When, therefore, the devil dared to tempt the Lord, when he saw him, what did he see? If he saw his body, therefore the Lord had a body, which the lost do not want to confess. But if he did not have a body, then the divine substance itself was subject to the eyes of the devil. Which only those who are pure in heart see, as they themselves commemorate to us from the Gospel, O impertinent blindness of heretics! Why do you falsely accuse our Scriptures, that the devil saw God, and by denying the body of Christ, you are convicted of wanting to reveal the divine substance of him to the eyes of the devil? Or perhaps, as they are accustomed to say, he did not have a human body, but yet showed himself as if he had one? Who then thinks more truly and rightly, you insane ones, who believe that God spoke with the devil, or who believe that God not only spoke with the devil but also lied to the devil? For Scripture remembers that certain angels appeared to human eyes. But surely the Lord subjected bodily creation to their power in such a way that he adapted it to them according to their will. Whence, although they were not born of a woman, they had a true body, which they converted from any form into any form according to the reason of their ministry and duty, yet from true into true. For not even the Lord himself, when he converted water into wine, can we say that the water was false or the wine was false.
Our Lord assumed a true body.
Therefore, every body, whose nature and order are changeable, according to the will of the most omnipotent Creator, whatever species it may have been changed into, still does not depart from its truth in its own kind, because with whatever variety it is changed, it does not cease to be a body and a true body. But since they [the heretics] imagine that all corporeal nature is not from the omnipotent Creator God, but from some sort of darkness, we ask them, from where did our Lord Jesus Christ assume a body? For if they say that he did not assume any body, what was that which appeared to human and bodily eyes? Either it was the lie of a phantom, which is execrable to believe; or if they contend that his own divine substance presented himself to human eyes without an assumption of a body, and even the devil saw this, then what of the proclamations in this contentious question: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God”? But if they perhaps say that the divine and proper substance of the Lord is not such as it is with the Father, as he wished to show himself on earth by assuming no body, what else did they wretchedly believe but that it is changeable with respect to places and times? For they do not wish to read or easily understand what is said through the Prophet: “You will change them, and they will be changed; but you are the same, and your years will not fail.” And what is written of divine Wisdom in the letters of Wisdom concerning itself: “Remaining in itself, it renews all things.”
The Manichaeans worship the sun as if it were a god.
According to their sense, if anyone says to them: "Why do you marvel if God also changed the form of His divinity, so that he who is the devil with the most sordid heart could see Him, just as it appears to you about Christ God?" I do not know what they would respond. For they never dared to say that the Father and the Son are not of one substance. And if they were to say that the Son is of another substance, it could be replied to them: "From where then do you know whether the old Scripture mentions the devil speaking with the Father or with the Son?" Then we ask: "Does the devil see this sun, or does he not? If he sees, how then is the sun God, whom the devil sees? If he does not see, yet evil men see him, how then is God whom those see who are not pure of heart? Or if he too was changed so that he might be seen and is not what he appears to be, what if you then show one thing but are another, so you could imitate the sun not only worship it?" And yet if you ask them whether the divine substance is changeable or unchangeable, they cannot but say unchangeable, not taught by reason but confused by shame. Therefore, it remains that they are forced to confess that our Lord Jesus Christ took on a body from elsewhere so that He might appear to human eyes. And if they confess this, I ask from where He took it. If they say from this world, I ask from what part of the world is the body? Immediately they respond to me: "From the people of darkness." O wondrous madness! Why then, wretched ones, do you fear the womb of the Virgin in the body of the Savior but do not fear the people of demons?
The Lord preferred to take a body from a woman.
We indeed profess that the entire nature of the body comes from God the omnipotent Creator. And therefore, wherever our Lord assumed the body, He would take it from His creation. But He preferred from a woman. Truly, He came to liberate human creation, which had fallen through a woman. Hence, wishing to bring both sexes into hope of renewal and restoration, He chose the male sex from which He would be born, and the female sex through which He would be born. But you who shudder at the chaste womb of the virgin, choose, I pray you, from where the Lord should have assumed a body. You say that every body is the substance of the race of darkness. Therefore, as I said, choose from where the Son of God ought to assume a body. Or have you lost the light of response, because darkness meets you wherever you turn your eyes? "But," they say, "mortal flesh seems more impure.” Recite to them the Apostle: “All things are pure to the pure." And recite to them the Apostle: "To the impure and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their mind and conscience are polluted." If, however, they do not say "more impure" but "weaker," we plainly agree. And therefore Christ is our strength, because He was not changed by our weakness. Here I recognize the voice of the Prophet: "You will change them, and they will be changed; but you are the same, and your years will not fail." Not only did the weakness of the flesh not change Him for the worse, but it was itself changed for the better by Him. This bodily sun, which they think not to be a body - to the point that those who falsely boast about spiritual discussions do not understand what a body is - this bodily sun, simply because it is a heavenly body, illuminates the earth and is not darkened by it; dries up water and is not wetted by it; dissolves ice, and is not chilled by it; hardens mud, and is not softened by it. And our Lord Jesus Christ, the Word of the Father, through whom all things were made, the Power and Wisdom of God, present everywhere, hidden everywhere, whole everywhere, enclosed nowhere, reaching from end to end mightily and disposing all things sweetly, do the unfortunate fear that He could not assume a man in such a way as to give life to mortals and not be destroyed by them, to sanctify the flesh and not be polluted by it, to dissolve death and not be bound by it, to change man in Himself and not be changed into man? Compelled to dispute one thing from another, on account of some wavering and dangerous weakness of faith. But regarding the proposed question, although that Scripture, from which they preferred to plot rather than to be enlightened, does not prove that God was seen by the devil, still let them see how the race of darkness could have seen the divine substance, when before the battle which they say mixed good and evil, the divine substance had not yet assumed any body so as to be seen by its enemy. Therefore, let them recognize that they vainly wish to overthrow the foundations of the Catholic faith, when they cannot prop up their ruinous fables with any response strong enough to withstand.