Eran. -I accept this as Scripture, but I am not prepared to accept the novelties of phrase.
Orth. -What novelties of phrase have we introduced?
Eran. -That of the "screen." What Scripture calls the flesh of the Lord a screen?
Orth. -You do not seem to be a very diligent reader of your Bible; if you had been you would not have found fault with what we have said as in a figure. For first of all the fact that the divine apostle says that the invisible nature was made manifest through the flesh allows us to understand the flesh as a screen of the Godhead. Secondly, the divine apostle in his Epistle to the Hebrews, distinctly uses the phrase, for he says, "Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the Holiest by the blood of Jesus by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say his flesh; and having an High Priest over the House of God. Coming with truth drawing near with a true heart in fulness of faith."
Eran. -Your demonstration is unanswerable, for it is based on apostolic authority.
Orth. -Do not then charge us with innovation. We will adduce for you yet another prophetic authority, distinctly calling the Lord's flesh a robe and mantle.
Eran. -Should it not appear obscure and ambiguous we will say nothing against it, and be thankful for it.
Orth. -I will make you yourself testify to the truth of the promise. You know how the Patriarch Jacob, when he was addressing Judah, limited the sovereignty of Judah by the birth of the Lord. "A prince shall not fail Judah, nor a leader from his loins until he shall have come to whom it is in store and he is the expectation of the Gentiles." You have already confessed that this prophecy was uttered about the saviour.
Eran. -I have.
Orth. -Remember then what follows; for he says "And unto him shall the gathering of the people be ...he shall wash his robe in wine and his mantle in the blood of the grape."
Eran. -The Patriarch spoke of garments, not of a body.
Orth. -Tell me, then, when or where be washed his cloak in the blood of the grape?
Eran. -Nay; tell me you when he reddened his body in it?
Orth. -Answer I beseech you more reverently. Perhaps some of the uninitiated are within hearing.
Eran. -I will both hear and answer in mystic language.
Orth. -You know that the Lord called himself a vine?
Eran. -Yes I know that he said "I am the true vine."
Orth. -Now what is the fruit of a vine called after it is pressed?
Eran. -It is called wine.
Orth. -When the soldiers wounded the Saviour's side with the spear, what did the evangelist say was poured out from it?
Eran. -Blood and water.
Orth. -Well, then; he called the Saviour's blood blood of the grape, for if the Lord is called a vine, and the fruit of the vine wine, and from the Lord's side streams of blood and water flowed downwards over the rest of his body, fitly and appropriately the Patriarch foretells "He shall wash his robe in wine and his mantle in blood of the grape." For as we after the consecration call the mystic fruit of the vine the Lord's blood, so be called the blood of the true vine blood of the grape.
Eran. -The point before us has been set forth in language at once mystical and clear.
Orth. -Although what has been said is enough for your faith, I will, for confirmation of the faith, give you yet another proof.
Eran. -I shall be grateful to you for so doing, for you will increase the favour done me.