Chapter 38 [XXIV.]—What Benefit Has Been Conferred on Us by the Incarnation of the Word; Christ’s Birth in the Flesh, Wherein It is Like and Wherein Unlike Our Own Birth.

He goes on to add, “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us;”390    John i. 14. as much as to say, A great thing indeed has been done among them, even that they are born again to God of God, who had before been born of the flesh to the world, although created by God Himself; but a far more wonderful thing has been done that, although it accrued to them by nature to be born of the flesh, but by the divine goodness to be born of God,—in order that so great a benefit might be imparted to them, He who was in His own nature born of God, vouchsafed in mercy to be also born of the flesh;—no less being meant by the passage, “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.” Hereby, he says in effect, it has been wrought that we who were born of the flesh as flesh, by being afterwards born of the Spirit, may be spirit and dwell in God; because also God, who was born of God, by being afterwards born of the flesh, became flesh, and dwelt among us. For the Word, which became flesh, was in the beginning, and was God with God.391    John i. 1. But at the same time His participation in our inferior condition, in order to our participation in His higher state, held a kind of medium392    Medietatem. in His birth of the flesh; so that we indeed were born in sinful flesh, but He was born in the likeness of sinful flesh,—we not only of flesh and blood, but also of the will of man, and of the flesh, but He was born only of flesh and blood, not of the will of man, nor of the will of the flesh, but of God: we, therefore, to die on account of sin, He, to die on our account without sin. So also, just as His inferior circumstances, into which He descended to us, were not in every particular exactly the same with our inferior circumstances, in which He found us here; so our superior state, into which we ascend to Him, will not be quite the same with His superior state, in which we are there to find Him. For we by His grace are to be made the sons of God, whereas He was evermore by nature the Son of God; we, when we are converted, shall cleave to God, though not as His equals; He never turned from God, and remains ever equal to God; we are partakers of eternal life, He is eternal life. He, therefore, alone having become man, but still continuing to be God, never had any sin, nor did he assume a flesh of sin, though born of a maternal393    De maternâ carne peccati, which is the reading of the best and oldest Mss. Another reading has, De naturâ carnis peccati (“of the nature of sinful flesh”); and a third, De materiâ carnis peccati (“of the matter of sinful flesh”). Compare Contr. Julianum, v. 9, and De Gen. ad. Lit. x. 18–20. flesh of sin. For what He then took of flesh, He either cleansed in order to take it, or cleansed by taking it. His virgin mother, therefore, whose conception was not according to the law of sinful flesh (in other words, not by the excitement of carnal concupiscence), but who merited by her faith that the holy seed should be framed within her, He formed in order to choose her, and chose in order to be formed from her. How much more needful, then, is it for sinful flesh to be baptized in order to escape the judgment, when the flesh which was untainted by sin was baptized to set an example for imitation?

CAPUT XXIV.

38. Incarnatione Verbi quod nobis collatum sit beneficium. Nativitas Christi de carne in quo nostrae similis et dissimilis. Fidelium etiam filii baptizandi. Secutus autem addidit, Et Verbum caro factum est, et habitavit in nobis (Joan. I, 12-14): tanquam dicens, Magnum quidem hoc in his factum est, ut Deo nascerentur ex Deo, qui prius nati fuerant ex carne saeculo, quamvis creati ab ipso Deo: sed longe mirabilius factum est, quod cum istis naturae fuerit nasci de carne, beneficii vero nasci ex Deo, propter hoc impertiendum beneficium, ille qui de Deo naturaliter natus est, nasci etiam misericorditer de carne dignatus est: hoc est enim, Et Verbum caro factum est, et habitavit in nobis. Per hoc, inquit, factum est ut nati de carne caro, postea nascendo de spiritu spiritus essemus, et habitaremus in Deo: quia et Deus natus de Deo, postea de carne nascendo caro factus est, et habitavit in nobis. Verbum enim quod caro factum est, in principio erat, et apud Deum Deus erat. Verumtamen ipsa participatio illius in inferiora nostra, ut nostra esset in superiora illius, tenuit quamdam et in carnis nativitate medietatem: ut nos quidem nati essemus in carne peccati, ille autem in similitudine carnis peccati: nos non solum ex carne et sanguine, verum etiam ex voluntate viri et ex voluntate carnis ; ille autem tantum ex carne et sanguine, non ex voluntate viri, neque ex voluntate carnis, sed ex Deo natus est. Et ideo nos in mortem propter peccatum, ille propter nos in mortem sine peccato. Sicut autem inferiora ejus, quibus ad nos descendit, non omni modo coaequata sunt inferioribus nostris, in quibus nos hic invenit: sic et superiora nostra, quibus ad eum ascendimus, non coaequabuntur superioribus ejus, in quibus eum illic inventuri sumus. Nos enim ipsius gratia facti erimus filii Dei, ille semper natura erat filius Dei: nos aliquando conversi adhaerebimus impares Deo, ille nunquam aversus manet aequalis Deo: nos participes vitae aeternae, ille vita aeterna. Solus ergo ille etiam homo factus manens Deus, peccatum nullum habuit unquam, nec sumpsit carnem peccati , quamvis de materna carne peccati . Quod enim carnis inde suscepit, id profecto aut suscipiendum 0175 mundavit, aut suscipiendo mundavit. Ideo Virginem matrem, non lege carnis peccati, id est, non concupiscentiae carnalis motu concipientem, sed pia fide sanctum germen in se fieri promerentem, quam eligeret creavit , de qua crearetur elegit. Quanto magis ergo caro peccati baptizanda est propter evadendum judicium, si baptizata est caro sine peccato propter imitationis exemplum?