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THE shock then to your hearing and ears is that God was born, and God
suffered. And where is that saying of yours, O Apostle Paul: "But we preach
Christ crucified, to the Jews indeed a stumbling block, but to the Gentiles
foolishness: but to them that are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the
Power of God and the Wisdom of God." What is the Wisdom and Power of
God? Certainly it is God. But he preaches Christ who was crucified, as the
Power and Wisdom of God. If then Christ is without any doubt the Wisdom of
God, He is therefore without any doubt God. "We," then, he says, "preach
Christ crucified, to the Jews indeed a stumbling block, but to the Gentiles
foolishness." And so the Lord's cross, which was foolishness to the
Gentiles and a stumbling block to the Jews is both together to you. Nor
indeed is there any greater foolishness than not to believe, or any greater
stumbling block than to refuse to listen. Their ears were wounded then by
the preaching and the passion of God, just as yours are wounded now. They
thought as you think that this shocked their ears. And hence it was that
when the Apostle was preaching Christ as God, at the name of our God and
Lord Jesus Christ, they stopped the ears in their head, as you stop the
ears of your understanding. The sin of both of you in this matter might
seem to be equal, were it not that your fault is the greater, because they
denied Him, in whom the passion still showed the manhood, while you deny
Him, whom the resurrection has already proved to be God. And so they were
persecuting Him on the earth, whom you are persecuting even in heaven. And
not only so, but this is more cruel and wicked, because they denied Him in
ignorance, you deny Him after having received the faith: they not knowing
the Lord, you when you have confessed Him as God: they under cover of zeal
for the law, you under the cloke of your Bishopric: they denied Him to whom
they thought that they were strangers, you deny Him whose priest you are. O
unworthy act, and one never heard of before! You persecute and attack the
very One, whose office you are still holding.
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