13. But there is
another consideration which we must not leave out in the solution of
this question, namely, that the substance of God, which is wholly
incorporeal, cannot be introduced into bodies or be received by them in
the first instance, unless there be some spiritual substance as a
medium, which is capable of receiving the divine Spirit. For instance,
if we say that light is able to irradiate all the members of the body,
yet by none of them can it be received except by the eye. For it is the
eye alone which is receptive of light. So the Son of God is born of a
virgin, not associated with the flesh alone in the first instance, but
begotten with a soul as a medium between the flesh and God. With the
soul, then, serving as a medium, and receiving the Word of God in the
secret citadel of the rational spirit, God was born of the Virgin
without any such disparagement as you imagine. And therefore nothing is
to be esteemed base or unseemly wherein was the sanctification of the
Spirit, and where the soul which was capable of God became also a
partaker of flesh. Account nothing impossible where the power of the
Most High was present. Have no thought of human weakness where there
was the plenitude of Divinity.