CHAPTER 13

From Isaiah.

Of the Miracles He Performed. 

[Passage quoted, Isa. xxxv. 3.]

Now we have this prophecy fulfilled in the Gospels, partly, when they brought to our Lord and Saviour a paralytic lying on a bed, whom He made whole with a word; and partly, when many that were blind and possessed with (d) daemons, yea, labouring under various diseases and weaknesses, were released from their sufferings by His saving power. Nor should we forget how even now throughout the whole world multitudes bound by all forms of evil, full of ignorance of Almighty God in their souls, are healed and cured miraculously and beyond all argument by the medicine of His teaching. Except that now we call Him God as we should, as One Who can work thus, as I have already shewn in the evidence of His Divinity. Yea, surely (448) it is right now to acknowledge Him to be God, since He has given proof of power divine and truly inspired.

For it was specifically God's work to give strength to the paralysed, to give life to the dead, to supply health to the sick, to open the eyes of the blind, to restore the lame, and to make the tongue-tied speak plain, all of which things were done by our Saviour Jesus Christ, because He was God, and they have been witnessed to by many throughout (b) all the world that preach Him—whose evidence unvarnished and veritable is confirmed by trial of torture, and by persistence even unto death, which they have shewn forth before kings and rulers and all nations, witnessing to the truth of what they preach. And I think that the spirit of prophecy addresses to these apostles and evangelists the words that begin with, "Lift up the hands that hang down, and the palsied knees." For when they had grown weary (c) in their hands and powers of action, in their feet and walking with the long circuit of Mosaic observance, He awaked them to the life of the Gospel, and said, "Be strong, ye hands that hang down, and feeble knees," to - 179 - prepare them, that is to say, for the Gospel race. And be strong, too, to encourage others, and to urge them to cling to the salvation of the Gospel, ye that before were low in spirit, and let not any fear take you of them that oppose the Gospel preaching, but against them be strong and of a good courage.

For it is God and the Word of God, not one like Moses or the prophets, that was not only the Worker of the Miracles, but is also the Cause of your own strength. And the strongest confirmation of the Divine Power of the Saviour here foretold, by which He really used to cure the lame, the blind, the lepers and the palsied with a word according to that which is written concerning Him, is the power even now energizing through the whole world from His Godhead, by which is shewn to them that can see what He was while on earth, since after so many years His proclamation of the Word of God is seen to last on invincible and true, overcoming all that have attempted from the beginning until now to withstand His teaching; He attracts to Himself great multitudes from all the world, and releases them that come to Him from all kinds of evil and diseases and troubles of the spirit; He summons to His holy school all races, Greek and Barbarian; He leads countless hosts to the knowledge of the one true God, and to a healthy and pure life, as befits those who promise to worship Almighty God. And He our God, since He is the Word of God, it says, "Gives judgment and will give, He will come and save us." For, according to the Psalm which says, "Give the King thy judgment, O God," and, according to the Gospel teaching, in which it is said, "The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son," having received the authority to judge from the Father, judging in righteousness, He repays justly to the Jewish people the fit penalty for their presumptuous treatment of Him and His prophets, and ever saves in justice as well those who come to Him, whose spiritual ears and eyes He has opened. Wherefore the divine word calls the time of His Appearance the time of retribution, saying elsewhere, "Call on the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of retribution." This was the time of retribution in which all - 180 - the blood poured out from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, yea, even to the precious Blood of Jesus, was required of the generation of them that had sinned against Him, so that from that time they underwent utter destruction and their final siege. And the judgment declared against them wrought this retribution; wherefore the prophecy says, "Behold our God exacts judgment, and will repay." And the judgment on them that shall be saved by Him is foretold next in the words, "He will come and save us; then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf hear," and that which follows. And another prophecy also promises that the Christ will bring this saving (450) judgment, saying:

"Behold my Son, I will succour him, my chosen, my Spirit hath accepted him, he shall bear judgment to the nations."

Wherefore it is also said concerning the Word of the new covenant:

"For out of Zion shall come forth a law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem, and he shall judge in the midst of the nations."

For there is little doubt that He effects the calling of them that turn to Him with divine justice and ineffable counsels. And, moreover, as teaching us of the divine judgment, and instructing us always to act as under judgment, He is said "to bear judgment to the nations."