Liber de cognitione dei

If, indeed, from the conjunction of simple elements—I mean earth, water, air, and fire—or from the so-called atoms according to Epicurus, the things in the world have come to be, then the generated will be found to be incomparably better and more honorable than the ungenerated, and the made than the maker, and to such an extent as man is more different from the simple elements and the said atoms. How, then, could things contrary by nature have come together harmlessly for the completion of one world? How could they have agreed, having neither will nor reason? Or how could they have assigned reason to man, being utterly inanimate, irrational, and insensible? And it would have been necessary that the one to which they allotted the greater part of their substance—I mean an elephant, or something larger than this—should also have been allotted the ruling and kingly power over all the inferior things. But in fact, man, who is far inferior to these in bodily size and strength, rules over that one because of the reason which he has certainly acquired from the Creator who possesses reason. How, then, could it be said that the ordered things have come to be from things carried about at random and by chance? The Law and the Prophets, of whom Christ was the fulfillment, recorded in detail all things concerning this, and indeed also concerning the Holy Trinity. But these things were inserted sporadically and obscured in obscurity for the most part, by divine providence, so that the Jews, who were still childish and not yet able to think of higher things, might not deviate into unworthy conceptions and apply passions to the impassible. For when God began to speak to them at Horeb, they declined such a voice because of their own weakness, saying:

We shall not add to hear the voice of the Lord our God, and we shall no longer see the great fire, nor shall we die. And the Lord said to me, says Moses who wrote these things: "Rightly, all that I have spoken; I will raise up a prophet to them from among their brothers, as I have you, and I will put my word in his mouth, and he will speak to them, according to whatever I command him." These things are thus; but the meaning of the words is that, since they are not able to hear now, I will raise up a prophet to them, and so forth, who will announce to them what they are not yet able to receive. From these, then, are the matters concerning Father and Son and Holy Spirit, and those concerning the divine incarnation, and simply all that has been legislated through the Gospel. For the phrase "as I have you" indicates the likeness in legislating rather. But Joshua the son of Nun was deemed worthy of neither such a theophany as Moses, nor did he become a lawgiver as that one, nor did he find as much grace as that one. But Christ, having become like that one in legislating, surpasses all other things preeminently as Master. And that the prophet who was to be raised up was not the son of Nun, listen.

Moses said in Deuteronomy to the people, "The Lord your God will raise up a prophet from among our brothers," and so forth. But Joshua the son of Nun had been appointed long before by God through the hands of Moses, as the book of Leviticus records. Therefore, the one who will be raised up is different from the one who was raised. But, as it seems, the Jews are ignorant of what is written at the conclusion of Deuteronomy after the death of Moses, that "no prophet arose in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face." Now, when God said to Moses, "I will raise up a prophet for them," Moses ought to have said this to the people at that time. But he, having learned this at Horeb, later said it to the people according to Deuteronomy, waiting providentially for the appointment of Joshua the son of Nun, so that they might not suppose this one to be the expected prophet; but after his ordination, he then disclosed this to the people. So much for these matters. Since there are countless passages, both those foretelling the things concerning Christ and those proclaiming the Holy Trinity, we will pass over many, especially those which these men maliciously attempt to misinterpret, so as not to give an opening and occasion for their wicked objections. "For the whole house of Israel is contentious and hard-hearted," says Ezekiel. We will take up a few clear and indisputable passages, which will convict these men either of being utterly willfully deaf or of being foolish.

{From the Book of Genesis.} 1 And God said, "Let us make man according to our image and likeness." The Father is clearly speaking to those from his own substance who share with him the creative and lordly dignity. For the peculiarity of the Hebrew language, which sometimes uses plural forms for singulars, has no place here. Otherwise, by misusing such a peculiarity where it is not appropriate, we would fill those who object with great confusion. {From the same.} 1 And God said, "Behold, Adam has become as one of us," that is, as each one of us, the persons in the one divinity. For even if it is said ironically, it cannot at all be indicative of a single person. {From the same.} 1 And God said, "Come, let us go down and confuse their tongues." For the word "come" is addressed by the speaker to at least two, and thus the Trinity is constituted. And "come, let us do this" is said to those of equal power and consubstantial, and you will not say it to angels, which would be absurd. Or whatever and however many you might name, we will set them aside as unattested. How does God converse? In our manner? It is more pious to say that the divine will and the first impulse of intellectual motion is the Word of God. Scripture shapes it discursively in order to show that not only did he will creation to come into being, but that it was brought into generation through some co-worker. For he could have, as it said from the beginning, gone through everything: "In the beginning God made the heaven and the earth." Then he made the light, then he made the firmament.

Now, by presenting God as if giving orders and conversing, the text hints at the one to whom He speaks, though it remains unspoken—not begrudging us knowledge, but kindling our desire through certain traces and intimations of the ineffable. For what is acquired with effort is received with joy and preserved with love; but what is easily obtained is held in contempt. Therefore, by a certain path and order, it leads us into the concept of the Only-Begotten, even though there was no need of spoken word for the incorporeal nature, since thoughts themselves can be communicated to the co-worker. So what need is there of speech for those who can share their intentions with each other directly from thought? For voice is for hearing, and hearing for voice. But where there is no air, no tongue, no ear, no winding passage conveying sounds to the perception in the head, there is no need of words either, but rather, as one might say, the transmission of will from the thoughts of the heart themselves. As I said, then, this dialect is employed so that our mind may be roused to investigate the person to whom the words are addressed, wisely and artfully. {From the same.} And God appeared to Abraham by the oak of Mamre, as he sat at the door of his tent at midday. Lifting his eyes, he saw, and behold, three stood above him. And seeing them, he ran to meet them, and prostrated himself on the ground, and said, "Lord, if I have found favor before you, do not pass by your servant." And He said to him, "Where is Sarah?

your wife? And he answered, Behold, in the tent. And he said, I will return to you on my way back, and so forth. Behold, it is written that God appeared to Abraham, that there were three who appeared, and that with three being present, the conversation was with one, indicating altogether the three-hypostasis of the one divinity. But if you say that one is God and the others are angels, how did they endure to sit with the Lord? {From the same.} The Lord rained brimstone and fire upon Sodom and Gomorrah from the Lord out of heaven. This is indicative of two persons, and of self-will and equal power, and with the two the third is also introduced, because of the inseparable and mutual interrelation. {From Exodus.} Hear, O Israel: the Lord your God, the Lord is one. For the Lord, and God, and Lord hint at the three hypostases, while "is one" indicates the one divinity and nature in three. {From David.} Upon God I will praise a word, upon the Lord I will praise a discourse. Upon God I have hoped, I will not fear; what will man do to me? And again: Sacrifice to God a sacrifice of praise, and render your prayers to the Most High, and call upon me in the day of your distress. And again: The Lord lives, and blessed is God, and let the God of my salvation be exalted. And further: In your light we shall see light, that is, in your Son we shall know the Holy Spirit. For through him, just as the things concerning the Father, so also the things concerning the Holy Spirit have been more clearly revealed to us. And we find many such things proclaiming the Holy Trinity.

And the angelic hymn, "Holy, holy, holy Lord," through the thrice-holy indicated the three hypostases, and through the "Lord" the unity of the Godhead. More explicitly concerning Father and Son, David says from the person of the Father to the Son, "From the womb before the morning star I begot you," the womb being fittingly understood as the paternal essence and nature. For what other one could you claim was born timelessly? And from the person of the Son: "The Lord said to me, You are my Son, today I have begotten you," indicating his temporal birth, that from the Virgin. For "I have begotten" is used instead of "I consented to be born" or "I created." Solomon also spoke in agreement with this, in the person of the Son, "The Lord created me," and so forth. Then he added, "But before all hills he begets me." For the "created" refers to his lower and temporal birth, while the "before all hills he begets me" refers to his higher, timeless, and pre-eternal birth. And again David: "By the Word of the Lord the heavens were established, and by the Spirit of his mouth all their power"; calling the Lord the Father, and the Word his Son, because just as the Word relates to the Father, as speech to mind, not only because of the impassibility of the generation, but also because of the conjunction and the declarative nature; and Spirit, the Holy Spirit. And again concerning the Word and Son: "He sent his Word, and healed them," the Father clearly sending the Son, those sick in error. And concerning the Holy Spirit: "You will send forth your Spirit and they will be created," those of the new creation evidently, and you will renew the face of the earth, which had grown old in sins.

Neither is the prophetic Word sent forth through the vocal organs, poured out into the air and dissolved. For he says elsewhere: "Forever, Lord, your Word abides in heaven." Nor is the Spirit similarly thrust out through the respiratory organs, and dissolved, and poured out. For these things belong to bodies. It is evident, therefore, that Word and Spirit are hypostatic, eternal, and creative. And Job says: "As the Lord lives, who has thus judged me, and the Almighty, who has embittered my soul, and the divine Spirit that is present in my nostrils." And Zechariah, from the person of God and Father: "I am with you, and my Word, and my Spirit." And Isaiah: "Now the Lord has sent me, and his Spirit." {Of the Book of Genesis.} Jacob says to his two wives: "And the angel of God said to me in sleep, 'I have seen all that Laban does to you,' and so forth. Then, 'I am the God who appeared to you in the place of God.'" If, then, he were simply an angel, one of the ministering powers, how could he call himself God? Or rather, he was the Son, who is the angel of God and Father, as the word is of the mind; for the word is declarative of the mind, and also, as after the incarnation he announced to us the name of fatherhood. For he says, "I revealed your name to men," and as the angel of the great counsel. For Isaiah thus addressed him; moreover, he named him "wonderful counselor," and "mighty God, ruler." For who is the counselor of God, if not the consubstantial, self-powerful, and equally honored Son? And the counsel of the Father is that which is through men.

The counsel of the Father and the Son is intimated as self-willed. That this Son also became God incarnate, the same says: "A child was born to us, a Son and was given to us." For the Son was born a child for our sake, and lived among us. For he prophesied these things concerning the Son in the proper sense, and not concerning a son in a simple sense, and as a paradoxical work. For what is paradoxical about a son simply being born a child? Therefore he added the following most clearly for the emphasis of his divinity and the distinction from simple sonship. {Jeremiah.} "This is our God; no other will be reckoned beside him." Then he added, "After these things he appeared on the earth and lived among men." And again in another passage: "Behold, our God himself will come and save us." And giving a sign of his incarnate presence, he added, "Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will hear. Then the lame will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute will be clear." All of which, having happened, are an unerring testimony of his incarnation. The same also said further: "Not an ambassador, not an angel, but the Lord himself saved them." For an ambassador is the mediator, such as Moses was, and anyone like him; and yet many were often saved through a mediator and through an angel, as those led by Moses, and by Joshua son of Nun, and such men. And again, those around Hezekiah, under whom the angel destroyed the 185,000 Assyrians in one night. It is therefore evident that the words indicate a manifest visitation of God. {Isaiah.} "The Lord himself will give us a sign. Behold, the Virgin will conceive and bear a son.

Every woman who is with child is not a virgin. But she, though with child, was a virgin. Therefore, as something paradoxical, it was given as a sign. {Of the same author.} Before the child knows good or evil, it is impossible for it to choose the good by rejecting evil. To which child would you apply these words? For only Christ, it is said, committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in his mouth, that is, he sinned neither in word nor in deed. But of all others, it is said, no one is clean from defilement. {Micah.} And you, Bethlehem, land of Judah, are by no means the least among the rulers of Judah. For from you a leader will come forth for me, who will shepherd my people Israel. And to teach that this is not a mere man, but one united with God, he added: His goings forth are from the beginning, from the days of eternity. That is, his activities according to divinity, or his birth from the beginning, from intervals of eternity, that is, eternal. But Zorobabel was born in Babylon. Do you see the precision even as to the place where Christ was born? {Daniel.} I was watching in a vision of the night, and behold, with the clouds of the sky, one like a son of man was coming. And he reached the Ancient of Days, and was brought before him, and to him was given the rule, and the honor, and the kingdom, and all peoples, tribes, tongues serve him. His authority is eternal authority, which will not pass away. And his kingdom will not be destroyed.

Who then is he who, as a son of man, received the irrevocable authority over all? No man at all, but the God-man Christ, concerning whom David said to God the Father: "O God, give your judgment to the king, and your righteousness to the son of the king." For Christ is both king as God and son of a king. And as man he became king and son of a king, David, wherefore he later said, "Authority was given to me in heaven and on earth." To him, after he received the kingdom, the Father said as to a man, "Sit at my right hand." For he said, it is written, "The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at my right hand until I place your enemies as a footstool under your feet." Or who are the two lords of David of whom the text speaks, if you will not say these? And David, having said, "O God, give your judgment to the king," and so forth, added that "Before the sun, his name endures," that of the divinity or of the sonship, manifestly. For both always were. Who then is such a king, if not this one? And to whom did all the nations serve, and were blessed, and called blessed, if not only to Christ? But if you still await him, when Elijah will run before him, you speak of the second descent of the Savior, when also the end of the world occurs. For there being two descents, one according to his incarnation, the other according to the future universal judgment, the one has already occurred, whose forerunner was John, the second Elijah; the other will occur, having as forerunner Elijah, the second John.

For both are of the same Spirit, and of the same grace and power, insofar as they precede Christ. The anointed one and messiah, whom you await, is he a mere man or a God-man? For if he is a mere man, he is not the one whom the prophets announced. For they attribute signs of divinity to him, distinguishing him from mere men. And from where else did you learn to expect him? But if he is a God-man, behold, you are unwittingly confessing another person of divinity. For you will not say it is the Father in every respect. For it is said, "A child was born to us, a Son, but not the Father." And since anointing and chrism signify the same thing, the anointed one and Christ are the same. Understand then, foolish ones among the people, and you who were once stupid, become wise. And Isaiah also says to you, "You blind, look, and you deaf, hear." Either you are manifestly willfully blind, or you are utterly insensible. When, then, will you distinguish the homonymy of names, the meaning of words, or the peculiarities of expressions, by which the truth is apprehended?

Concerning the Passions of Christ. David says in the person of Christ: "A gathering of evil men surrounded me. They dug my hands and my feet. They counted all my bones. They divided my garments among themselves, and they cast lots for my clothing." To whom else will you apply these things except Christ, concerning which all the Gospel narrates in harmony? And through Isaiah, Christ also foretold concerning such things: "I gave my back to lashes, and my cheeks to blows, and I did not turn my face away from the shame of spittings." And again David: "They put gall into my food, and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink." But if you understand these things concerning the people in captivity, the fact that these specific things are nowhere recorded as having happened to them, while many other harsh things are, will stop your mouth. Concerning his execution, Isaiah foretold: "He was led like a sheep to the slaughter." And so that you may know that this has become salvific for us, the same one says again: "By his wound we were all healed." And so that you may learn that because of his slaughter the race of the Jews was given over to destruction, he added: "And I will give the wicked in exchange for his burial." For what is more wicked than the Jews who killed one who had benefited them so greatly?

Concerning His Resurrection. David says: "You will not abandon my soul to Hades, nor will you allow your holy one to see corruption," of the body, evidently. Then: "You showed me the ways of life." And Hosea speaks more clearly: "And he will heal us after two days, on the third day, and we shall rise and live before him," saying this to the faces of the sleeping saints, whose bodies were raised together with Christ at his three-day resurrection, and appeared to many, as the Gospel teaches. And the Hebrew Josephus says in the eighteenth book of his Antiquities: "At this time there lived Jesus, a wise man, if indeed it is right to call him a man. For he was a doer of marvelous works, a teacher of people who receive the truth with pleasure, and he drew many of the Jews and many also from the Greek world. This was Christ, and when, on the indictment of our principal men, Pilate had condemned him to be crucified, the Jews nailed him to the cross. But those who had first loved him did not cease proclaiming his teachings. For he appeared to them on the third day alive again, the divine prophets having spoken these and countless other wonders about him." Concerning the Church from the Nations, from Isaiah. Rejoice, thirsty desert. Let the desert exult and bloom like a lily, and the deserts of the Jordan will blossom and exult. And the glory of Lebanon was given to her, and the honor of Carmel. In a literal sense, these things have not happened nor will they happen. For who would choose to inhabit the desert, unless you mean the Christian monks?

Allegorically, and very much so. For the church from among the nations was a desert of unfruitful things before, and a dwelling place of the noetic beasts, which, being inflamed by the fire of the passions, thirsted for knowledge of God and salvation. And having obtained the proclamation, it rejoices and exults, and blooms with radiance and the fragrance of the virtues. And the glory of Lebanon was also given to it, that is, of the ancient people, whom he also called Carmel. And the glory and honor of this is piety, and intimacy with God, and the height of glory and of the law, and the abundance of divine perceptions, and the luxuriance of graces. And again: "Rejoice, barren one, who does not bear; break forth and cry out, who does not labor in birth, because the children of the desert are more numerous than those of the one who has a husband." For the church indicated was barren and without offspring of the fruits of virtue formerly, but later, having received the seeds of piety, it became rich in children, having conquered the Jewish synagogue in multitude, whose husband was God before, loving and providing for and guarding her, or also the law. And again, in the person of God and Father, Isaiah says to the Son and God: "Behold, I have given you as a covenant of nations to establish the earth, and to inherit the inheritance of the desert," and so forth. And through David, he promised the Son, saying, "And I will give you nations, your inheritance." And the same David besought the Father concerning these things, saying, "Appoint, Lord, a lawgiver over them." And Isaiah also spoke in the person of such a lawgiver: "A law will go forth from me, and my judgment will be for a light of nations, and nations will hope in my arm.

What is this law besides the evangelical one, which illuminated the nations darkened by error? For the Mosaic law came forth many years ago. {Of the same author.}1 Concerning the new covenant of the gospel, Isaiah again prophesied, saying, "Out of Zion shall come forth a law and a word of the Lord from Jerusalem." For our Lord Jesus Christ, now sitting on Mount Zion and teaching, now dwelling in the city of Jerusalem, legislated the evangelical law and word. For the prophet does not now speak of the Mosaic law. How could he, since that was legislated on Sinai, not on Zion, nor in Jerusalem, and long before Isaiah, just as the evangelical law came long after Isaiah? Therefore he fittingly said that it "shall come forth." For the old one came forth. Concerning this new one, Jeremiah also foretold, saying, "Behold, days are coming, says the Lord, and I will make a new covenant with you, not according to the covenant which I made with your fathers on the day I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, because they did not abide by my covenant, and I neglected them." But these and similar things are veiled, so that the books might not be destroyed. For where they saw him present and working wonders, and providing complete proof of his own divinity, they were not ashamed, but crucified him; they would scarcely have spared the prophecies concerning him if they had received them unveiled and naked.

Moreover, that the name of Christ will be a title for us, Isaiah foretold, saying, "The Lord will destroy you, but to those who serve me a new name will be given, and it will be blessed on the whole earth." And again, "Nations will see your glory, and all kings your righteousness, and the new name will be called, which the Lord will name it." Hosea also foretold, saying, "And it will be in the last days that his name will be manifest in the whole earth, and many peoples will be called by his name, and they will walk according to his ways and live in them." {Of the same author.}1 "And in you they will pray, because in you God is, and there is no God besides you. For you are God, and we did not know." Now, "And in you they will pray" is a prophecy concerning those who believed in Christ. And "In you God is" proclaims the divinity in the assumption. And "For you are God, and we did not know" is a kind of apology of the Jews in the future judgment, even if it is vain and inadmissible. If Christ was a deceiver, how did all that he foretold come to pass? For example, the things concerning the desolation of the temple of Jerusalem, and its capture, and the destruction of the city, and the utter ruin of the Jews, and all that concerning his disciples, and the miracles in his name, and simply everything. "And darkness was upon the face of the deep," says Moses. Hence these men, setting out maliciously, say that the darkness existed, of which the efficient cause is the evil principle. Then God separated between the light and between the darkness. If, then, the light is a being, and the darkness is a being, then that which was separated from the light.

These dark ones concerning the light say these things. But what do we say? Darkness is not a substance, but an accident, and nothing other than the absence of light. For when the heaven was set in motion in the beginning, darkness subsisted as a result of the obstruction of the surrounding bodies, which also now customarily occurs in the case of obstructed things. The separation of these is the measured interval of the absence of light. And in a certain way, the absence and privation of light becomes a state and co-subsistence for darkness. But an evil principle, that is, an evil God, does not exist. For if it is God, it is not evil, but a source of goodness; but if it is evil, it is not God. For how can evil and sin be God? But if these are God, everything is lost and overturned. {From the same.} How will there be two principles, good and evil? For good and evil, or wickedness, are opposite to each other, destructive of each other, and incompatible. And then each will be in a part of the whole, and will be bounded by this part; and either they will touch each other and be destroyed by each other, or there will be something in between separating them, and behold, three principles. And again, either they are at peace, which the evil cannot do, or they will fight, which the good neither wills nor is able to do. For the evil being at peace is not evil; the good fighting is not good. Therefore, there are not two principles, and these opposite and most hostile. But there is one, entirely good. Evil is not a principle, but a privation and failure of the good. {From the same.} If both the good and the evil are by nature gods, they will have another principle. And a dyad is not a principle, but on the contrary, the monad is the principle of the dyad. Not being a principle, they will certainly not be gods.

Since the monad is the beginning of all things, therefore God is one, the cause and creator of all. {From the same.} If the good exists, the evil does not exist. But if the evil exists, the good does not exist, according to the principle of immediate contraries, such as health and disease, life and death. Therefore God is not evil. {From the same.} The good God has substantial and natural goodness, while the evil one will necessarily have the privation of goodness as a habit. And how can God come from falling away and deficiency? {From the same.} If there were two Gods, or three, or simply many, the world would long ago have perished, being activated and moved in different ways at different times. But that it is always moved and conducted in the same and like manner, and the harmony, concord, order, permanence, and preservation throughout all things proclaim one and the same cause, creator, provider, and sustainer. {From the same.} If this lower world is evil, then we are evil, being a part of it. But if we are evil by nature, truth does not belong to us. For truth is clearly good, and the good is alien to the evil. And if we do not possess truth, our opinions are false and baseless. But if the world in question is good, it is certainly the creation of a good being. For the cause of a good effect is good, just as the cause of an evil effect is evil. {From the same.} If you acknowledge the world to be good, but God and Father to be evil and not the creator of this world, then there will certainly be another evil world that is the creation of the evil God. But there is not. Therefore God is not evil.

For God is a beginning and a productive cause; but if there are no things that have a beginning and are made, then there will be no beginning at all. Therefore God is not evil. {From the same.} They say that the God of the Old Testament does not have the comprehensive and divine foreknowledge of all things. For He asks Adam, "Where are you?" and Cain, "Where is Abel, your brother?" and Abraham, "Where is Sarah, your wife?" and many such things. To these we say: The questions indicated are not of ignorance, but rather of knowledge. For if He did not know both Adam and Cain when they sinned, He would not have immediately asked; and this is clear from what follows. For He said to Adam, although he had not yet confessed anything about the eating, "Who told you that you are naked, if not from the tree of which I commanded you alone not to eat, from that you have eaten?" And to Cain, although he too was trying to hide, "The voice of your brother's blood cries out to me." These things are characteristic of one who knows very well, but who wishes through the feigned questioning to lead the sinners to repentance, recognizing that they have been found out. Again, also the "Where is Sarah, your wife?" was of one who foreknew that he had a wife and that she was called Sarah. And He who knew these things certainly also knew where she was. For He would not have said, when she was standing behind the door and laughing secretly after the promise of childbearing, "Why did Sarah laugh?" Then He adds also the cause of the laughter. For she said, he says, to herself, "Shall I truly bear a child?" For these things are of a knower of hearts. But why did He ask, "Where is Sarah, your wife?

for the sake of economy, so that Abraham, learning from this that he is a foreknower and knows all things, might attend to him as a superior and henceforth believe everything he would say. And the statement concerning Sodom and Gomorrah, that "I will go down and see if they are being destroyed according to their outcry; but if not, that I may know," is spoken for the sake of economy, teaching us not to punish from foreknowledge, but to await the actual discernment. For if he did not know, how could he say, "The outcry of Sodom and Gomorrah comes to me"? The earth, it is said, cries out even before the events, or the events themselves cry out. There are many such questions not only in the Old Testament, but also in the New, from Christ. All are economical, and establish something else. For it is proper to God to know all things; and he who does not know all things is not God of all. {From the same.} How do you say that the lawgiver of the Old Testament is just, and that of the New is good, and on this account insist that they are different? For if the just is good, the just one is certainly good. For the good and the just are not opposed to each other; and the good one is certainly just. And since countless passages proclaim that the lawgiver of the Old Testament is good, I will cite one: "Confess to the Lord that he is good; let the house of Israel say that he is good," and the two following verses. And the lawgiver of the New says, "And my judgment is just"; and to John, "Let it go for now; for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all justice." And that the lawgiver of both the Old and the New is one, Jeremiah has already said:

Behold, days are coming, says the Lord, and I will make with you a new Covenant, not according to the Covenant which I made with your fathers, when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, because they did not abide by my Covenant, and I neglected them. And again he himself, the lawgiver of both this and that, Christ, said: I did not come to destroy the law, but to fulfill it; that is, to perfect it, being incomplete because of the imperfection of the Hebrews, by the greater philosophy, which is fitting for men. For the one was a pedagogue training for the Gospel, while this is a mystagogue teaching the more perfect things. And the one regulated the bodies, while the other fashions the souls. Thus the old is a coworker of the new, a preparation, and a road-building.