13. Is there any absurdity in supposing that, having once become Man, His human life was so ordered that He shunned dangers? not that it was otherwise impossible to attain His object, but because it was fitting to leave room for ways and means in securing His safety. And it was surely better for the child Jesus to escape from Herod's plot and sojourn with His parents in Egypt until the death of the conspirator, than for Providence watching over Jesus to hinder the will of Herod when he purposed to kill the child, or to associate with Jesus dark Pluto's helm, of which the poets speak, or anything of the kind, or to smite those who came to destroy Him, as the men of Sodom were |98 smitten. If it had been perfectly clear that some very extraordinary help was given to Him, this would not have furthered His desire to teach, as a man approved by God, that He had something more Divine within the visible man, which "something" was properly the Son of God, God the Word, the power of God and the wisdom of God,He that is called Christ. But this is not the time to discuss the compound nature, and the parts of which Jesus, who became a man, was composed; that is a separate topic, and, if I may so speak, one suitable for investigation by believers.