'as a little child, as a root in a thirsty ground; and he had no form nor glory, and we saw him, and he had no form nor comeliness, but his form was dishonoured, failing beyond the sons of men, a man set in the stroke and knowing how to bear infirmity' — namely, as one set by the Father for a stone of stumbling, and made a little lower by him than the angels, pronouncing himself a worm and no man, the shame of man and the outcast of the people.
These proofs of lowliness befit the first coming, just as those of loftiness befit the second, when he shall now be no more a stone of stumbling nor a rock of scandal, but the highest cornerstone, taken up after rejection and exalted unto consummation; and indeed that rock in Daniel, cut from the mountain, which shall crush and grind to pieces the image of the worldly kingdoms. Of which second coming of his the prophet says: 'And behold, with the clouds of heaven as it were the Son of man coming, he came even unto the Ancient of days, and was present in his sight; and those who stood by brought him forward;'
'and there was given unto him royal power, and all the nations of the earth according to their kind, and all glory serving him; and his power is eternal, which shall not be taken away, and his kingdom, which shall not be corrupted.' Then, of course, he shall have an honourable form and an unfailing comeliness beyond the sons of men — for 'timely in comeliness beyond the sons of men; grace,' he says, 'is poured out on thy lips, therefore hath God blessed thee for ever; gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O most mighty, in thy timeliness and thy beauty' — when the Father also, after he had made him a little lower than the angels, crowned him with glory and honour, and subjected all things under his feet.
And then shall they know him whom they pierced, and shall beat their breasts, tribe unto tribe — namely because in time past they did not acknowledge him, set as he was in the humility of the human condition. 'And he is a man,' says Jeremiah, 'and who shall know him?' — because also 'his generation,' says Isaiah, 'who shall declare?' So also in Zechariah, [it says] in the person of Jesus — nay rather, in the very mystery of the name — Christ, the most true priest of the Father, is delineated in his own twofold state, unto his two comings:
first clothed in filthy garments — that is, in the indignity of passible and mortal flesh — when the devil also was set against him, namely as the instigator of Judas the traitor, who had tempted him even after his baptism; then, being stripped of his former filth, adorned with a long robe and a mitre and a clean turban — that is, of the second coming, since he is shown to have attained glory and honour.
Nor will you be able to call him the son of Josedech, who was in no way at all in filthy garments but was always adorned with priestly vesture, nor was ever deprived of the priestly office; but this Jesus is the Christ, the high priest of God the Father most high, who at his first coming came in human and passible form, in humility even unto the Passion, himself made also a victim through all things for us all; who after his resurrection, clothed with the long robe, is named a priest for ever of God the Father. For thus I will also give the interpretation of the two goats which were offered at the fast.
Do not those two also show forth both orders of the Christ who has already come — alike indeed and very similar, on account of the same aspect of the Lord, because he is not to come in another form, as one who is to be recognized by those by whom he was also injured? Now one of them, girt about with scarlet, cursed and spat upon and mangled and pierced by the people, was cast forth outside the city unto perdition, marked with the manifest tokens of Christ's Passion — who, girt about with a scarlet garment and spat upon and afflicted with all insults, was crucified outside the city;
but the other, offered for sins and given as food only to the priests of the temple, marked the tokens of the second manifestation, because, all sins being expiated, the priests of the spiritual temple — that is, of the Church — should enjoy, as it were by a certain feasting of flesh, the grace of the Lord, while the rest fast from salvation. Therefore, since the first coming was sung as both obscured with very many figures and prostrated with every dishonour, but the second as both manifest and worthy of God, for this reason, gazing only on him whom they could easily both understand and believe — that is, the second, who is in honour and glory — not without cause were they deceived concerning the more obscure and certainly less honourable, that is, the first.
And so to this day they deny that their Christ has come, because he did not come in loftiness, while they are ignorant that he was first to come in humility. Let it suffice thus far to have traced meanwhile the order of Christ concerning these things, whereby he is proved to be such as he was announced to be, so that now, from this harmony of the divine Scriptures, [we may understand] that the things too which were foretold as future after Christ are, by divine disposition, to be believed as accomplished. For unless he had come, after whom the things were to be blotted out, in no way would the things have come to pass which were foretold as future at his coming. Therefore, if you behold all the nations emerging thenceforth from the depth of human error unto God the Creator and his Christ —
which you dare not deny was prophesied, because even if you denied it, at once the promise of the Father would meet you in the Psalms, as we have already said before, saying: 'Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee; ask of me, and I will give thee the nations for thine inheritance, and thy possession the ends of the earth.' Nor will you be able to claim Solomon, David's son, for this proclamation rather than Christ the Son of God, nor to say that the ends of the earth were promised to David's son — who reigned within Judaea alone — rather than to Christ the Son of God, who has now illumined the whole world with the rays of his Gospel. Furthermore, the throne for ever also befits Christ the Son of God rather than Solomon, a temporal king, of course, who reigned over Israel alone.
因為今日列國呼求那本不認識祂的基督，今日萬民逃奔投靠那從前不認識的基督。你不能爭辯說一件你親眼看見正在成就的事乃是未來之事。你要麼否認這些事曾被預言——當它們正呈現在你眼前之時；要麼否認它們已然應驗——當它們被誦讀之時；你若二者都不否認，那麼這些事就必已在那被預言所指的那一位身上得了應驗。（由 H. Tränkle 校訂，1964 年。由 Roger Pearse 轉錄，2002 年。）
For today the nations invoke Christ, who did not know him, and the peoples today flee for refuge to Christ whom in time past they were ignorant of. You cannot contend that a thing is future which you see coming to pass. Either deny that these things were prophesied, when they are seen before your eyes, or deny that they are fulfilled, when they are read; or if you deny neither, they will have been fulfilled in him of whom they were prophesied. Edited by H. Tränkle, 1964. Transcribed by Roger Pearse, 2002.