[Those divine works which He performed] had a figurative meaning and great significance, and power, which had weight both for the present, but also for the future.<\/p>\n
[Christ] opened the eyes of the blind, and gave light to those who did not see; and by this deed He signified that He would enlighten the foolish with the light of wisdom, and open the eyes of their understanding to the contemplation of the truth. For they are truly blind who, not seeing heavenly things, and surrounded with the darkness of ignorance, worship earthly and frail things; He opened the ears of the deaf. For you may truly call those deaf who do not hear nor understand the divine words of God; He loosed the tongues of the dumb, so that they spake plainly. For he who is ignorant of the divine nature, he truly is speechless and dumb, although he is the most eloquent of all men. For when the tongue has begun to speak truth\u2014that is, to set forth the excellency and majesty of the one God\u2014then only does it discharge the office of its nature; He also renewed the feet of the lame to the office of walking. For he is truly lame, who, being enwrapped in the gloom and darkness of folly, and ignorant in what direction to go, with feet liable to stumble and fall, walks in the way of death.<\/p>\n
Likewise He cleansed the stains and blemishes of defiled bodies. For they ought truly to be accounted as leprous and unclean, whom either boundless lusts compel to crimes, or insatiable pleasures to disgraceful deeds, and affect with an everlasting stain those who are branded with the marks of dishonourable actions; He raised the bodies of the dead as they lay prostrate; and calling them aloud by their names, He brought them back from death. For you may rightly deem those to be dead, who, not knowing God the giver of life, and depressing their souls from heaven to earth, run into the snares of eternal death.<\/p>\n
The actions, therefore, which He then performed for the present, were representations of future things; the things which He displayed in injured and diseased bodies were figures of spiritual things, that at present He might display to us the works of an energy which was not of earth, and for the future might show the power of His heavenly majesty.
\n— Lactantius. The Divine Institutes. IV.XXVI<\/p>\n
For the vinegar which they gave Him to drink, and the gall which they gave Him to eat, held forth hardships and severities in this life to the followers of truth… since the truth is bitter, and detested by all who, being destitute of virtue, give up their life to deadly pleasures.<\/p>\n
For the placing of a crown of thorns upon His head, declared that it would come to pass that He would gather to Himself a holy people from those who were guilty. For people standing around in a circle are called a corona. But we, who before that we knew God were unjust, were thorns\u2014that is, evil and guilty, not knowing what was good; Being taken, therefore, from briars and thorns, we surround the sacred head of God; for, being called by Himself, and spread around Him, we stand beside God, who is our Master and Teacher, and crown Him King of the world, and Lord of all the living.<\/p>\n
But with reference to the cross, … some one may perchance say: Why, if He was God, and chose to die, did He not at least suffer by some honourable kind of death? Why was it by the cross especially?<\/p>\n
First of all, because He, who had come in humility that He might bring assistance to the humble and men of low degree, and might hold out to all the hope of safety, was to suffer by that kind of punishment by which the humble and low usually suffer, that there might be no one at all who might not be able to imitate Him. In the next place, it was in order that His body might be kept unmutilated, since He must rise again from the dead on the third day.<\/p>\n
Because it was necessary that He should be lifted up on it, and the passion of God become known to all nations. For since he who is suspended upon a cross is both conspicuous to all and higher than others, the cross was especially chosen, which might signify that He would be so conspicuous, and so raised on high, that all nations from the whole world should meet together at once to know and worship Him.<\/p>\n
No nation is so uncivilized, no region so remote, to which either His passion or the height of His majesty would be unknown. Therefore in His suffering He stretched forth His hands and measured out the world, that even then He might show that a great multitude, collected together out of all languages and tribes, from the rising of the sun even to his setting, was about to come under His wings, and to receive on their foreheads that great and lofty sign [i.e. the sign of the cross used in baptism].<\/p>\n
And the Jews even now exhibit a figure of this transaction when they mark their thresholds with the blood of a lamb… For the forehead is the top of the threshold in man, and the wood sprinkled with blood is the emblem of the cross. Lastly, the slaying of the lamb by those very persons who perform it is called the paschal feast, from the word \u201cpaschein,\u201d because it is a figure of the passion, which God, foreknowing the future, delivered by Moses to be celebrated by His people.
\n— Lactantius. The Divine Institutes. IV.XXVI<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Works of Christ [Those divine works which He performed] had a figurative meaning and great significance, and power, which had weight both for the present, but also for the future. [Christ] opened the eyes of the blind, and gave light to those who did not see; and by this deed He signified that He would enlighten the foolish with the light of wisdom, and open the eyes of their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lactantius"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1301,"url":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/lactantius-on-the-incarnation\/","url_meta":{"origin":1317,"position":0},"title":"Lactantius On the Incarnation","author":"Nemo","date":"January 2, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"The Two Advents of Christ \u201cI saw,\u201d [Daniel] said, \u201cin a vision of the night, and, behold, one like the Son of man coming with the clouds of heaven, and He came even to the Ancient of days. 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