from the generation subject to death, if not by means[1] of a new generation, given in a wonderful and unexpected manner (but as a sign of salvation) by God—[I mean] that regeneration which flows from the virgin through faith?[2] Or how shall they receive adoption from God if they remain in this [kind of] generation, which is naturally possessed by man in this world? And how could He (Christ) have been greater than Solomon,[3] or greater than Jonah, or have been the Lord of David,[4] who was of the same substance as they were % How, too, could He have subdued[5] him who was stronger than men,[6] who had not only overcome man, but also retained him under his power, and conquered him who had conquered, while he set free mankind who had been conquered, unless He had been greater than man who had thus been vanquished? But who else is superior to, and more eminent than, that man who was formed after the likeness of God, except the Son of God, after whose image man was created? And for this reason He did in these last days[7] exhibit the similitude; [for] the Son of God was made man, assuming the ancient production [of His hands] into His own nature,[8] as I have shown in the immediately preceding book.
5. He shall also judge those who describe Christ as [having become man] only in [human] opinion. For how can they imagine that they do themselves carry on a real discussion, when their Master was a mere imaginary being? Or how can they receive anything stedfast from Him, if He was a merely imagined being, and not a verity? And how can these men really be partakers of salvation, if He in whom they profess to believe, manifested Himself as a merely imaginary being? Everything, therefore, connected with these men is unreal, and
- ↑ The text is obscure, and the construction doubtful.
- ↑ The Latin here is, "quæ est ex virgine per fidem regenerationem." According to Massuet, "virgine" here refers not to Mary, but to the church. Grabe suspects that some words have been lost.
- ↑ Matt. xii. 41, 42.
- ↑ Matt. xxii. 43.
- ↑ Matt. xxii. 29; Luke xi. 21, 22.
- ↑ Literally, "who was strong against men."
- ↑ In fine: lit. "in the end."
- ↑ In semetipsum: lit. "unto Himself."
