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De carne Christi

XXII

[1] Deleant igitur et testimonia daemonum filium David proclamantia ad Iesum, sed testimonia apostolorum delere non poterunt, si daemonum indigna sunt. ipse imprimis Matthaeus, fidelissimus evangelii commentator ut comes domini, non aliam ob causam quam ut nos originis Christi carnalis compotes faceret ita exorsus est: Liber generaturae Iesu Christi filii David filii Abrahae. [2] his originis fontibus genere manante cum gradatim ordo deducitur ad Christi nativitatem, quid aliud quam caro ipsa Abrahae et David per singulos traducem sui faciens in virginem usque describitur inferens Christum--immo ipse Christus prodit --de virgine? [3] sed et Paulus, utpote eiusdem evangelii et discipulus et magister et testis, quia eiusdem apostolus Christi, confirmat Christum ex semine David secundum carnem, utique ipsius. ergo ex semine David caro Christi. sed secundum Mariae carnem ex semine David: ergo ex Mariae carne est dum ex semine est David. [4] quocunque detorseris dictum, aut ex carne est Mariae quod ex semine est David, aut ex David semine est quod ex carne est Mariae. totam hanc controversiam dirimit idem apostolus ipsum definiens esse Abrahae semen: cum Abrahae, utique multo magis David, quasi recentioris. [5] retexens enim promissionem benedictionis nationum in semine Abrahae, Et in semine tuo benedicentur omnes nationes, Non, inquit, dixit seminibus tanquam de pluribus, sed semine, de uno, quod est Christus. [6] qui haec nihilominus legimus et credimus, quam debemus et possumus agnoscere in Christo carnis qualitatem? utique non aliam quam Abrahae, siquidem semen Abrahae Christus: nec aliam quam Iesse, siquidem ex radice Iesse flos Christus: nec aliam quam David, siquidem fructus ex lumbis David Christus: nec aliam quam Mariae, siquidem ex Mariae utero Christus: et adhuc superius nec aliam quam Adae, siquidem secundus Adam Christus. consequens ergo est ut aut illos spiritalem carnem habuisse contendant, quo eadem conditio substantiae deducatur in Christum, aut concedant carnem Christi spiritalem non fuisse, quae non de spiritali stirpe censetur.

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On the Flesh of Christ

Chapter XXII.--Holy Scripture in the New Testament, Even in Its Very First Verse, Testifies to Christ's True Flesh. In Virtue of Which He is Incorporated in the Human Stock of David, and Abraham, and Adam.

They may, then, obliterate the testimony of the devils which proclaimed Jesus the son of David; but whatever unworthiness there be in this testimony, that of the apostles they will never be able to efface. There is, first of all, Matthew, that most faithful chronicler ¹ of the Gospel, because the companion of the Lord; for no other reason in the world than to show us clearly the fleshly original ² of Christ, he thus begins his Gospel: "The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham." ³ With a nature issuing from such fountal sources, and an order gradually descending to the birth of Christ, what else have we here described than the very flesh of Abraham and of David conveying itself down, step after step, to the very virgin, and at last introducing Christ,--nay, producing Christ Himself of the virgin? Then, again, there is Paul, who was at once both a disciple, and a master, and a witness of the selfsame Gospel; as an apostle of the same Christ, also, he affirms that Christ "was made of the seed of David, according to the flesh," ⁴ --which, therefore, was His own likewise. Christ's flesh, then, is of David's seed. Since He is of the seed of David in consequence of Mary's flesh, He is therefore of Mary's flesh because of the seed of David. In what way so ever you torture the statement, He is either of the flesh of Mary because of the seed of David, or He is of the seed of David because of the flesh of Mary. The whole discussion is terminated by the same apostle, when he declares Christ to be "the seed of Abraham." And if of Abraham, how much more, to be sure, of David, as a more recent progenitor! For, unfolding the promised blessing upon all nations in the person ⁵ of Abraham, "And in thy seed shall all nations of the earth be blessed," he adds, "He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ." ⁶ When we read and believe these things, what sort of flesh ought we, and can we, acknowledge in Christ? Surely none other than Abraham's, since Christ is "the seed of Abraham;" none other than Jesse's, since Christ is the blossom of "the stem of Jesse;" none other than David's, since Christ is "the fruit of David's loins;" none other than Mary's, since Christ came from Mary's womb; and, higher still, none other than Adam's, since Christ is "the second Adam." The consequence, therefore, is that they must either maintain, that those (ancestors) had a spiritual flesh, that so there might be derived to Christ the same condition of substance, or else allow that the flesh of Christ was not a spiritual one, since it is not traced from the origin ⁷ of a spiritual stock.