III. FROM THE CATENA ON LUKE, EDITED BY CORDERIUS / IV. FROM THE BOOKS OF THE HYPOTYPOSES

III.--FROM THE CATENA ON LUKE, EDITED BY CORDERIUS.

Luke iii. 22. God here assumed the "likeness" not of a man, but "of a dove," because He wished, by a new apparition of the Spirit in the likeness of a dove, to declare His simplicity and majesty.

Luke xvi. 17. Perhaps by the iota and tittle His righteousness cries, "If ye come right unto Me, I will also come right to you; but if crooked, I also will come crooked, saith the Lord of hosts;" intimating that the ways of sinners are intricate and crooked. For the way right and agreeable to nature which is intimated by the iota of Jesus, is His goodness, which constantly directs those who believe from hearing, "There shall not, therefore, pass from the law one iota or one tittle," neither from the right and good the mutual promises, nor from the crooked and unjust the punishment assigned to them. "For the Lord doeth good to the good, but those who turn aside into crooked ways God will lead with the workers. of iniquity."[3]

IV.--FROM THE BOOKS OF THE HYPOTYPOSES.

OECUMENIUS FROM BOOK III. ON I COR. XI. 10.

"Because of the angels." By the angels he means righteous and virtuous men. Let her be veiled then, that she may not lead them to stumble into fornication. For the real angels in heaven see her though veiled.

THE SAME, BOOK IV. ON 2 COR. V. 16.

"And if we have known Christ after the flesh." As "after the flesh" in our case is being in the midst of sins, and being out of them is "not after the flesh;" so also" after the flesh" in the case of Christ was His subjection to natural affections, and His not being subject to them is to be "not after the flesh." But, he says, as He was released, so also are we.

THE SAME, BOOK IV. ON 2 COR. VI. 11.

"Our heart is enlarged," to teach you all things. But ye are straitened in your own bowels, that is, in love to God, in which ye ought to love me.

THE SAME, BOOK V. ON GAL. V. 24.

"And they that are Christ's [have crucified] the flesh." And why mention one aspect of virtue after another? For there are some who have crucified themselves as far as the passions are concerned, and the passions as far as respects themselves. According to this interpretation the "and" is not superfluous. "And they that are Christ's"--that is, striving after Him -"have crucified their own flesh."

MOSCHUS: SPIRITUAL MEADOW, BOOK V. CHAP. 176.

Yes, truly, the apostles were baptised, as Clement the Stromatist relates in the fifth book of the Hypotyposes. For, in explaining the apostolic statement, "I thank God that I baptised none of you," he says, Christ is said to have baptised Peter alone, and Peter Andrew, and Andrew John, and they James and the rest.[4]