[Section: Refuting Their Claim that Judaism and Christianity Suffice]

Then they said:

“We are amazed at these people who, for all their refinement and the high standards of virtue they impose upon themselves, have failed to realize that revealed laws are of two kinds: a law of justice and a law of grace. Since the Creator is both just and bountiful, it was necessary that He manifest His justice to His creatures; therefore He sent Moses to the Children of Israel and instituted the law of justice, commanding them to practice it until it became firmly rooted in their hearts.

As for perfection, which is grace, it can be instituted only by the Most Perfect of all perfect beings. It was thus incumbent that He—exalted are His Names, sublime His favors—be the One to institute it, for nothing is more perfect than He. And because He is generous, He was bound to bestow the most splendid of existents; and among all existents nothing is more perfect than His Word. Therefore He had to bestow His Word, and accordingly He had to unite with a tangible being through which His power and generosity could be displayed.

Since no created thing surpasses the human being in nobility, He united with human nature taken from the pure Lady, Mary the Virgin, chosen above the women of all the worlds. After such perfection had been realized, nothing remained to be instituted, for