130. How incredible are these things! how
odious! How much more fitting is it to believe in accordance with
nature, in accordance with what takes place in every kind of fruit; to
believe in accordance with the pattern of what has happened, in
accordance with the utterances of prophets, and the heavenly promise of
Christ! For what is better than to be sure that the work of God
does not perish, and that those who are made in the image and likeness
of God cannot be transformed into the shapes of beasts; since in truth
it is not the form of the body but of the spirit which is made after
the likeness of God. For in what manner could man, to whom are
subjected the other kinds of living creatures, migrate with the better
part of himself into an animal subjected to himself? Nature does
not suffer this, and if nature did grace would not.