Chapter 17.—Other Advantages of the Incarnation.

22. There are many other things also in the incarnation of Christ, displeasing as it is to the proud, that are to be observed and thought of advantageously. And one of them is, that it has been demonstrated to man what place he has in the things which God has created; since human nature could so be joined to God, that one person could be made of two substances, and thereby indeed of three—God, soul, and flesh: so that those proud malignant spirits, who interpose themselves as mediators to deceive, although as if to help, do not therefore dare to place themselves above man because they have not flesh; and chiefly because the Son of God deigned to die also in the same flesh, lest they, because they seem to be immortal, should therefore succeed in getting themselves worshipped as gods. Further, that the grace of God might be commended to us in the man Christ without any precedent merits; because not even He Himself obtained by any precedent merits that He should be joined in such great unity with the true God, and should become the Son of God, one Person with Him; but from the time when He began to be man, from that time He is also God; whence it is said, “The Word was made flesh.”831    John i. 14 Then, again, there is this, that the pride of man, which is the chief hindrance against his cleaving to God, can be confuted and healed through such great humility of God. Man learns also how far he has gone away from God; and what it is worth to him as a pain to cure him, when he returns through such a Mediator, who both as God assists men by His divinity, and as man agrees with men by His weakness. For what greater example of obedience could be given to us, who had perished through disobedience, than God the Son obedient to God the Father, even to the death of the cross?832    Phil. ii. 8 Nay, wherein could the reward of obedience itself be better shown, than in the flesh of so great a Mediator, which rose again to eternal life? It belonged also to the justice and goodness of the Creator, that the devil should be conquered by the same rational creature which he rejoiced to have conquered, and by one that came from that same race which, by the corruption of its origin through one, he held altogether.

CAPUT XVII.

22. Alia incarnationis commoda. Sunt et alia multa quae in Christi incarnatione, quae superbis displicet, salubriter intuenda atque cogitanda sunt. Quorum est unum, quod demonstratum est homini, quem locum haberet in rebus quas condidit Deus: quandoquidem sic Deo conjungi potuit humana natura, ut ex duabus substantiis fieret una persona, ac per hoc jam ex tribus, Deo, anima et carne: ut superbi illi maligni spiritus, qui se ad decipiendum quasi ad adjuvandum medios interponunt, non ideo se audeant homini praeponere, quia non habent carnem; et maxime quia et mori in eadem carne dignatus est Filius Dei, ne ideo illi tanquam deos se coli persuadeant, quia videntur esse immortales. Deinde, ut gratia Dei nobis sine ullis praecedentibus meritis in homine Christo commendaretur: quia nec ipse ut tanta unitate Deo vero conjunctus una cum illo persona Filius Dei fieret, ullis est praecedentibus meritis assecutus; sed ex quo homo esse coepit, ex illo est et Deus: unde dictum est, Verbum caro factum est (Joan. I, 14). Etiam illud est, ut superbia hominis quae maxime impedimento est ne inhaereatur Deo, per tantam Dei humilitatem redargui posset atque sanari. Discit quoque homo quam 1032 longe recesserit a Deo, et quid illi valeat ad medicinalem dolorem, quando per talem Mediatorem redit, qui hominibus et Deus divinitate subvenit, et homo infirmitate convenit. Quod autem majus obedientiae nobis praeberetur exemplum, qui per inobedientiam perieramus, quam Deo Patri Deus Filius obediens usque ad mortem crucis (Philipp. II, 8)? Quid, praemium ipsius obedientiae ubi ostenderetur melius , quam in carne tanti Mediatoris, quae ad vitam resurrexit aeternam? Pertinebat etiam ad justitiam bonitatemque Creatoris, ut per eamdem rationalem creaturam superaretur diabolus, quam se superasse gaudebat, et de ipso genere venientem, quod genus origine vitiata per unum tenebat universum.