But someone will say that the objection brought against us has not yet been resolved; rather, what unbelievers put forward against us has been strengthened by what has been said. For if there is such power in Him as the argument has shown, so that the destruction of death and the entrance of life are in His power, why does He not accomplish what He intends by will alone, but instead work out our salvation by a circuitous course—being born and nourished, and saving humanity through the experience of death—when it was possible for Him not to enter into these things and still to save us? To such an argument it would be enough, for the fair-minded, to say this: the sick do not dictate to physicians the manner of their care, nor dispute with their benefactors about the form of treatment—asking why the healer touched the suffering part and devised this particular means for the removal of the illness when another was needed. Rather, looking to the outcome of the benefit, they receive the good done to them with gratitude.
But because, as the prophecy says, the abundance of God's goodness keeps its benefit hidden and is not yet seen clearly in the present life—for every objection of unbelievers would have been removed if what is awaited were before our eyes—but now awaits the ages to come, so that in them the things now seen only through faith may be revealed, it is necessary, as far as possible, to seek by reasoned arguments a solution to these questions that is consistent with what has gone before.