Chapter XIX.

Nevertheless, since neither those who take the Greek view, nor yet the leaders of Jewish opinions, are willing to make such things the proofs of that Divine manifestation, it may be as well, as regards these demurrers to our statement, to treat more particularly the reason by virtue of which the Divine nature is combined with ours, saving, as it does, humanity by means of itself, and not working out its proposed design by means of a mere command. With what, then, must we begin, so as to conduct our thinking by a logical sequence to the proposed conclusion? What but this, viz. with a succinct detail of the notions that can religiously be entertained of God58    The Greek Fathers and the English divines for the most part confine themselves to showing this moral fitness and consonance with God’s nature in the Incarnation, and do not attempt to prove its absolute necessity. Cf. Athanasius, De Incarn. Verb. c. 6; Hooker, Eccles. Pol. V. li. 3; Butler’s Analogy, pt. ii. c. 5.?

[19] Ἀλλ' ὅμως, ἐπειδὴ μήτε τοῖς ἑλληνίζουσι μήτε τοῖς τῶν Ἰουδαικῶν προεστῶσι δογμάτων δοκεῖ ταῦτα θείας παρουσίας ποιεῖσθαι τεκμήρια, καλῶς ἂν ἔχοι περὶ τῶν ἀνθυπενεχθέντων ἡμῖν ἰδίᾳ τὸν λόγον διαλαβεῖν, ὅτου χάριν ἡ θεία φύσις πρὸς τὴν ἡμετέραν συμπλέκεται, δι' ἑαυτῆς σώζουσα τὸ ἀνθρώπινον, οὐ διὰ προστάγματος κατεργαζομένη τὸ κατὰ πρόθεσιν. τίς οὖν ἂν γένοιτο ἡμῖν ἀρχὴ πρὸς τὸν προκείμενον σκοπὸν ἀκολούθως χειραγωγοῦσα τὸν λόγον; τίς ἄλλη ἢ τὸ τὰς εὐσεβεῖς περὶ τοῦ θεοῦ ὑπολήψεις ἐπὶ κεφαλαίων διεξελθεῖν;