Turn ye, O congregations, and come. Let us all praise Him that is born of the Virgin. For that being the glory and image before the ages of the Godhead, He yet became a fellow-sufferer with us of poverty. Being the exceeding magnifical power [and] image of God, He took on the form of a slave. He that putteth on the light as a garment, consorted with men as one that is vile. He that is hymned by cherubim and by myriad angels, as a citizen on earth doth He live. He that being before (all) maketh all creation alive, was born of the Holy Virgin, in order that He might make alive once more the first created.

Christ our God took on [Himself] to begin life as man, being yet a sharer of the [life] without beginning of God the Father; in order to lift up unto the beginningless beginning of the Godhead man that was fallen.

And He took the form of a slave from the Holy Virgin, in order to call us up to the glorified dominical image. He put on the outward shape made of clay, that He might make [us] sharers of the heavenly form. He sat in the lap of the Holy Virgin, that He might place us on the right hand in the intimacy of His Father. In a vile body was He; and by means of the same He was laid in a tomb, that He might manifest us heirs of eternal life. In the womb of the Holy Virgin was He, the incomprehensible one, confined; in order that He might renew the Adam destroyed through sin.

And the same says David again: “Lift up your gates, ye rulers; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting gates, and the King of glory shall come in.” For the everlasting gates are the heavens. But because the Word descended invisible to created things, He was not made known in His descent to them. Because the Word was made flesh, He was visible in His ascension; and, when the powers saw Him, the angels below cried out to those who were on the firmament: “Lift up your gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting gates, that the King of glory may come in.” And when they marvelled and said: “Who is this?” those who had already seen Him testified a second time: “The Lord strong and mighty, he is the King of glory.”

And being raised from the dead and exalted at the Father’s right hand, He awaits the time appointed by the Father for the judgment, when all enemies shall be put under Him. Now the enemies are all those who were found in apostasy, angels and archangels and powers and thrones, who despised the truth. And the prophet David himself says thus: “The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.” And that He ascended thither, whence He had come down, David says: “From the end of heaven is his going forth, and his cessation even at the end of heaven.” Then he signifies his judgment: “And there is none that shall be hid from his heat.” — Paragraphs 84 and 85.

Yet the arrangement of the world rests upon the rationale for this evangelical number: for we recognize the four seasons that the year progresses through and the four corners of the earth that the four guardian angels are assigned to, referring to the Apocalypse.

And although there are said to be four gospels because of the number of the evangelists, even though there is only gospel among them all, as the Lord said: “And this gospel will be preached through the whole globe.” He did not say gospels but “gospel“. The apostle described this too when he says: “If anyone has preached to you a gospel other than what you have received, let them be accursed.” Hence, it is plain that there are certain four books of the gospels, but one gospel is counted in these four books. And for that reason one must not be prejudiced should we sometimes say —gospels— because of the number of evangelists or when we name the gospels in this way as the most important books or when we designate the number of the evangelists according to the usual custom of the majority. Indeed we both confess and believe that there is one true gospel according to the authority of the Lord or even the apostle. — Prologue, Section 10 and 11.

For the same reason in the prophet Zechariah we also read the foretold number of the evangelists, reported by the prophet like this: “I saw,” he said, “four chariots going out of two mountains ,and these mountains, he said, were mountains of bronze. In the first chariot were red horses, and in the second chariot were black horsed, and in the third chariot were white horses, and in the fourth chariot were different and dappled horses. And I said to the angel who was speaking to me: What are these, lord? Responding he said to me: Do you not know what these are? And I said: No, lord. And he told me: These are the four winds of the sky that stand with God before the whole earth.” And so this is the number of the chariots.

In fact the following rationale, promulgated by prophetic reason, teaches us to perceive a type of the gospel truth: we notice that the gospels have also been clearly designated in these chariots. He declared that the four horses are described in four parts, as we best recall, because each of the gospels must be understood in the four and the four in each. Although the preaching of the evangelists would rightly seem to be in four portions, they still are undividedly of one mind for the unity of the faith. In fact, we know that the gospels were clearly prefigured in these chariots, because the prophet asked the angel speaking to him about what these were and he was told this: “These are the four winds of the sky that stand with God before all the earth,” which he reported by God’s command to have circled all the earth. And if we have not considered the saying about these winds (which blow through the lands and generate waves or brew up storms), it is simple enough to understand that, when they have been described in the prophets desiring only the divine and eternal heavenly things, the Lord deservedly adds more: “These are the ones that circle the earth; they soften my fury.” As we perceptively have recognized, the divine wrath, which was over people’s sins, cannot otherwise be appeased except through the gospel’s preaching, which runs throughout the globe and gives both the remission of sins and salvation to the human race. — Prologue, Section 9.