he human race before sin. For medicine is given
only to the sick. Hence our Lord Himself says (Matt. 9:12, 13): "They
that are in health need not a physician, but they that are ill . . .
For I am not come to call the just, but sinners."

Nor was it fitting that God should become incarnate immediately after
sin. First, on account of the manner of man's sin, which had come of
pride; hence man was to be liberated in such a manner that he might
be humbled, and see how he stood in need of a deliverer. Hence on the
words in Gal. 3:19, "Being ordained by angels in the hand of a
mediator," a gloss says: "With great wisdom was it so ordered that
the Son of Man should not be sent immediately after man's fall. For
first of all God left man under the natural law, with the freedom of
his will, in order that he might know his natural strength; and when
he failed in it, he received the law; whereupon, by the fault, not of
the law, but of his nature, the disease gained strength; so that
having recognized his infirmity he might cry out for a physician, and
beseech the aid of grace."

Secondly, on account of the order of furtherance in good, whereby we
proceed from imperfection to perfection. Hence the Apostle says (1
Cor. 15:46, 47): "Yet that was not first which is spiritual, but that
which is natural; afterwards that which is spiritual . . . The first
man was of the earth, earthy; the second man from heaven, heavenly."

Thirdly, on account of the dignity of the incarnate Word, for on the
words (Gal. 4:4), "But when the fulness of the time was come," a
gloss says: "The greater the judge who was coming, the more numerous
was the band of heralds who ought to have preceded him."

Fourthly, lest the fervor of faith should cool by the length of time,
for the charity of many will grow cold at the end of the world. Hence
(Luke 18:8) it is written: "But yet the Son of Man, when He cometh,
shall He find think you, faith on earth?"

Reply Obj. 1: Charity does not put off bringing assistance to a
friend: always bearing in mind the circumstances as well as the state
of the persons. For if the physician were to give the medicine at the
very outset of the ailment, it would do less good, and would hurt
rather than benefit. And hence the Lord did not bestow upon the human
race the remedy of the Incarnation in the beginning, lest they should
despise it through pride, if they did not already recognize their
disease.

Reply Obj. 2: Augustine repli