On the Incarnation

Some favourite moments from a recent re-read of 'De Incarnatione Verbi Dei'...

• as straw is combustible unless wrapped in asbestos, so the body - unless it is wrapped in Christ - would be consumed by corruption (ch. 44)
• as a deceiver may falsely impersonate an emperor who lives in seclusion until the latter appears and convicts him, so the deceit of idols paraded as gods and demanded divine honour until the true Word of God appeared and exposed them (ch. 55)
• a wrestler does not choose his own opponents, lest he be thought weak - he lets his opponents choose them; Christ did not devise his own mode of death, letting his enemies choose it for him, proving his superiority over every form of death (ch. 24)
• as the sight of a downtrodden serpent, or of a child being able to play with a lion, proves that it either powerless or dead, so the fact of Christians sporting with Death proves Death's impotence (ch. 29)