In what sort should Messiah come, seeing that by him the
sceptre should be eternally in Judah, and at his coming the
sceptre should depart from Judah .^

To the end that seeing they should not see, and under-



222 PROOFS OF THE DJVINITY

standing they should not understand, nothing could be better
done.
Gurse of the Greeks against those who count periods of time.
Proofs of Jesus C/tn'sf,-^ Jesus Christ said great things so
simply that he seems not to have considered them, and yet so
tersely that it is clear he had considered them. This clearness
joined with simplicity is wonderful.
Who taught the evangelists the qualities of an entirely heroic
.soul, that they should paint it so perfectly in Jesus Christ? Why
did they describe him weak in his agony ? Did they not know
how to paint a steadfast death ? No doubt they did, for the same
Saint Luke paints the death of Saint Stephen as braver than
that of Jesus Christ.
They describe him therefore as capable of fear before the need
of dying came, and then wholly strong.
But when they represent him as so afflicted, it is when he
afflicts himself, and when men afflict him, then is he wholly
strong.
The style of the Gospel is wonderful in many ways, and in this
among others, that it contains no invectives against the execu-
tioners and enemies of Jesus Christ. The historians do not rail
against Judas, Pilate, nor any of the Jews.
