born of His Mother
in time.

Reply Obj. 1: This was the argument of a certain heretic, Felician,
and is solved thus by Augustine (Contra Felic. xii). "Let us
suppose," says he, "as many maintain, that in the world there is a
universal soul, which, by its ineffable movement, so gives life to
all seed, that it is not compounded with things begotten, but bestows
life that they may be begotten. Without doubt, when this soul reaches
the womb, being intent on fashioning the passible matter to its own
purpose, it unites itself to the personality thereof, though
manifestly it is not of the same substance; and thus of the active
soul and passive matter, one man is made out of two substances. And
so we confess that the soul is born from out the womb; but not as
though, before birth, it was nothing at all in itself. Thus, then,
but in a way much more sublime, the Son of God was born as man, just
as the soul is held to be born together with the body: not as though
they both made one substance, but that from both, one person results.
Yet we do not say that the Son of God began thus to exist: lest it be
thought that His Divinity is temporal. Nor do we acknowledge the
flesh of the Son of God to have been from eternity: lest it be
thought that He took, not a true human body, but some resemblance
thereof."

Reply Obj. 2: This was an argument of Nestorius, and it is thus
solved by Cyril in an epistle [*Cf. Acta Concil. Ephes., p. 1, cap.
viii]: "We do not say that the Son of God had need, for His own sake,
of a second nativity, after that which is from the Father: for it is
foolish and a mark of ignorance to say that He who is from all
eternity, and co-eternal with the Father, needs to begin again to
exist. But because for us and for our salvation, uniting the human
nature to His Person, He became the child of a woman, for this reason
do we say that He was born in the flesh."

Reply Obj. 3: Nativity regards the person as its subject, the nature
as its terminus. Now, it is possible for several transformations to
be in the same subject: yet must they be diversified in respect of
their termini. But we do not say this as though the eternal nativity
were a transformation or a movement, but because it is designated by
way of a transformation or movement.

Reply Obj. 4: Christ can be said to have been born twice in respect
of His two nativities. For just as he is said to run twice who runs
at two different times, so can He be said to be