約伯倫理 第 1260 章

THE ALLEGORICAL SENSE.—66. Christ is deservedly compared to the wild ass.—Nor let anyone judge it unworthy that the incarnate Lord can be figured by such an animal, since it is agreed by all that, by a certain signification, both the worm and the beetle are set forth in Holy Scripture, as it is written: But I am a worm, and no man (Ps. 21[22]:7); and as, among the Seventy translators, it is said through the prophet: The beetle cried out from the wood (Hab. 2:11). When, therefore, he is figured by things named so base and cheap, what is said of him contumeliously—of whom it is agreed that nothing can be said properly? For he is called a lamb, but because of innocence. He is called a lion, but because of power.

Sometimes he is also compared to a serpent, but because of death or wisdom. And therefore by all these things he can be spoken of figuratively, because of all these things nothing can be believed of him essentially. For if any one of these existed essentially, the other could not then be said. For if he were properly called a lamb, he could not then be called a lion. If he were properly called a lion, he could not be signified by a serpent. But we say all these things of him in figure the more widely, the further they are from essence. The wild ass, then, can designate the incarnate Lord. For the wild ass is a wild animal. And because the incarnate Lord profited the Gentiles more than Judea, taking an animal body, he came as it were not into a house but rather into a field.

Of which field of the Gentiles it is said through the Psalmist: The beauty of the field is with me (Ps. 49[50]:11). The incarnate Lord, therefore, who in the form of God is equal to the Father, in the form of a servant is less than the Father, whereby he is less even than himself (Phil. 2). [Job 39, Vulg. 30] Let it be said, then, by the Father concerning the Son according to the form of a servant: Who hath sent out the wild ass free, and who hath loosed his bonds? For everyone who commits sin is the servant of sin (John 8:34[35]). And because the incarnate Lord was made a partaker of our nature, not of our guilt, he is said to be sent out free, because he is not held under the dominion of sin. Of whom it is elsewhere written: Free among the dead (Ps. 87[88]:6[5]).

He is said to be sent out free, because, taking our nature, he is in no way held by the yoke of iniquity. Him, though the stain of our fault touched not, yet the passion of our mortality bound fast. Whence also, after he is said to be sent out free, it is rightly added of him: