3. Confut. The assumption of the humane nature to the God-head in Christ not merited.

4. BUt to say that Abraham merited, that the Messiah should take flesh of his seed, is not farre from blasphemy; for then he should have merited more than Christ himselfe did, as he was man: seeing that the hypostaticall union of the humane nature with the God-head in one person, was of grace, not of merit: as Augustine well resolveth, Quod Christus est unigenitus aequalis patri, non est gratia,*sed natu∣ra; quod autem in unitatem personae unigeniti assumptus est homo, gratia est, non natura: That Christ was the onely begotten Son equall to his Father, it was not grace but nature: but in that mans nature was taken to make one person, with the onely begotten, it was of grace, and not by nature. But now, if the man Christ deserved not the assumption or taking of the humane nature to the God-head, and yet Abraham merited, that his seed should in the Messiah be united to the God-head, it will follow that he merited more than Christ; where∣fore that is a sound and Catholike conclusion of Augustine,*Neque enim illam susceptionem hominis ulla merita praecesserunt, sed ab illa susceptione merita ejus cuncta caeperunt: before the taking of mans nature there was no merits at all, but all Christs merits tooke beginning there.