Chapter 2 (8): He Confirms By Authority That From That Time The Virgin Was
Distinction III | 11 this flesh to be of a celestial, or airy, or of some other nature, but of the same nature as the flesh of all men."
Chapter 2 (8)
HE CONFIRMS BY AUTHORITY THAT FROM THAT TIME THE VIRGIN WAS
IMMUNE FROM SIN. And Augustine, in the book On Nature and Grace, clearly shows that the holy Virgin from that time was immune from all sin, saying: "With the exception of the holy Virgin Mary, concerning whom | wish to exclude all question when discussing sin for the honour due to the Lord (for from that time forth we know that more grace was given to her to conquer sin completely because she deserved to conceive and bear the one who most certainly was without sin); therefore, with the exception of this Virgin, if all the saints, both men and women, could be gathered together, and they were asked whether they had any sin, what would they answer, other than what John said: /f we say that we are without sin, we deceive ourselves?"''?—AUGUSTINE, ON FAITH TO PETER:
"That Virgin was visited and filled by a singular grace so that she might bear as fruit of her womb the one whom the universe has as its Lord from the beginning";' "so that what was born from the offspring of the first man might derive only the origin of kind, not also of crime.'
Chapter 3 (9)
1. WHY CHRIST DID NOT PAY TITHES IN ABRAHAM, AS LEVI DID, EVEN
THOUGH THE FLESH WHICH HE TOOK WAS IN BONDAGE TO SIN IN ABRAHAM.
But since that flesh, whose singular excellence words are not adequate to explain, before it was united to the Word, would have been in bondage to sin in Mary and in the others from whom it was derived by propagation, it may not unworthily appear that it would have been subject to sin in Abraham, whose entire flesh was subject to sin. And so it usual to ask why Levi, but not Christ, paid tithes in Abraham,' since each of them was in Abraham's loins according to material reason when Abraham was tithed, that is, gave tithes to Melchisedech.'
2. IN WHAT SENSE LEVI IS SAID TO BE TITHED IN ABRAHAM. For the
Apostle says that Levi was tithed in Abraham as if in respect to a material *Fulgentius, De fide ad Petrum, c2 n15.
Nin. ls.
Augustine, De natura et gratia, c36 n42.
*Fulgentius, De fide ad Petrum, c2 n17.
"Augustine, De Trinitate, bk 13 c18 n23.
'Cf. Hebr. 7, 9-10.
*Cf. Gen. 14, 18-20.