Not Spoken of a Mere Man
Perhaps some will foolishly suppose that these words were spoken of the birth of an ordinary mortal. But if that were all, what reason could there be for the earth to need neither seed nor plow, or for the vine to need no pruning hook or any other care? How can we suppose that these things are spoken of a mere mortal’s birth? For nature is the servant of the divine will, not a tool that obeys the command of man. Indeed, the very joy of the elements points to the coming of God, not to the conception of a human being. The poet’s prayer that his life might be lengthened is also a proof of the divinity of the one he called on; for we ask life and preservation from God, not from man. Indeed, the Erythraean Sibyl appeals to God in this way: “Why, O Lord, do you still compel me to foretell the future, and not rather take me from this earth to wait for the blessed day of your coming?” And Maro adds to what he had said before:
How could his parents have smiled on him? For his Father is God, who is a power without qualities that the senses can perceive. He exists not in any definite shape but as containing other beings, and therefore not in a human body. And who does not know that the Holy Spirit has no part in the union of marriage? For what desire can exist in the nature of that Good which all other things desire? In short, what fellowship can wisdom have with pleasure? But let these arguments be left to those who ascribe to him a human origin, and who do not care to purify themselves from all evil in word as well as in deed. On you, Piety, I call to help my words: you who are the very law of purity, the most desirable of all blessings, the teacher of the holiest hope, the sure promise of immortality! You, Piety, and you, Clemency, I adore. We who have obtained your help owe you everlasting gratitude for your healing power. But the multitudes whom their inborn hatred of you robs of your help are just as estranged from God himself. They do not know that the very cause of their life and being, and that of all the ungodly, is bound up with the rightful worship of him who is Lord of all; for the world itself is his, and everything in it.