{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/106/1060291.htm","path":"chr/ecf/106/1060291.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/106/1060291.htm","text":"On the words of the Gospel, John i. 48,\u201cWhen thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee,\u201d etc.\n1. What we have heard said by the Lord Jesus Christ to Nathanael, if we understand it aright, does not concern him only. For our Lord Jesus saw the whole human race under the fig-tree. For in this place it is understood that by the fig-tree He signified sin. Not that it always signifies this, but as I have said in this place, in that fitness of significancy, in which ye know that the first man, when he sinned, covered himself with fig leaves. For with these leaves they covered their nakedness when they blushed for their sin; 3637 and what God had made them for members, they made for themselves occasions of shame. For they had no need to blush for the work of God; but the cause of sin preceded shame. If iniquity had not gone before, nakedness would never have been put to the blush. For \u201cthey were naked, and were not ashamed.\u201d 3638 For they had committed nothing to be ashamed for. But why have I said all this? That we may understand that by the fig-tree sin is signified. What then is, \u201cwhen thou wast under the fig-tree, I saw thee\u201d? 3639 When thou wast under sin, I saw thee. And Nathanael looking back upon what had occurred, remembered that he had been under a fig-tree, where Christ was not. He was not there, that is, by His Bodily Presence; but by His knowledge in the Spirit where is He not? And because he knew that he was under the fig-tree alone, where the Lord Christ was not; when He said to him, \u201cWhen thou wast under the fig-tree, I saw thee;\u201d he both acknowledged the Divinity in Him, and cried out, \u201cThou art the King of Israel.\u201d 3640\n2. The Lord said, \u201cBecause I said unto thee, I saw thee when thou wast under the fig-tree, marvellest thou? thou shalt see greater things than these.\u201d 3641 What are these greater things? And He said, \u201cYe shall see heaven open, and the Angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.\u201d 3642 Let us call to mind the old story written in the sacred Book. I mean in Genesis. 3643 When Jacob slept at a certain place, he put a stone at his head; and in his sleep he saw a ladder reaching from earth even unto heaven; and the Lord was resting upon it; and Angels were ascending and descending by it. This did Jacob see. A man\u2019s dream would not have been recorded, had not some great mystery been figured in it, had not some great prophecy been to be understood in that vision. Accordp. 471 ingly, Jacob himself, because he understood what he had seen, placed a stone there, and anointed it with oil. Now ye recognise the anointing; recognise The Anointed also. For He is \u201cthe Stone which the builders rejected; He was made the Head of the corner.\u201d 3644 He is the Stone of which Himself said, \u201cWhosoever shall stumble against This Stone shall be shaken; but on whomsoever That Stone shall fall, It will crush him.\u201d 3645 It is stumbled against as It lies on the earth; but It will fall on him, when He shall come from on high to judge the quick and dead. Woe to the Jews, for that when Christ lay low in His humility, they stumbled against Him. \u201cThis Man,\u201d say they, \u201cis not of God, because He breaketh the sabbath day.\u201d 3646 \u201cIf He be the Son of God, let Him come down from the cross.\u201d 3647 Madman, the Stone lies on the ground, and so thou deridest It. But since thou dost deride It, thou art blind; since thou art blind, thou stumblest; since thou stumblest, thou art shaken; since thou hast been shaken by It as It now lies on the ground, hereafter shall thou be crushed by It as It fails from above. Therefore Jacob anointed the stone. Did he make an idol of it? He showed 3648 a meaning in it, but did not adore it. Now then give ear, attend to this Nathanael, by the occasion of whom the Lord Jesus hath been pleased to explain to us Jacob\u2019s vision.\n3. Ye that are well instructed in the school of Christ, know that this Jacob is Israel too. They are two names; for they are one man. His first name Jacob, which is by interpretation supplanter, he received when he was born. For when those twins were born, his brother Esau was born first; and the hand of the younger was found on the elder\u2019s foot. 3649 He held his brother\u2019s foot who preceded him in his birth, and himself came after. And because of this occurrence, because he held his brother\u2019s heel, 3650 he was called Jacob, that is, Supplanter. And afterwards, when he was returning from Mesopotamia, the Angel wrestled with him in the way. 3651 What comparison can there be between an Angel\u2019s and a man\u2019s strength? Therefore it is a mystery, a sacrament, a prophecy, a figure; let us therefore understand it. For consider the manner of the struggle too. While he wrestleth, Jacob prevailed against the Angel. Some high meaning is here. And when the man had prevailed against the Angel, he kept hold of Him; yes, the man kept hold of Him whom he had conquered. And said to Him, \u201cI will not let Thee go, except Thou bless me.\u201d 3652 When the conqueror was blessed by the Conquered, Christ was figured. So then that Angel, who is understood to be the Lord Jesus, saith to Jacob, \u201cThou shalt not be any more called Jacob, but Israel shall thy name be,\u201d 3653 which is by interpretation, \u201cSeeing God.\u201d After this He touched the sinew of his thigh, the broad part, that is, of the thigh, and it dried up; and Jacob became lame. Such was He who was conquered. So great power had this Conquered One, as to touch the thigh, and make lame. It was then with His Own will that He was conquered. For He \u201chad power to lay down\u201d His strength, \u201cand He had power to take It up.\u201d 3654 He is not angry at being conquered, for He is not angry at being crucified. For He even blessed him, saying, \u201cThou shalt not be called Jacob, but Israel.\u201d Then the \u201csupplanter\u201d was made \u201cthe seer of God.\u201d And He touched, as I have said, his thigh, and made him lame. Observe in Jacob the people of the Jews, those thousands who followed and went before the Lord\u2019s beast, who in concert with the Apostles worshipped the Lord, and cried out, \u201cHosanna to the Son of David, Blessed is He that cometh in the Name of the Lord.\u201d 3655 Behold Jacob blessed. He has continued lame until now in them who are at this day Jews. For the broad part of the thigh signifies the multitude of increase. Of whom the Psalm, when it prophesied that the Nations should believe, speaketh, saying, \u201cA people whom I have not known, hath served Me; by the hearing of the ear it hath obeyed Me.\u201d 3656 I was not there, and I was heard; here I was, and I was killed. \u201cA people whom I have not known, hath served Me; by the hearing of the ear it hath obeyed Me.\u201d Therefore, \u201cfaith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.\u201d 3657 And it goes on, \u201cThe strange children have lied unto Me;\u201d concerning the Jews. \u201cThe strange children have lied unto Me, the strange children have faded away and have halted from their paths.\u201d I have pointed out Jacob to you, Jacob blessed and Jacob lame.\n4. But as arising out of this occasion, this must not be passed over, which may haply of itself perplex some of you; with what design is it, that when this Jacob\u2019s grandfather Abraham\u2019s name was changed (for he too was first called Abram, and God changed his name, and said, \u201cThou shall not be called Abram, but Abraham\u201d 3658 ); from that time he was not called Abram. Search in the Scriptures, and you will see that before he received another name, he was called only Abram; after he received it, he was called only Abraham. But this Jacob, when he received another name, heard the same words, \u201cThou shalt not be called Jacob, but Israel shalt thou be called.\u201d 3659 Search the Scriptures, and see how that he was always called both, both p. 472 Jacob and Israel. Abram after he had received another name, was called only Abraham. Jacob after he had received another name, was called both Jacob and Israel. The name of Abraham was to be developed in this world; for here he was made the father of many nations, whence he received his name. But the name of Israel relates to another world, where we shall see God. Therefore the people of God, the Christian people in this present time, is both Jacob and Israel, Jacob in fact, Israel in hope. For the younger people is called the Supplanter of its brother the elder people. What! have we supplanted the Jews? No, but we are said to be their supplanters, for that for our sakes they were supplanted. If they had not been blinded, Christ would not have been crucified; His precious Blood would not have been shed; if that Blood had not been shed, the world would not have been redeemed. Because then their blindness hath profited us, therefore hath the elder brother been supplanted by the younger, and the younger is called the Supplanter. But how long shall this be?\n5. The time will come, the end of the world will come, and all Israel shall believe; not they who now are, but their children who shall then be. For these present walking in their own ways, will go to their own place, will pass on to everlasting damnation. But when they shall have been made all one people, that shall come to pass which we sing, \u201cI shall be satisfied when Thy glory shall be manifested.\u201d 3660 When the promise which is made to us, that we \u201csee face to face,\u201d shall come. \u201cNow we see through a glass darkly,\u201d and \u201cin part;\u201d 3661 but when both people, now purified, now raised again, now crowned, now changed into an immortal form, and into everlasting incorruption, shall see God face to face, and Jacob shall be no more, but there shall be Israel only; then shall the Lord see him in the person of this holy Nathanael, and shall say, \u201cBehold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile.\u201d 3662 When thou dost hear, \u201cBehold an Israelite indeed;\u201d let Israel come into thy mind; when Israel shall come into thy mind, let his dream come into thy mind, in which he saw a ladder from earth even to heaven, the Lord standing upon it, the Angels of God ascending and descending. This dream did Jacob see. But after this he was called Israel; that is, some little time after as he came from Mesopotamia, and on his journey. If then Jacob saw the ladder, and he is also called Israel; and this Nathanael is an \u201cIsraelite indeed in whom is no guile;\u201d therefore when he wondered because the Lord. said to him, \u201cI saw thee under the fig-tree;\u201d 3663 did He say to him, \u201cThou shalt see greater things than these.\u201d 3664 And so He announced to him Jacob\u2019s dream. To whom did He announce it? To him whom He called \u201can Israelite, in whom was no guile.\u201d As if He had said, \u201cHis dream, by whose name I have called thee, shall be manifested in thee; make no haste to wonder, \u201cthou shalt see greater things than these. Ye shall see heaven open, and the Angels of God ascending and descending unto the Son of Man.\u201d 3665 See what Jacob saw; see why Jacob anointed the stone with oil; see why Jacob prophetically signified and prefigured the Anointed One. For that action was a prophecy.\n6. Now I know what you are waiting for; I understand what you would hear from me. This too will I briefly declare, as the Lord enableth me; \u201cascending and descending unto the Son of Man.\u201d How\u2014if they descend to Him, He is here; if they ascend to Him, He is above. But if they ascend to Him, and descend toHim, He is at once above and here. It cannot any way possibly be, that they should ascend to Him, and descend to Him, unless He be both there whither they ascend, and here whither they descend\u2014How do we prove that He is both there, and that He is here? Let Paul, who was first Saul, answer us. He found it by experience, when he was first a persecutor, and afterwards became a preacher; first Jacob, afterwards Israel; who was himself too \u201cof the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin.\u201d 3666 In him let us see Christ above, Christ below. First, the very Voice of the Lord from heaven shows this; \u201cSaul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?\u201d 3667 What! had Paul ascended into heaven? Had Paul so much as cast a stone into heaven? He was persecuting the Christians, binding them, haling them to be put to death, searching them out in every place where they lay hid, when they were found on no consideration sparing them. To whom the Lord Christ saith, \u201cSaul, Saul.\u201d Whence crieth He? From heaven. Therefore He is above. \u201cWhy persecutest thou Me?\u201d Therefore He is below. Thus have I explained all, though briefly, yet as well as I could to you, Beloved. I have ministered to you according to my duty, and now for your duty, do ye think upon the poor. Let us turn to the Lord, etc.\nGen. 25:25, 26.\n471:3650 471:3651 471:3652 471:3653 471:3654 471:3655 471:3656\nPs. 18:43, 44, Sept. (xviii. 43, 44, English version).\n471:3657 471:3658 471:3659 472:3660\nPs. 17.15, Sept. (xvii. 15, English version).\n472:3661 472:3662 472:3663 472:3664 472:3665 472:3666 472:3667","title":"Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Vol. VI: Sermons on Selec...","type":"page"}