Complete Works of Lactantius Vol. II

The image shows a two-page spread (pages 51 and 52) from a printed book. The main text is in two columns, followed by a section of "ANNOTATIONS" also in two columns.

the satisfaction and propitiation for us before the Father, having chosen to pursue him with sacrilegious assault? For if (I Joan. 1 John, II, 1): We have Christ as an advocate before God the Father, we ought to do with anxious fear those things which he taught and warned us, and which he is to speak before the Father. Therefore, we who, with a mind inclined to the fear of the Lord, persist in the warnings of his commandments, and have conceived the faith and belief of a religious and venerable heart from his fear; what else ought we to follow, what to desire, what to will and hold more, than that with every night of the ancient mind scattered from us, and the fog of our previous life wiped away, being mindful of the saving commandments of the Lord and retaining the promises of eternal life, we may return to his warnings and walk in his light which he shows, with confirmed belief? So that we who were once ignorant of the future salvation, having wandered in the errors and darkness of our previous life, now illuminated by the brightness of his true light, and the limit of a better life having been shown and revealed to us, may hold the commandments of the Lord to be followed and carried out.

III. This light of saving life having risen for us, this safeguard for the reparation of man by the provision and mercy of God the Father, the first Magi coming from the eastern part, and with the star as guide, seeking the king of the Jews with open, foreknowing preaching, and even bringing gifts, showed him, having been testified to by inquiry for all. And so that it would not be hidden from anyone who he was, they fell on their knees and adored the found child; just as the Gospel testifies, saying: Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of King Herod, behold, the Magi from the East came to Jerusalem saying: Where is he who is born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the East, and we have come to adore him (Matth. Matthew, II, 1): testifying, of course, to the truth concerning him, and even that the star had been shown to them as a sign and indication of his very birth; by which indicator, it was believed at Jerusalem that he was born, as the Magi were preaching and affirming. Simeon also, the just man who, constituted in blindness, having been warned by a divine oracle, had heard that he would not die before he had seen Christ; when the mother brought the infant into the temple with her, with all the people present, and he had sensed in spirit that Christ was born, he saw the child received into his hands; and blessing God, in the sight and hearing of all he said (Luc. Luke, II, 29): Now you dismiss your servant, O Lord, according to your word, in peace: because my eyes have seen your salvation. Simeon was announcing that what he had heard as a blind man had been accomplished in evident truth; and the truth which he had seen with the light he had received, he was preaching openly to the people by blessing God. For he had seen to this end, that he might report, and by his revelation might show that Christ had been born, and might instruct the first beginnings of the incredulity of the treacherous people.

IV. And the truth of the celestial Scriptures bears witness not only to this concerning him, but also the Holy Spirit predicted his future advent into this world openly through the prophets, with the mind of everyone conscious of it. Nor is there a pretext of excuse for the incredulous, either to have been ignorant of Christ the Son of God, or not to have known of the future advent of the Savior; just as David manifests, saying (Psal. Psalm XVIII, 3, 6): Day to day belches out speech, and night to night indicates knowledge. There are no speeches or words, whose voices are not heard. Their sound has gone out into all the earth, and their ends to the ends of the earth. He has placed his tabernacle in the sun: that is, in manifest light, he showed openly that he had come; and through the preaching of the prophets, in a certain way, he proved the manifestation of his presence to all. This also Esaias, through whom the Lord showed his presence by a clear manifestation of announcement, prophesies and says (Isa. Isaiah, III, 6): I myself who was speaking, have come: that is, I who had spoken beforehand through the prophets about my future advent, I myself have now come, so that I myself may manifest my presence to all as a witness to myself. What is more evident? What is more illustrious than this light? What more true can be said? So that he might be, in a certain way, perceived by the eyes; he who had already been about to come, showed before he came that he had come; and with incredulity obstructing the minds of the treacherous people, no one recognized him as he was coming. Just as the same Esaias proclaims in the first rebuke of the people, saying (Isa. Isaiah, I, 3): The ox has known his owner, and the donkey the crib of his master: but Israel does not know me, and the people have not understood me. Openly to all, just as he himself predicted, he appeared; and for those sitting in darkness, the manifest light of life shone; and the breast of the treacherous, obsessed by injustice, having postponed and rejected their own salvation, chose rather the darkness and blindness of the heart.

V. The prophecy of all, who were moved by the Holy Spirit, everywhere frequents and manifests