The same. — 'And I entreated the sons of my womb.' 53. How God may be said to have bodily members. — In God, who is not circumscribed by the form of a body, the members of the body — that is, hand, eye, womb — are so named that by the terms of the members the effects of His power are designated. For He is said to have eyes, because He sees all things; He is described as having hands, because He works all things; but in the womb offspring is conceived, which is brought forth in this life. What, then, ought we to understand by the womb of God but His counsel, in which before the ages we were conceived through predestination, that, created through the ages, we might be brought forth?
God, therefore, who abides before the ages, entreated the sons of His womb, because those whom He powerfully created through His divinity, coming incarnate, He humbly entreated. But because in that very flesh in which He appeared He was despised by their estimation, it is subjoined: