XVI. An Enumeration of the Prophetical Predictions Which Declare Christ, Whose Completion Though the Jews Saw, Yet Out of the Evil Temper of Their Mind They Did Not Believe He Was the Christ of God, and Condemned the Lord of Glory to the Cross.

See how the people provoked the Lord by not believing in Him! Therefore He says: "They provoked the Holy Spirit, and He was turned to be their enemy."¹ For blindness is cast upon them, by reason of the wickedness of their mind, because when they saw Jesus they did not believe Him to be the Christ of God, who was before all ages² begotten of Him, His only-begotten Son, God the Word, whom they did not own through their unbelief, neither on account of His mighty works, nor yet on account of the prophecies which were written concerning Him. For that He was to be born of a virgin, they read this prophecy: "Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a Son, and they shall call His name Emanuel."³ "For to us a Child is born, to us a Son is given, whose government is upon His shoulders; and His name is called the Angel of His Great Council, the Wonderful Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Potentate, the Prince of Peace, the Father of the Future Age."⁴ Now, that because of their exceeding great wickedness they would not believe in Him, the Lord shows in these words: "Who hath believed our report? and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed?"⁵ And afterward: "Hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive: for the heart of this people is waxed gross."⁶ Wherefore knowledge was taken from them, because seeing they overlooked, and hearing they heard not. But to you, the converted of the Gentiles, is the kingdom given, because you, who knew not God, have believed by preaching, and "have known Him, or rather are known of Him,"⁷ through Jesus, the Saviour and Redeemer of those that hope in Him. For ye are translated from your former vain and tedious mode of life and have contemned the lifeless idols, and despised the demons, which are in darkness, and have run to the "true light,"⁸ and by it have "known the one and only true God and Father,"⁹ and so are owned to be heirs of His kingdom. For since ye have "been baptized into the Lord's death,"¹⁰ and into His resurrection, as "new-born babes,"¹¹ ye ought to be wholly free from all sinful actions; "for you are not your own, but His that bought you"¹² with His own blood. For concerning the former Israel the Lord speaks thus, on account of their unbelief: "The kingdom of God shall be taken from them, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof;"¹³ that is to say, that having given the kingdom to you, who were once far estranged from Him, He expects the fruits of your gratitude and probity. For ye are those that were once sent into the vineyard, and did not obey, but these they that did obey;¹⁴ but you have repented of your denial, and you work therein now. But they, being uneasy on account of their own covenants, have not only left the vineyard uncultivated, but have also killed the stewards of the Lord of the vineyard,¹⁵ --one with stones, another with the sword; one they sawed asunder,¹⁶ another they slew in the holy place, "between the temple and the altar;"¹⁷ nay, at last they "cast the Heir Himself out of the vineyard, and slew Him."¹⁸ And by them He was rejected as an unprofitable stone,¹⁹ but by you was received as the corner-stone. Wherefore He says concerning you: "A people whom I knew not have served me, and at the hearing of the ear have they obeyed me."²⁰