romans 10:18, namely that the sound of the apostles went forth into all the earth.

Chapter 9.

Of the foregoing, namely of his circuit and of his lordship, Psalm 23 speaks thus: "Lift up your gates, O ye princes, and be ye lifted up, O eternal gates: and the King of Glory shall enter in. Who is this King of Glory? the Lord who is strong and mighty: the Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your gates, O ye princes, and be ye lifted up, O eternal gates: and the King of Glory shall enter in. Who is this King of Glory? the Lord of hosts, he is the King of Glory" (Psalms 23:7–10). There is no doubt that it fits God alone to be the King of Glory, and to be strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle, and the Lord of hosts. Nor is there doubt that the opening of the heavenly gates by the angels, and the angels' announcement of the one about to enter by the gates, and the entry itself, show well enough that he of whom it was spoken was a man; for God was always there, namely in heaven, and in the divine nature he could not enter where he already was; nor did the angels feel a new marvel at his divine nature, nor had any gates, bodily or spiritual, to be opened for his entry. Therefore these things were said of God made man, that is, of the promised Christ.¹

A like sense Isaiah gives in chapter 63: "Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bosra, this beautiful one in his robe, walking in the greatness of his strength. I, that speak justice, and am a defender to save. Why then is thy apparel red, and thy garments like theirs that tread in the winepress? I have trodden the winepress alone, and among the Gentiles there is not a man with me" (Isaiah 63:1–3).² See how concordantly he speaks here with the other prophet. The earlier one says of him, "the King of Glory, the Lord of hosts, the Lord strong and mighty in battle," showing by this that he is God; this one says of him, "beautiful in his robe," that is, in glory, as in that place, "And white robes were given to every one of them" (Apocalypse 6:11), "walking in the greatness of his strength," and "a defender to save." Again, as to his humanity, as the earlier one sets down the angels' announcement of so great an exaltation of one man, so this one, when he asks in wonder, "Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bosra?" For the angels themselves who stand before God in heaven, either all or the greater part of them, did not know that mystery of the incarnation and passion of God until his ascension, as these two prophets here expressly suggest;³ although the angels who minister to God and were mediators to us concerning these things knew them. Hence the other prophet, in the person of Christ, gives assurance, saying, "I, that speak justice"; just as the other prophesies, as above, in the person of the same ministering angels, or, as it pleases Saint Dionysius in On the Celestial Hierarchy, chapter 7, in the person of the supreme heavenly powers teaching the lower ones,⁴ saying, "the Lord strong and mighty," etc. See how concordantly they speak here.

Chapter 10.

Again, David addresses Christ in Psalm 44 thus: "My heart hath uttered a good word: I speak my works to the king: My tongue is the pen of a scrivener that writeth swiftly" (Psalms 44:2). See, he says that he speaks to a king; and addressing that king in the second person, he goes on to describe him thus: "Thou art beautiful above the sons of men: grace is poured abroad in thy lips; therefore hath God blessed thee for ever. Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O thou most mighty. With thy comeliness and thy beauty set out, proceed prosperously, and reign. Because of truth and meekness and justice: and thy right hand shall conduct thee wonderfully. Thy arrows are sharp: under thee shall people fall, into the hearts of the king's enemies. Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever: the sceptre of thy kingdom is a sceptre of uprightness. Thou hast loved justice, and hated iniquity: therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows" (Psalms 44:3–8). The apostle uses this testimony in Hebrews 1 (Hebrews 1:8–9) to prove that Christ is true God. Nor can it be understood of anyone but Christ. For where he says, "beautiful above the sons of men," another translation says, "Thou art fairer in comeliness than the sons of men; grace is poured out in thy lips; therefore," etc.;⁵ and according to the Chaldean translation, which is held authentic among the Hebrews, it is said, "Thy beauty, O Messiah, is greater than that of the sons of men,"⁶ understand "other," showing his true humanity; and next he expressly calls him God, saying, "Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever." Another text has, "Thy throne, O God, is for ever and to eternity." And nonetheless he confirms him to be at once [man] and God⁷ when he adds, "Thou hast loved justice, and hated iniquity: therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows," or "partners." For anointing proves a man, since an angel or anything else is not anointed; and that word "fellows," or "partners," shows him to be like men. And he says in the vocative case, "God hath anointed thee, O God," just as when he says, "Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever," calling the same one Lord whom he called anointed before.

He explains this too when, having described his queen thus, "The queen stood on thy right hand, in gilded clothing; surrounded with variety" (Psalms 44:10), he says, addressing his queen: "Hearken, O daughter, and see, and incline thy ear: and forget thy people and thy father's house. And the king shall greatly desire thy beauty; for he is the Lord thy God, and him they shall adore" (Psalms 44:11–12). See, he says that the king of whom he spoke before is God and Lord.

Chapter 11.

Again, in Numbers 24 we read thus of Balaam: "The hearer of the words of God hath said, who knoweth the doctrine of the Highest, and seeth the ways of the Almighty, who falling hath [his eyes] opened:⁸ I shall see him, but not now: I shall behold him, but not near. A star shall rise out of Jacob and a sceptre shall spring up from Israel." Another text: "A man shall rise up out of Israel,⁹ and shall strike the chiefs of Moab, and shall waste all the children of Seth. And he shall possess Idumea: the inheritance of Seir shall come to their enemies, but Israel shall do manfully. Out of Jacob shall he come that shall rule, and shall destroy the remains of the city" (Numbers 24:16–19). Here he prophesies of Christ, as is evident. For he sets down first, "I shall see him, but not now: I shall behold him, but not near," which are said of his second coming, to hold the final judgment; and straightway he describes the time of his first coming: "A star shall rise out of Jacob and a sceptre shall spring up from Israel." For it is evident that the star of the three magi, kings from Tharsis, rose at Christ's birth; and it is said to have risen "out of Jacob" because it took its rise from him who was of Jacob according to the flesh; or better, in my judgment, it is said to have risen "out of Jacob" because the cause of its rising was among the people of Jacob. But it pleases me more that Christ himself be taken [as the star].

But however that may be, what follows does not allow it to be taken of anyone other than Christ, true God; for it is said of him that he will waste all the children of Seth. Now it is evident that the whole human race, from the time of the flood, in which all of the stock of Cain were destroyed, descended from Seth; nor was anyone other than God going to lay them all waste, whether we take the wasting as the ruin of their morals, or their eternal punishment, or understand both wastings together in common. Or if we take the saying according to the other text, "and he shall plunder all the children of Seth," it will be more fitting, because Christ was to snatch all the children of Seth as plunder from the power of the devil, or out of captivity, according to that of Psalm 67: "Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive" (Psalms 67:19),¹⁰ which no one but God could do. Nor should it trouble anyone that it says "all the children of Seth," for Scripture's manner of speaking uses the universal for particulars, so that the sense is: of every nation, or tongue, of the children of Seth he will lay waste some in the way described; as Isaiah and Micah say, "all nations shall flow unto it" (Isaiah 2:2; Micah 4:1).

Again, in Deuteronomy 32 God says, or the prophet in the person of God: "See ye that I alone am, and there is no other God besides me: I will kill and I will make to live: I will strike, and I will heal" (Deuteronomy 32:39). This text, passive, in the person of God, the roll of the law of Moses at Bologna has, which Ezra wrote with his own hand, as the doctors say who have seen it;¹¹ although our books commonly have "I will kill" and "I will strike," because the Hebrews corrupted this text after the passion of our Christ. From the true text, therefore, it is evident that God was to die and rise again, which cannot be except in the person of the Messiah, namely God and man. Therefore from that it is evident that the Messiah was to be God. That the true text was to be passive, the greatest of the Hebrew doctors, who became a Christian, told me; and he proved this before many at Bologna from the aforesaid roll, in the house of the Friars Preachers, who have that roll.¹²

Chapter 12.

Again, the gospel of him is preached in Isaiah 7 thus: "Behold a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son and his name shall be called Emmanuel" (Isaiah 7:14), which is interpreted "God with us." Therefore he whom the virgin bore was God. Which the prophet himself says more expressly in chapter 9:¹³ "For a child is born to us, and a son is given to us, and the government is upon his shoulder: [and his name shall be called] Wonderful, Counsellor, God the Mighty, the Father of the world to come, the Prince of Peace" (Isaiah 9:6). See, here he says that he who was given and born to us is God and the Father of the world to come.

Now Scripture never calls any creature, in the singular number, God without qualification; though sometimes a creature is called, with a qualification, the god of someone, as Moses was called the god of Pharaoh, Exodus 7 (Exodus 7:1), and the devil was called by the apostle "the god of this world" (2 Corinthians 4:4), as I set down above; and Baal was called a god by Elijah, but ironically, 3 Kings 18 (3 Kings 18:27). But nowhere was he himself, or any other prophet, likewise called God, nor even an angel or any other creature. For although Scripture attributes to God a deed or saying that is done through an angel, and conversely attributes to an angel what is done by God, because God exercises such a saying or deed in the angel and also through the angel, and the angel does it by the authority of God, yet it nowhere calls any angel God. For Scripture says, in Exodus 31, that the tables of the law were written with the finger of God (Exodus 31:18); and in Acts 7 Stephen says that the Jews received the law by the disposition of angels (Acts 7:53); and both have a right sense; yet it is nowhere said that an angel is God. It is the same with the angels who appeared to Abraham, Genesis 18, and likewise in Zechariah 3: sometimes Zechariah addresses God in the angel, and sometimes addresses the angel who instructed him by the authority of God; and similar things occur in very many apparitions, in none of which, nevertheless, is any angel called God; and I have never seen it anywhere in Holy Scripture, as far as I recall. As for Paul being called a god by the barbarians in the island of Mitylene, as we read in Acts 28,¹⁴ that is not the speech of Scripture nor of the writer.

Hence the Jews cannot pretend that this prophet Isaiah calls the Messiah God although he was not true God, since Scripture nowhere calls any creature God without qualification; yet an angel ought rather to be called God than the Messiah, if he is to be only a man, because in this he is less than an angel, as Psalm 8 says, "Thou hast made him a little less than the angels," etc. (Psalms 8:6). Again, here in the other chapter he not only calls him God, but God with us, that is, Emmanuel, and the Father of the world to come; for these things he says in chapter 9,¹⁵ and they fit none but the true God, since no creature can be the father of the world to come, since it could not make it, or ordain it, or in any way bring it into being. There follows also: "His empire shall be multiplied, and there shall be no end of his peace: he shall sit upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom; to establish it and strengthen it with judgment and with justice, from henceforth and for ever" (Isaiah 9:7). No man, unless he is God, will sit upon the kingdom of David for ever, without doubt, nor can he or could he strengthen it for ever, since anyone was going to die, he too; and so the Messiah was to be killed by the Jews, as will be clear below. Therefore that promised child was God.

Again, in chapter 8, what the Lord says through the prophet about the king of the Assyrians, whom he affirms he will bring upon the land of Israel, "And the stretching out of his wings shall fill the breadth of thy land, O Emmanuel" (Isaiah 8:7–8), shows well enough that he is speaking to God, not to one of Isaiah's sons or anyone else, as the Jews pretend, none of whom was lord of all that land, as he here says Emmanuel was.¹⁶

Chapter 13.

Again, to the same point, Isaiah 48: "Hearken to me, O Jacob, and thou Israel whom I call: I am he, I am the first, and I am the last. My hand also hath founded the earth, and my right hand hath measured the heavens: I shall call them, and they shall stand together. Assemble yourselves together, all you, and hear: who among them hath declared these things? The Lord hath loved him, he will do his pleasure in Babylon, and his arm on the Chaldeans. I have spoken and called him: I have brought him, and his way is made prosperous. Attend to me, and hear these things: I have not spoken in secret from the beginning: from the time before they were done, I was there, and now the Lord God hath sent me, and his spirit. Thus saith the Lord thy redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: I am the Lord thy God that teach thee profitable things, that govern thee in the way that thou walkest."¹ These words are not said by the prophet in his own person, for it does not befit him to do his pleasure in Babylon and his arm on the Chaldeans, where Isaiah never was. Again, by what follows, "Thus saith the Lord thy God that teach thee profitable things," the prophet shows clearly enough that the preceding words were said in the person of God; nor were these words said in the person of anyone other than him who was sent, or would be sent, by God, since it is said, "and now he hath sent me" etc.; and he was God, since "from the time before they were done, I was there" cannot befit another. Therefore he who was to be sent, namely Christ — for he says "and now the Lord God hath sent me, and his spirit," using the past tense for the future — was with God before the things were made of which the discourse speaks just before, namely heaven and earth. Hence in chapter 64 he says to him: "O that thou wouldst rend the heavens, and wouldst come down"; which he would not have said unless the one who was to come were heavenly. To whom he directs [?] this speech [is plain]²: indeed, next he addresses him openly as God, saying, "Thou didst come down, and at thy presence the mountains melted away. From the beginning of the world they have not heard, nor perceived with the ears: the eye hath not seen, O God, besides thee, what things thou hast prepared for them that wait for thee." Behold, here he openly calls God the one whom with such ardour of spirit he longs to see come down from heaven.

Chapter 14.

Again, in Isaiah 50 it is said thus: "Thus saith the Lord: What is this bill of the divorce of your mother, with which I have put her away? or who is my creditor, to whom I sold you? For behold, you are sold for your iniquities, and for your wicked deeds have I put your mother away. Because I came, and there was not a man: I called, and there was none that would hear. Is my hand shortened or become little, that I cannot redeem? or is there no strength in me to deliver? Behold at my rebuke I will make the sea a desert, I will turn the rivers into dry land: the fishes shall rot for want of water, and shall die for thirst. I will clothe the heavens with darkness, and will make sackcloth their covering. The Lord hath given me a learned tongue, that I should know how to uphold by word him that is weary: he wakeneth in the morning, in the morning he wakeneth my ear, that I may hear him as a master. And I do not resist: I have not gone back. I have given my body to the strikers, and my cheeks to them that plucked them: I have not turned away my face from them that rebuked me, and spit upon me."³ Behold, he who says that he can redeem, and make the sea a desert and the rivers dry land, and cover [?] the heavens with dark clouds⁴ — which are works of God alone — and who moreover openly declares at the outset that it is the Lord, saying "Thus saith the Lord," says that he has received a learned tongue and an opened ear, and that he gave his body to the strikers and his cheeks to them that plucked them, etc. Like this, and more fully, he speaks of his passion afterwards in chapter 53⁵, which I set out above. Therefore he who was thus to suffer had to be God; of whom it is next added [?]⁶ in his person: "The Lord God is my helper, and therefore am I not confounded: therefore have I set my face as a most hard rock, and I know that I shall not be confounded. He is near that justifieth me, who will contend with me? Let us stand together, who is my adversary? Let him come near to me. Behold the Lord God is my helper: who is he that shall despise me? Lo, they shall all be destroyed as a garment, and the moth shall eat them up. Who is there among you that feareth God, that heareth the voice of his servant? Who hath walked in darkness, and hath no light? Let him hope in the name of the Lord, and lean upon his God. Behold all you that kindle a fire, encompassed with flames, walk in the light of your fire, and in the flames which you have kindled: this is done to you by my hand."⁷ Here it is clear that the very same one in whose person it is said first, "I have set my face as a most hard rock," and "the Lord is my helper," and "I have given my body to the strikers and my cheeks to them that plucked them," afterwards affirms, "this is done to you by my hand," speaking of the things which God alone does to sinners: namely that they shall all be destroyed as a garment, that the moth shall eat them, that they kindle a fire and are encompassed with flames, and that they walk in the light of the fire and in the flames which they have kindled — meaning, no doubt, the various penalties which God sends upon sinners, etc.

Chapter 15.

Again, Baruch, Jeremiah's disciple, says thus in chapter 3 of his book: "This is our God, and there shall no other be accounted of in comparison of him. He found out all the way of knowledge, and gave it to Jacob his servant. Afterwards he was seen upon earth, and conversed with men."⁸ See how plainly he says that God was seen on earth and conversed with men, using, in the prophetic manner, the past tense for the future because of the certainty of the thing. Now in the divine nature he could neither be seen on earth nor converse with men, but only in the human; therefore he who so conversed in humanity with other men was God, namely Christ, who was promised.

Chapter 16.

Again, Habakkuk, in chapter 3 of his book, says thus: "God came from the south, and the holy one from mount Pharan: his glory covered the heavens, and the earth is full of his praise. His brightness shall be as the light: horns are in his hands: there is his strength hid. Death shall go before his face."⁹ Here, whether this saying is taken of the first coming or of the second, namely to judgment, he says that God has horns in his hands, and that there his strength is hidden — namely in the humanity, when, crucified, he had nails in his hands, as it were horns. Hence, foreseeing that his salvation would come through him, he adds: "But I will rejoice in the Lord: and I will joy in God my Jesus." "Jesus" means the same as "Saviour".

Chapter 17.

Again, in Micah chapter 5 we read of him: "And thou Bethlehem Ephrata art a little one among the princes of Juda: for out of thee shall he come forth that is to be the Ruler in Israel: and his going forth is from the days of eternity"¹⁰ — which is nothing other than "from eternity". The chief priests and scribes used this testimony, as we read in Matthew chapter 2¹¹, where it is plainly described that the Ruler in Israel, that is, the Messiah, was to come forth from Bethlehem, namely by temporal birth as man; and it is added that his going forth, that is, his birth or production, was from eternity — "from the days," he says, "of eternity". Such a generation or going forth, namely if it is from eternity, befits God alone, who alone is eternal.

Chapter 18.

Again, Zephaniah, in chapter 3 of his book, says of him thus: "Wherefore expect me, saith the Lord, in the day of my resurrection that is to come, for my judgment is to assemble the Gentiles, and to gather the kingdoms." Here too, as is clear, God, whom he calls Lord, was at some time to die and rise again; and so it is evident that some man was to be God, and that, no doubt, none but the Messiah.

Chapter 19.

Again, in Zechariah chapter [2]¹², of this one who was promised or was to be sent, the angel says: "Thus saith the Lord of hosts: After the glory he hath sent me to the nations that have robbed you: for he that toucheth you, toucheth the apple of my eye. For behold I lift up my hand upon them, and they shall be a prey to those that served them: and you shall know that the God of hosts sent me. Sing praise, and rejoice, O daughter of Sion: for behold I come, and I will dwell in the midst of thee, saith the Lord. And many nations shall be joined to the Lord in that day, and they shall be my people, and I will dwell in the midst of thee: and thou shalt know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me to thee." In this saying it is manifestly clear that the Lord of hosts says, "after the glory he hath sent me," and for this, that he may dwell in the midst; and so it is evident that the one thus to be sent had to be God, or that he had to be the Lord of hosts. Again, here: "many nations shall be joined to the Lord in that day, and they shall be my people," showing majesty — that he who was to be sent was the Lord, since he takes as the same thing that the nations be converted to the Lord, namely God, and that they be his people. Again, elsewhere, chapter 9: "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Sion, shout for joy, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold thy king cometh, the just and saviour: he is poor, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt, the foal of an ass. And I will destroy the chariot out of Ephraim, and the horse out of Jerusalem, and the bow for war shall be broken: and he shall speak peace to the Gentiles, and his power shall be from sea to sea, and from the rivers even to the end of the earth. Thou also by the blood of thy testament hast sent forth thy prisoners out of the pit, wherein there was no water."¹³ Let us consider these things more carefully. For a merely earthly king, coming thus poor upon an ass, could not save, that is, free from sin and from damnation; therefore he was to be not merely their king but God, since he was to be a saviour. Again, what follows — "he shall speak peace to the Gentiles, and his power even to the end of the earth" — can fit no earthly king of the Jews; nor does what follows — "thou also by the blood of thy testament hast sent forth thy prisoners out of the pit, wherein there was no water" — fit any other but God, for no doubt he meant the liberation of the elect from hell and their redemption, which God alone can do; as the prophet Hosea says thus in chapter 13 of his book: "I will deliver them out of the hand of death. I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy death; O hell, I will be thy bite" — which, no doubt, is said in the person of God. Hence Habakkuk says, "Death shall go before his face," as appeared above; and Isaiah 42: "I have given thee for a covenant of the people," etc., "that thou mightest bring forth the prisoner out of prison, sitting in darkness out of the prison house"; and chapter 61: "The spirit of the Lord is upon me," etc., "to preach a release to the captives, and deliverance to them that are shut up." Again, the word "his testament" shows well enough that the one of whom he speaks is God, for this testament or pact belongs to God alone. Hence David foretold in the person of God: "I have made a covenant with my elect" (Psalm 88), and there: "and my covenant faithful to him". Hence, since he says here that this testament is Christ's, it follows that Christ is God.¹⁴

Again, in Zechariah 11 it is said thus: "And I said to them: If it be good in your eyes, bring hither my wages: and if not, be quiet. And they took my wages, thirty pieces of silver. And the Lord said to me: Cast them to the statuary, a handsome price, that I was prized at by them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and I cast them into the house of the Lord to the statuary."¹⁵ Here, then, he says expressly that the Lord says "Cast them" etc., for the price at which "I was prized", thirty pieces of silver: namely the Messiah. Therefore that one had to be God.

Again, in Zechariah 12 it is said of him: "In that day shall the Lord protect the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and he that hath offended among them in that day shall be as David: and the house of David as that of God, as an angel of God in his sight. And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. And I will pour out upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace, and of prayers: and they shall look upon me, whom they have crucified: and they shall mourn for him as one mourneth for an only son, and they shall grieve over him, as the manner is to grieve for the death of the firstborn."¹⁶ See how plainly the prophet, in the person of God, says at once "I will pour out the spirit of grace and of prayers" — for this belongs to God alone — and "they shall look upon me, whom they have pierced"; and so he shows the same one to be God, who gives the spirit of grace, and to be the one pierced, that is, crucified by the Jews.

Chapter 20.

Again, in Malachi 3 it is said thus: "Behold I send my angel, and he shall prepare the way before the face: and presently the Ruler, whom you seek, and the angel of the testament, whom you desire, shall come to his temple." We read in Zechariah, chapter 2, of an angel sending another angel; but nowhere do we read of an angel sending his own angel. He who sends his own angel, therefore, is God alone. So he who says "Behold I send my angel" is God. Now the angel is sent, as God says here, to prepare the way before the face, namely of God, of whom he adds: "presently the Lord whom you seek, and the angel whom you desire, shall come to his temple." Hence it is evident how the one then to come, namely the angel of his testament, or the Messiah or Christ, had to be both Ruler and God.

Chapter 21.¹⁷

John. I now think it has been shown well enough from both Scriptures that Christ was and is true God, although many things come up against this which you have to resolve. See: first, I am strongly moved [to doubt] whether he was God, because Scripture ascribes to him certain things that seem unable to befit God: as that he did not know the day of the final judgment. For this is said expressly in Mark 13 in these words: "Of that day no man knoweth, neither the angel in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father." If you tell me that this ought to be understood, as some saints take it, that the Son does not know the day and hour, that is, does not show the day and hour to others, it seems to me that the affirmative immediately following, namely "but the Father", ought then to be understood thus: that is, that the Father shows this to others; and that is against what is said in the same place, "no man knoweth, neither the angel". For since he affirms of the Father what he denies of the Son, what he denies of the one he affirms of the other in the same sense, especially when this is done by way of exception. Here, then, I await another sense, because this one I do not approve. Again, the same seems to be suggested in Luke 2, where it is said that "Jesus advanced in wisdom and age and grace with God and men"; for one who advances in wisdom did not, it seems, have the fulness of grace before his perfection. If you tell me that it ought to be understood thus — that he advanced in the three, namely wisdom, age and grace, as a wise and gracious prelate or doctor is said to advance when others advance through him; or as someone is said to advance in wisdom because his wisdom gradually becomes known to others, and so God and men approve it, and this is "to advance with God and men", which is nothing other than that he advances for others in these gifts, not that wisdom became known to himself little by little, as "advancing" seems [to mean]¹⁸ — I do not see that it ought to be understood in that way, but of true advance in himself: for he really advanced in himself in age, and it is said that he advanced at once in age and wisdom and grace; therefore he advanced in like manner in all. Again, Isaiah, speaking of this same advance, says thus in chapter 7 of his book: "He shall eat butter and honey, that he may know to refuse the evil, and to choose the good." Now this cannot be understood of his advance with others, or only of the gradual disclosure of his knowledge, because there follows immediately: "For before the child know to refuse the evil and to choose the good, the land which thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of the face of her two kings." These words show clearly that that child, namely Christ, after his conception and birth — of which he had said before, in the same place, "Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel" — did not yet know how to refuse the evil and choose the good. And next, in chapter 8, speaking of him, he says thus: "Call his name, Hasten to take away the spoils: make haste to take away the prey. For before the child know to call his father and his mother, the strength of Damascus shall be taken away." Here it is expressly suggested that that child, at least at some time of his boyhood, did not know how to call his father and his mother; and so he had nescience¹⁹, as it seems, and so he advanced through age in wisdom and grace, as it seems. Hence John, in chapter 3 of his gospel, says of him: "He must increase: but I must decrease." Again, of the centurion we read in Matthew 8 that Christ said: "Amen I say to you, I have not found so great faith in Israel"; and there it is said before: "And Jesus hearing this, marvelled." And in Mark 6 it is written of him: "And he wondered because of their unbelief." Now it is evident that no one can marvel except at a thing newly or recently known, and at some time [?] unknown²⁰; hence it seems to follow that at some time he had nescience of certain things. And if you say that this ought not to be taken of true marvelling, but that he behaved and feigned in the manner of one marvelling, I do not see how you will then be able to prove that he was sorrowful when he says, "My soul is sorrowful even unto death", of which it is said in Matthew 26 and Mark 14²¹; or that he ate and drank, as we read of him in the evangelists; or that he slept, as we read in Matthew 8. And to conclude briefly, I do not see how you could prove from Scripture any true act of humanity in him, if that is to be taken so, since anything like it could equally be said to be taken thus, namely as done by resemblance or simulation and in a resembling manner, not really and truly. Again, we read of him, as in Matthew 26, that he "fell upon his face, praying and saying: My Father, if it be possible, let this chalice pass from me" (Mark 14, and the other evangelists). Either, then, he knew what his Father was going to do about what he asked, and then it follows not only that he prayed in vain, foreseeing that he would not obtain what he asked, but also that he asked against justice that the Father do what he had foreknown he would not do; and he seems to have prayed this as one ungrateful, knowing that the will in the Father was to the contrary. Or he did not know what the Father was going to do about what he prayed for, and then it is evident that he had nescience. Again, in Hebrews 5 the Apostle says that "whereas he was the Son of God, he learned obedience by the things which he suffered"; now whoever learns something had nescience of it before.

Chapter 22.

Richard. I confess truly that these things move me much, and I wavered over them, how I could take them soundly and without contradiction. Since, however, it has been most expressly shown that he was and is true God, we must hold that with firm faith, even if we did not know how to solve these or other like things that are set in Holy Scripture for our exercise. Yet without rashness, and under correction of any reader who sees better, I will say what seems to me. For since our God was made man for our reconciliation or redemption, it was fitting, to the end that men might love him more and might also have firmer hope of him and in him, that he be made like to men in all the passions and human acts that are useful to us and could befit him. Hence the apostle Paul, Hebrews 2: "For nowhere doth God take hold of the angels: but of the seed of Abraham he taketh hold. Wherefore it behoved him in all things to be made like unto his brethren, that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest before God, that he might be a propitiation for the sins of the people." From this it follows that Christ assumed the property of man, so that, like other men, he could over the course of time acquire knowledge — not only speculative, demonstrative knowledge, but also experiential, which can properly be called the knowledge of wayfarers — of created things and also of the Creator; without derogation from the knowledge he had as God (for he knew all things, since his knowledge is the divine substance), and also without prejudice to the knowledge which his soul had from the union with the divine Word; although the conjunction or coupling of Christ's soul with the Word is far more wonderful and more beatific than that of any other creature, and therefore from such a union it had greater knowledge and grace than any other creature. Hence it is said of him in Luke, chapter 2 of his gospel, that he was "full of wisdom". Thus, then, may fittingly be taken that saying of John, chapter 1 of his gospel: "Of his fulness we all have received"; and he says the same in chapter 3: "For the Lord gave him the Spirit not by measure"²² — I understand: not by the measure of the others. By that knowledge in our Lord Jesus Christ very many questions of the gospel and of other parts of Scripture are solved; and unless it be posited, I do not see, as you touched on above, any fitting way out of them. And just as Christ is understood to have had thus a threefold knowledge — one eternal, which is God; another created in the Word, such as is the created knowledge in the Word which the blessed angels and blessed souls have, and this second can be called the knowledge of comprehensors or of the blessed; and the third acquired in time, which is properly called the knowledge of the wayfarer — so it is to be understood that he had a threefold will: namely the divine, eternal, in that he is God; a beatific will, created, from the vision in the Word by which he was blessed and enjoying God, which is called [the will] of comprehensors; and a third, free with the freedom of contradiction, conformed to his acquired knowledge, or at least proceeding from that knowledge which is called the wayfarer's, and that without prejudice to the other two. By that third kind of knowledge the Son did not know the day and hour of judgment; likewise in this kind Jesus advanced, and before the advance had the nescience opposed to it — not absolute nescience, since he had another kind of knowledge of those things, one or two. By that kind of acquired knowledge or experience he marvelled at a thing previously unknown to him by this mode of acquired cognition. By this kind of knowledge he did not know what the Father would do about what he asked, and therefore he prayed, although by the other kinds of knowledge he knew his Father's will; without prejudice to these he could ask in conformity with this knowledge, not in vain but as a good example of praying for others, and with justice and prudently. For it was just and fitting that a wayfarer should pray in conformity with a wayfarer's knowledge, although on another count he was a comprehensor; and he did not pray so ungratefully: he was pleasing to his Father in this, since he did what befitted him. Hence in his person the Psalmist says, Psalm 21²³: "O my God, I shall cry by day, and thou wilt not hear: and by night, and it shall not be reputed as folly in me," showing that he cried and prayed not foolishly but wisely when he was not heard. According to that kind of knowledge he "learned obedience by the things which he suffered", as the Apostle says, Hebrews 5: namely how much labour and endurance true obedience has. So it can be understood that he advanced in grace, if in advancing he graciously heaped up merits for himself, as the Apostle testifies, Philippians 2, saying: "He humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, even to the death of the cross. For which cause God also hath exalted him and hath given him a name which is above all names." And David says of him, Psalm [109]²⁴: "He shall drink of the torrent in the way: therefore shall he lift up the head." And the Apostle, Hebrews 2: "We see Jesus, for the suffering, crowned with glory and honour." And Isaiah, preaching the gospel of him, says in chapter 53 of his book: "Because his soul hath laboured, he shall see and be filled"; and soon after: "Therefore will I distribute to him very many, and he shall divide the spoils of the strong, because he hath delivered his soul unto death, and was reputed with the wicked." He himself also says, John 10: "Therefore doth my Father love [me]: because I will lay down my life, that I may take it again." And of him the Apostle says, Hebrews 5: "Who in the days of his flesh, with a strong cry and tears, offering up prayers and supplications to him that was able to save him from death, was heard for his reverence." Hence it is evident that he had merits over the course of time. But whether he had knowledge of the day of judgment by the second kind, or the angels either — whether it be said so or not, I do not think there is great danger; and it could be said that they did not know the day, that is, by acquired or wayfarer's knowledge. For angels can advance in cognition, as it seems, according to that text of the marvelling of the angels, asking: "Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bosra?" — which seems to be said in the person of angels marvelling at Christ's ascension into heaven. Hence the Apostle says that the sacrament²⁵ of the incarnation was hidden from eternity in God, and afterwards the manifold wisdom of God was made known to the principalities and powers in heavenly places through the church (Ephesians 3). And Zechariah, in chapter 2 of his book, describes one angel instructing another; and the same is read in the Apocalypse, chapters 7 and 15. Note, then, that Christ had a twofold human will, like other wayfarers, being made like his brethren in all things: one conformed to reason and the other natural. By the natural will or love, with respect to [?]²⁶, he shrank from death, or the chalice of the passion, as is said in Matthew 26²⁷ and by the other evangelists; and nonetheless by the will conformed to reason he desired that passion. Hence it is said there: "Not as I will" — with respect to the first will, namely the natural — "but as thou wilt" — with respect to the second, by which he willed in concord with his Father. Because of this will, which he had equally with other men who are wayfarers, he was sorrowful unto death, as we read in Matthew 26 and in the other gospels; and because the Father did not fulfil this will for him, according to this non-fulfilment he says that he was forsaken by God (Mark 15): "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" — although this can be understood by reason of the separation of the soul from the body, as will be said shortly below in the solution of the following doubt.

Chapter 23.

John. I do not plainly understand how anyone can truly marvel at a thing plainly known by him, as you seem to affirm here, since it seems contradictory for the same soul to marvel at something and to know that thing perfectly. Show, then, how these can be in the same soul at once.

Richard. That was made clear above, if you mark well what was said of his twofold will and twofold knowledge. For just as, without prejudice to the will of reason [?]¹ by which he willed to undergo death, there was in his soul a will shrinking from death, so he could, without prejudice to knowledge of one kind, be without knowledge of another kind. Now where there is acquisition of new knowledge of something, or a new acquisition of knowledge [?]², there marvelling at that thing can fittingly be. Again, in his soul there was trouble and anger, as the gospel says, and nonetheless there was in him tranquillity of reason and imperturbation of reason, which could not be in us. For he himself says, "My soul is troubled" (John 11³), showing that in his soul there was pain — not sorrow or fear of death as in us — and no one dares say that there was not in his soul the integrity of beatitude and tranquillity of reason. It is evident, therefore, that such things as in us, by the common course, are contrary or repugnant were at once in his knowledge or soul; and to do this will not be difficult for the Omnipotent. But if it pleases anyone to deny advance in Christ altogether, he can say, as the holy father and very great Augustine seems to have held⁴, that he advanced experientially in knowledge and grace, in such a way that what he had known before by speculation he afterwards experienced; as that text seems to be understood, "he learned obedience by the things which he suffered" (Hebrews 5), since before the passion he no doubt had perfect cognition of obedience. By that mode of knowledge, namely the experiential, in infancy he did not know how to call father or mother, as is said in Isaiah 1⁵. But if this pleases anyone entirely, I do not wish to resist, provided he shows how the Son did not know the day or hour of judgment, and how he marvelled, and how it can openly be understood of experience that "he shall eat butter and honey, that he may know to refuse the evil and to choose the good," etc.

Chapter 24.

John. Again: you have satisfied me on this; go on to resolve the other things which make out that Christ is not God. For see, many things are said which make him out to be less than the Father, and even than the Holy Spirit, and which seem to suggest that he is not God at all. As in Matthew 12: "Whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but he that shall speak against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him neither in this world, nor in the world to come." Now if the Son of man, of whom it is said above, namely Christ⁶, were equal to the Holy Spirit, it would seem an equal sin to speak a word against him as against the Holy Spirit, and so equally unforgivable. And in Mark 10 he says of himself to one calling him good: "Why callest thou me good? None is good but one, that is God"; and Luke 18: "Why dost thou call me good? None is good but God alone." Behold, here he rebukes the one calling him good, because God alone is good; therefore he himself was not God. Again, John 14: "I go to the Father: for the Father is greater than I"; therefore he was greater than the Father⁷. Again, in Matthew 20 he says to the sons of Zebedee: "My chalice indeed you shall drink; but to sit on my right or left hand is not mine to give to you, but to them for whom it is prepared by my Father"; and if he could not do these things, he was not God. Again, in Mark 6 the evangelist says of him: "And he could not do many miracles there, only that he cured a few that were sick, laying his hands upon them."⁸ How was he God, if he could not do many miracles there? Again, if he had been God, he would, as it seems, have cured whatever and wherever by a word alone; yet we read that he took someone aside from the multitude and, putting his fingers into his ear, cured him (of which Mark 7), and spitting, touched his tongue, as we read; and he cured another by touching his eyes on several occasions (of which Mark 6⁹). Again, in Mark 3 it is said: "And looking round about on them with anger, he was grieved for the blindness of their hearts." Now anger does not seem to fall upon the person of God according to the divinity, since it is a blameworthy passion. And yet, as we read there, his own said of him that "he is become mad"; which, as it seems, they would not have said had they not seen in him an excessive anger, which always seems to be blameworthy. Again, Mark 15: "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Now God cannot be, nor could be, forsaken by God, as it seems. Again, we read in John 12: "These things Jesus spoke: and he went away and hid himself from them." If he was God, why did he hide himself? For he could have appeared in such a way that no one would have power over him. Again, what he says in John 17, speaking of his disciples, seems to move much: "And not for them only do I pray, but for them also who through their word shall believe in me, that they all may be one, as thou, Father, in me, and I in thee; that they also may be one in us, and that the world may know that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou hast given me, I have given to them: that they may be one, as we also are one."¹⁰ Here he asks that his own be one as he and the Father are one, and he says that the glory which the Father gave him he gave to them. Now it is evident that he did not ask that they should be [one] in substance with him, nor [?] among themselves, because this could not be done; therefore neither did he will it. Nor could he give them the essential glory of the divinity; therefore neither was he himself thus one with the Father, nor does the Father seem to have given him such glory; and so he seems not to have been God. Similarly it is said in Apocalypse 2, in the person of Christ: "And he that shall overcome and keep my works unto the end, I will give him power over the nations. And he shall rule them with a rod of iron, and as the vessel of a potter they shall be broken, as I also have received of my Father." And chapter 3: "He that shall overcome, I will give him a seat in my throne with me: as I also have overcome and am set down with my Father in his throne." Here it is said that the power which he had from the Father he gave to his elect, and that he would give them a seat in his throne as he himself was to sit in his Father's throne. Again, if he was God, he could do all things at will; how, then, did he groan, as we read in Mark 7 and 8¹¹? For groaning comes either from the presence of something displeasing or from the lack of something pleasing, neither of which seems to befit the Omnipotent. Again, in Luke 12 he answered someone thus: "Man, who hath appointed me judge or divider over you?" Now it is evident that, if he was God, he was both judge and divider over everyone. And Paul, 1 Corinthians 3: "For all things are yours: and you are Christ's: and Christ is God's"; and chapter 11: "The head of Christ is God". Here he shows Christ to be inferior to God, as those to whom he was speaking were inferior to Christ, and as the body is inferior to the head. Again, 1 Timothy 2 it is said: "For there is one God, and one mediator of God and men"; and a medium between two is neither of them. Again, in Acts 10 Peter says of him: "who went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him." But God does not seem able to be said to be with God, but with one who is not God. Again, 1 John chapter 4 says: "No man hath seen God at any time", which he also says in chapter 1 of his gospel; therefore Christ, whom they had seen, seems not to be God.

Chapter 25.¹²

Richard. Christ, God according to the humanity and by reason of the humanity, is less than his Father, and than himself according to the divinity or by reason of the deity. Indeed, the prophet says of him: "Thou hast made him a little less than the angels." For David says this of Christ, as the Apostle says, 1 Corinthians 15 and Hebrews 2; and it is to be understood according to the humanity and by reason of the humanity, which is a nature inferior to the angelic. And understand all the things¹³ that make him out to be less than the Father, or than God, in this way. For thus it is true that Christ was not good, and was not supremely good, according to the humanity, and that the Father was greater than he. For thus he could not, by reason of the humanity or by its power, give the sons of Zebedee to sit on the right and the left, as their mother had asked. Thus according to the rational soul he was angry, groaned, was grieved and troubled; that is, he had a true passion of the soul, yet not a change or disturbance of reason. As for what you say of madness, it is not said by the evangelist; but the evangelist says that his own went out to lay hold on him, for they said, "He is become mad." For many of his disciples were of simple knowledge, believing him a mere man; and therefore, seeing him excessively angry, as it appeared to them, they said that he had become mad, erring in this. Hence there was not blameworthy¹⁴ anger in him, just as the anger is not blameworthy of which the prophet says, "Be ye angry, and sin not." For there is one anger that is natural and another that is rational, by reason of certain offences; and in both ways, provided it does not exceed, in a man it is rational, not blameworthy. Thus according to the humanity, at the time of death, he was forsaken by God, as we say that one is forsaken in danger by another who does not snatch him from the danger. Thus according to the humanity he was not appointed by God judge or ruler — namely judge over worldly things and their ruler, as earthly powers appoint judges — as will be shown more fully below in book 4. Thus Christ himself was God's, that is, under God, according to the human nature in him, and his head was and is God according to the humanity; God was with him, and according to it he was not God — although he was truly God — because by reason of the humanity, too, he could be seen, which humanity was personally united to the divinity, so that it could truly be said that God was seen; but according to his divinity "no man hath seen God at any time", namely with the bodily eye, which I think John meant. In this way it would be a lesser sin to speak a word against Christ by reason of the humanity than against him or the Holy Spirit by reason of the divinity, even if the sin were equal against either of them by reason of the deity. Hence that text first put forward by you proves him less than the Holy Spirit only [by reason of the humanity]¹⁵, although that saying has another sense, to be set out in another fitting place. As for what Mark says, where you set it down above, that he could not do many miracles there, namely in his own country: it is said not because of his impotence but because of the malice and unbelief of that people, as we read immediately after, "and they murmured because of their unbelief"¹⁶; and he had said before, "A prophet is not without honour, but in his own country, and among his own kindred, and in his own house," showing the malice of his people. Hence, justice requiring it, he cured few there; and this is not because he could not, etc., as Matthew, chapter 12¹⁷, says more expressly in his gospel [?], thus: "And he wrought not many miracles there, because of their unbelief." For so the angel says to Lot, Genesis 19: "I cannot do any thing till thou go in thither"; not that the angel then lacked the power to overthrow those cities of which the discourse there was, for he had then the same power as afterwards when he overthrew those cities; but because justice required that Lot with his own be saved first, therefore he says, "I cannot do any thing" etc. And that our Lord Jesus Christ cured others not by a word alone or a command, nor everywhere, does not on that account prove impotence in him; for this rather happened because of the indisposition of those to be cured, who were not yet sufficiently disposed by penitence; but by the lengthening of time or the change of place they repented more, and [so] being more fully disposed they were cured by [his] power, as is likely in those two whom I touched on above (Mark 7 and 8). Again, it is to be believed that God cured men in such a way because of some spiritual signification concerning the cure of souls, which he wished us to understand: perhaps because the soul is better cured when a man seeks secret places than amid the throng or the sight of men, where there are very many distractions; hence elsewhere he says: "But thou when thou shalt pray, enter into thy chamber, and having shut the door, pray to thy Father in secret" (Matthew 6). And for this reason, to leave us such an example, he led that deaf and dumb man apart from the multitude that he might receive speech and hearing; and in giving light to the eyes of the blind man [he touched them] more than once, for the cure of the soul from sin, and especially from the sin of unbelief and ignorance, which makes the soul blind, must come about little by little through the unlocking of the Scriptures¹⁸, so that the soul may thus see the truth little by little. Hence from such a manner of his curing no impotence can be argued, but rather wisdom and benevolence in instructing us. Hence, too, it is to be believed that he sometimes hid himself to give us an example of withdrawing from the wicked when we could not profit them, as he himself says: "When they persecute you in this city, flee into another" (Matthew 10); not because of any impotence in him from which it could be argued that he was not God, since we read that at another time he passed through the midst of them when they sought to kill him. Again, you ought to note that God the Father and Christ, God and man, can be called one in three ways¹⁹: either because they are of one divine nature; or because Christ is united to the Father by charity, and this according to the human nature, in the way the Apostle says, 1 Corinthians 6: "He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit"; or, thirdly, in a way midway between those two, which is to be called less than the first and more excellent than the second: because Christ according to his humanity is united to the divinity of the Father, so that in a human hypostasis he is said to be God; and this union is by grace, not by nature, and it is the highest grace, or the highest gift of grace, never conferred on any other. Of this gift can be understood John 10: "That which my Father hath given me is greater than all" — and greater than anything else given to anyone. Hence what follows there can be understood of this union, "I and the Father are one," or of the first mode of union, without danger, since by either mode it follows that Christ is God. Therefore, by reason of the third union²⁰, which necessarily includes the second, and so by reason of a twofold union, he is said to be one with the Father according to the humanity — I understand: in the humanity and through it; but his elect are said to be one with the Father only in the second mode. The second mode, the more perfect it is in anyone, the more like and nearer it is to the first and third modes. Hence it is evident that you conclude insufficiently, from the fact that his own are one with the Father as he is one with the Father, a negative, namely that he is not the same with the Father in another way than they are; since the adverb "as", by its mode of signifying, does not designate equality precisely but likeness, being an adverb of likeness. Hence Christ himself says to his own, "Be you therefore perfect, as also your heavenly Father is perfect" (Matthew 5), not urging on them equality of perfection with the heavenly Father, which they could not attain, but likeness and imitation according to a mode befitting them. And in Matthew 10 he says: "It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord." And in John 15 it is said: "This is my commandment, that you love one another, as I have loved you," where likeness is designated, not full equality. Understand in the same way that text of the glory which God the Father gave the Son, even before the world was made — which is nothing other than the divinity itself, which he gave the Son, consubstantial with him, in begetting him; or which he gave the Son in the humanity, by uniting it hypostatically to the divinity in the person of the Son — namely that he gave it to his own, yet in a manner befitting them, in which they could receive it. With which it is quite consistent that he had that glory more excellently than they had it. In a like way you will take that part adduced above from the Apocalypse, namely that Christ the Son of God, of whom John speaks there, gave and will give his elect power over the nations and to sit in his throne, that is, to have royal dignity, as the Father gave to him; not, however, equal, but such as can befit them, since they will be joint heirs with Christ, as the Apostle says, Romans 8. Hence he himself in the gospel, Luke 12, promises the faithful servant that he will set him over all his goods; yet he does not mean that they will be equal to God as his natural Son, as Christ is equal to him. As for that of the first Epistle to Timothy, chapter 2, that Christ is the mediator of God and men: it does not infer that he is not God, for he is mediator in the humanity and according to it, inasmuch as it is united to the divinity in the third mode mentioned. For thus he is not God according to the humanity, nor man according to the divinity, but he agrees in something with each extreme, namely with the divinity and with mere men, and differs in something from each, nonetheless existing true man.

Chapter 26.

John. I want you to resolve one thing more: that it seems it cannot be proved from the works he did that he was God, since he himself says, John 14: "Amen, amen¹ I say to you, he that believeth in me, the works that I do, he also shall do: and greater than these shall he do." If, then, others believing in him did greater works than he did, or could even do those which he did, it seems that it can no more be proved by these works that he was God than that they were. And yet I am greatly troubled, because he says, John 15²: "If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin: but now they have no excuse for their sin. He that hateth me hateth my Father also. If I had not done among them the works that no other man hath done, they would not have sin: but now they have both seen and hated both me and my Father." Again, in Luke chapter 9³, when the Pharisees said to him, "Are we also blind?", he answered: "If you were blind, they would not have sin: but now, because you say, We have seen, your sin remaineth."⁴ Hence from the works he did he says that the Jews are without excuse for their sin; which, it seems, would not be true unless they could know from the works that he was God. And in John 10, in excuse of the blasphemy laid on him by the Jews, he says: "You say that I spoke blasphemies, because I said: I am the Son of God⁵. If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not. But if I do, though you will not believe me, believe the works: that you may know and believe that the Father is in me and I in the Father." For here he seems to suggest that it could be known from the works that he was God, etc.

Chapter 27.

Richard. The diversity in the manner of working or doing deceives you, I see. For Christ did his works by himself and by his own power [?]⁶; hence he says⁷: "I lay down my life, and I take it again. No man taketh it away from me: but I lay it down of myself, and I have power to lay it down, and to take it up again" (John 10); and in John 5⁸, speaking of his Father, he says: "For what things soever he doth, these the Son also doth in like manner." But anyone else does the works of God by the power of God; hence he describes this manner to them when he adds what you set down above, John 14: "and greater than these, I say, shall he do: because I go to the Father: and whatsoever you shall ask the Father in my name, that will I do: that the Father may be glorified in the Son. But if you shall ask me any thing in my name, that I will do." See: they were to do those works by asking his Father or him, and nonetheless he says that then he will do what they ask; so that they, as ministers, were to do the works, namely the miracles, by praying to him or to the Father, while he would do them by himself, by his own power; although we read that he did some works also by praying to his Father, as when he healed the dumb and deaf man (of which Mark 7) and when he raised Lazarus from the tomb (John 11), and in like cases, wishing to show that the humanity in him was subject to the divinity and that by it he could not perform such things. Yet he did other works without prayer to the Father first, of which it appears in Scripture that he ascribed those works to his own power: as when he healed the ruler's son (of which John 4), and elsewhere: "But that you may know," he says, "that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins," he said to the sick of the palsy, "Arise, and take up thy bed, and go into thy house." Similarly of the boy from whom he cast out a devil (Matthew 17); similarly when he cast the devils out of men and ordered them to enter the herd of swine (of which deed Matthew 8); when he healed the woman who had an unclean spirit eighteen years (of whom Luke 13); and in similar deeds of his, countless in the gospel, it is not written that he did these with prayer offered first for them; but at times he did works affirming that he had power to do them. From these works, according to the manner in which they were done, the Jews and others could have firm and sufficient faith that he was God and the Christ promised to them in Holy Scripture; which they could not reasonably suspect of Elijah or of Elisha, who raised the dead by praying, nor of any other before him or after him who did not ascribe the miraculous works he did to his own power. And hence it is that he says they have no excuse for their sin. For all the apostles and prophets and other saints, and John the Baptist, denied that they were Christ and God, and asserted that what they did they did by divine power, not by their own strength, and expressly denied [the contrary]: as in Acts 3, of the lame man healed in [the name of] Jesus, Peter says that he was healed in the name of Christ, not by his own power or that of John his colleague; so Paul and Barnabas, of the lame man healed by them in the name of Jesus Christ, when [the people] wished to sacrifice to them as gods, answered: "We are mortals, men like unto you" (Acts 14). Hence, although it could not be openly known from this that Christ himself was God, yet from his works and words and manner of working sufficient faith could be had of it; hence those who opposed him are rendered inexcusable in their sin. And therefore, as you set down last above, he does not say "that you may know" etc., but he says "that you may know and believe that the Father is in me and I in the Father". Again, by such a way they could have sufficient belief from his works and words that he was God: because from the works they could have sufficient faith that he was holy and just, and so consequently not a sinner, or at least not a blasphemer; and so, when he said that he was equal to God the Father, or other things from which this manifestly followed, if he was not a blasphemer he said the truth; and this they could deservedly believe from the works, which sufficiently affirmed him just and holy. For the Jews have a certain book entitled On the generation of Jesus of Nazareth⁹, in which it is affirmed that this Jesus raised the dead, cleansed the leper, healed the lame and did other miracles; hence from this head alone the Jews are convicted to confess that he was the promised Messiah, since, by the attesting of the greatest and countless miracles done by him, by his apostles and by others after them in his name, they are compelled to confess him just and holy; from which it follows that he was not a liar nor a blasphemer but truthful when he called himself Messiah and God. Indeed, what is more, in so saying, as I set down here above, he forgave sins and healed men. For he has little wisdom who dares to say that the apostles and saints did so many miracles in the name of a blasphemer, etc.

Here ends the second book.