The City of God by Saint Augustine of Hippo (vegetarian): The True Mediator - Selection from Book IX and X, Part 2 of 2

We will now continue with reading passages from Saint Augustine of Hippo’s substantial work “The City of God.” He explains about devoting oneself to God, and more about the significant role of the true Mediator, Who, through His sacrifices, purifies and renews human nature. “It was truly said that man is cleansed only by a Principle. That true and benignant Redeemer brought low by His humility, manifesting Himself to mortals by the mortality which He assumed, and which the malignant and deceitful mediators are proud of wanting, promising, as the boon of immortals, a deceptive assistance to wretched men. Thus, the good and true Mediator showed that it is sin which is evil, and not the substance or nature of flesh; for this, together with the human soul, could without sin be both assumed and retained, and laid down in death, and changed to something better by resurrection.” “The Principle is neither the flesh nor the human soul in Christ but the Word by which all things were made. The flesh, therefore, does not by its own virtue purify, but by virtue of the Word by which it was assumed, when ‘the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.’” “The Principle, therefore, having assumed a human soul and flesh, cleanses the soul and flesh of believers. Therefore, when the Jews asked Him who He was, He answered that He was the Principle.” “This is the mediation whereby a hand is stretched to the lapsed and fallen; this is the seed ‘ordained by angels,’ by whose ministry the law also given enjoining the worship of one God, and promising that this Mediator should come.”