Chapter 11 (part 2)

Thereby each form had its own particular state of perception and sensation, and the divine state did not mingle in such a manner (with the terrestrial form) as to cause the former to be diminished, but remained what it was (before the incarnation took place), and that which it was not it became (by means of the incarnation), but without any separation, differentiation, or division of the divine being. Thus the Word remains in the Father, the created being of the holy element remained before the Father, and the natural human state was attained in this world in the womb of the virgin Mary." 2 ( Three Principles , xx. 86). p. 227 Those who regard Christ as being not a person, and who claim that Mary was an eternal virgin and not born from terrestrial parents, are in error. 1 "Those err who say that Christ is not a created being. As far as His divinity is concerned, He is certainly not a created being; but relatively to His celestial state, regarding which He says that He had come from heaven and was still in heaven, He is there both a creature in human nature, and without humanity an untreated being." ( Letters , ii. 54.) "There are some who have said that the virgin Mary was not a terrestrial being, and not the daughter of Joachim and Anna, because Christ is called the seed of the woman, and would therefore have to be born from an entirely celestial virgin. If this were so, it would serve very little to us poor children of Eve, as we have become earthly and are carrying our souls in earthly tabernacles." 2 ( Menschwerdung , i. 8. 1.) "It has been said that Mary was an eternal virgin of the Holy Trinity, and that from her Christ had been born; because, according to His own testimony, He did not come front human flesh and blood, but from heaven. It is true that our Lord said that He had come from God and was to return to God, and that no one would go to heaven except the Son of Man, coming from heaven and being in heaven; but in thus saying He spoke evidently of p. 228 [paragraph continues] His human aspect, and not merely of His divinity; for the eternal God could not have been the Son of Man, neither could a son of man come out of the Trinity; but if it had been possible to redeem man by means of a foreign soul brought down from heaven, where would then have been the necessity for God to enter into our (human) shape and to be crucified therein." 1 ( Three Principles , xxii. 61.) If Christ had brought a foreign soul with Him from heaven, and not taken a human soul from His mother Mary, He would have been foreign to us, and could not have become our Redeemer. "It is not true, as some say, that Christ has taken a soul unto Himself from the Word in the eternal virgin Mary, so that Christ was coming from God and the soul in His human nature had a beginning." ( Mysterium , lvi. 19). "Christ is not only a seed that came from heaven, so as to have no other quality received from man except a human covering (body). If He had not a human nature He would not be the Son of Man, neither would He be my brother." ( Tilk . i. 245.) "The soul of Christ is a creature like our own soul, and He has received it from humanity and in the body of Mary. Therefore we rejoice eternally that the soul of Christ is our brother and the body of Christ is our body in regenerated man." ( Three Principles , xxiii. 30.) "What would it benefit me if Christ had brought with Him a strange soul? Nothing! But I rejoice that He has introduced my soul into the holy Ternary .