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PART III.
ON THE CHRISTIAN DISPENSATION.
CHAPTER I.
On the advent of Christ, and of His union [of the divine with the human nature.]
Justice is an universal benefit, since whatsoever man would have others do to him, justice demands that he should do to them; and whatsoever he would not have men do to him, let him not do the same to them. This is the Law and the Prophets, as saith the Saviour. But as the prophets could not hereby reduce to perfect order the lives of men, and bring them to a knowledge of the truth by causing them to forego idols and follow the divine commands, in order that they might be saved, there remained no other way for the renewal of our nature, and for the reformation of our lives, but that God should appear in the world. Like a sovereign, who having sent many messengers to dispense the affairs of his kingdom, and to put in order those whom he would reconcile, if these should be overcome because of their weakness, and be unable to effect any thing, he goes in person to put those of that country in order. But since God is invisible, and because were it possible for Him to appear to the created as He is, all men would be destroyed by the effulgence of His brightness; therefore He took to Himself a man for His habitation, and made him His temple, and the place of His abiding, and thus united an offspring of mortal nature to His Divinity, in an everlasting, indissoluble union, and made it a co-partaker of His sovereignty, authority, and dominion.—That is, the Divine Essence enlightened the human nature by its union therewith, as the pure and faultless jewel is enlightened
