One must be greatly astonished at the Greeks. They laugh at what is not worthy of mockery, yet they are blind to their own shame, which they have set up in wood and stone without recognizing it.
Since our argument is not lacking in proofs, let us put them to shame by reasonable considerations, especially by things that we ourselves can see. What is unreasonable in what we say, or worthy of mockery? Is it simply that we say the Word was manifested in a body? If they become friends of the truth, they themselves will agree that this did not happen unreasonably.
If they deny that there is a Word of God at all, that will be extraordinary, for then they will be ridiculing what they do not know.
But suppose they confess that there is a Word of God, that He is the Ruler of the universe, that in Him the Father created the creation, that through His providence all things receive light, life, and being, and that He reigns over all. They also confess that He is known from the works of His providence and that through Him the Father is known. Consider, then, whether they do not unknowingly direct their mockery against themselves.
The Greek philosophers say that the universe is a great body, and they say truly, for we perceive the universe and its parts with our senses. But if the Word of God is in the universe, which is a body, and has entered into it in its every part, what is there surprising or unfitting in our saying that He has entered also into human nature?
If it were unfitting for Him to have embodied Himself at all, then it would be unfitting for Him to have entered into the universe, and to be giving light and movement by His providence to all things in it, because the universe, as we have seen, is itself a body.
If it is fitting for Him to be present in the universe and to be made known through the whole, it is also fitting for Him to appear in a human body and for that body to be enlightened and made active by Him. The human race is also a part of the whole. If it is unfitting for a part to become His instrument for making His divinity known, then it would be even more unreasonable for Him to be made known through the whole universe.