t
and was weary shows that He had a true human body: otherwise, if
these things are a metaphor, because the like are said of God in the
Old Testament, the trustworthiness of the Gospel story is undermined.
For it is one thing that things were foretold in a figure, and
another that historical events were related in very truth by the
Evangelists. Secondly, this error lessens the utility of the
Incarnation, which is man's liberation. For Augustine [*Vigilius
Tapsensis] argues thus (Contra Felician. xiii): "If the Son of God in
taking flesh passed over the soul, either He knew its sinlessness,
and trusted it did not need a remedy; or He considered it unsuitable
to Him, and did not bestow on it the boon of redemption; or He
reckoned it altogether incurable, and was unable to heal it; or He
cast it off as worthless and seemingly unfit for any use. Now two of
these reasons imply a blasphemy against God. For how shall we call
Him omnipotent, if He is unable to heal what is beyond hope? Or God
of all, if He has not made our soul. And as regards the other two
reasons, in one the cause of the soul is ignored, and in the other no
place is given to merit. Is He to be considered to understand the
cause of the soul, Who seeks to separate it from the sin of wilful
transgression, enabled as it is to receive the law by the endowment
of the habit of reason? Or how can His generosity be known to any one
who says it was despised on account of its ignoble sinfulness? If you
look at its origin, the substance of the soul is more precious than
the body: but if at the sin of transgression, on account of its
intelligence it is worse than the body. Now I know and declare that
Christ is perfect wisdom, nor have I any doubt that He is most
loving; and because of the first of these He did not despise what was
better and more capable of prudence; and because of the second He
protected what was most wounded." Thirdly, this position is against
the truth of the Incarnation. For flesh and the other parts of man
receive their species through the soul. Hence, if the soul is absent,
there are no bones nor flesh, except equivocally, as is plain from
the Philosopher (De Anima ii, 9; _Metaph._ vii, 34).

Reply Obj. 1: When we say, "The Word was made flesh," "flesh" is
taken for the whole man, as if we were to say, "The Word was made
man," as Isa. 40:5: "All flesh together shall see that the mouth of
the Lord hath spoken." And the whole man is signified by fles