Chap. vi.—Continuation.
And how can He be but God, who raises up the dead, sends away the lame sound of limb, cleanses the lepers, restores sight to the blind, and either increases or transmutes existing substances, as the five loaves and the two fishes, and the water which became wine, and who puts to flight thy whole host by a mere word? And why dost thou abuse the nature of the Virgin, and style her members disgraceful, since thou didst of old display such in public processions,[1] and didst order them to be exhibited naked, males in the sight of females, and females to stir up the unbridled lust of males? But now these are reckoned by thee disgraceful, and thou pretendest to be full of modesty, thou spirit of fornication, not knowing that then only anything becomes disgraceful when it is polluted by wickedness. But when sin is not present, none of the things that have been created are shameful, none of them evil, but all very good. But inasmuch as thou art blind, thou revilest these things.
Chap. vii.—Continuation: inconsistency of Satan.
And how, again, does Christ not at all appear to thee to be of the Virgin, but to be God over all,[2] and the Almighty? Say, then, who sent Him? Who was Lord over Him? And whose will did He obey? And what laws did He fulfil, since He was subject neither to the will nor power of any one? And while you deny that Christ was born,[3] you affirm that the unbegotten was begotten, and that He who had no beginning was nailed to the cross, by whose permission I am unable to say. But thy changeable tactics do not escape me, nor am I ignorant that thou art wont to walk with slanting and uncertain[4] steps. And thou art ignorant who really was born, thou who pretendest to know everything.
- ↑ Reference seems here to be made to obscene heathen practices.
- ↑ i.e. so as to have no separate personality from the Father. Comp. Epistle to the Tarsians, chap. ii.
- ↑ Literally, "and taking away Christ from being born."
- ↑ Literally, "double."
