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- confessions
- text
- not now after your kind, as though following your neighbour who went
before you, nor as living after the example of some better man (for Thou
saidst not, "Let man be made after his kind," but, Let us make man after
our own image and similitude), that we might prove what Thy will is. For
to this purpose said that dispenser of Thine (who begat children by the
Gospel), that he might not for ever have them babes, whom he must be
fain to feed with milk, and cherish as a nurse; be ye transformed (saith
he) by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good
and acceptable and perfect will of God. Wherefore Thou sayest not, "Let
man be made," but Let us make man. Nor saidst Thou, "according to his
kind"; but, after our image and likeness. For man being renewed in his
mind, and beholding and understanding Thy truth, needs not man as his
director, so as to follow after his kind; but by Thy direction proveth
what is that good, that acceptable, and perfect will of Thine: yea, Thou
teachest him, now made capable, to discern the Trinity of the Unity, and
the Unity of the Trinity. Wherefore to that said in the plural, Let us
make man, is yet subjoined in the singular, And God made man: and
to that said in the plural, After our likeness, is subjoined in the
singular, After the image of God. Thus is man renewed in the knowledge
of God, after the image of Him that created him: and being made
spiritual, he judgeth all things (all things which are to be judged),
yet himself is judged of no man.
But that he judgeth all things, this answers to his having dominion over
the fish of the sea, and over the fowls of the air, and over all cattle
and wild beasts, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing
that creepeth upon the earth. For this he doth by the understanding of
his mind, whereby he perceiveth the things of the Spirit of God; whereas
otherwise, man being placed in honour, had no understanding, and is
compared unto the brute beasts, and is become like unto them. In Thy
Church therefore, O our God, according to Thy grace which Thou hast
bestowed upon it (for we are Thy workmanship created unto good
works), not those only who are spiritually set over, but they also who
spiritually are subject to those that are set over them,--for in this
way didst Thou make man male and female, in Thy grace spiritual, where,
according to the sex of body, there is neither male nor female, because
neither Jew nor Grecian, neither bond nor free.--Spiritual persons
(whether such as are set over, or such as obey); do judge spiritually;
not of that spiritual knowledge which shines in the firmament (for they
ought not to judge as to so supreme authority), nor may they judge of
Thy Book itself, even though something there shineth not clearly; for we
submit our understanding unto it, and hold for certain, that even what
is closed to our sight, is yet rightly and truly spoken. For so man,
though now spiritual and renewed in the knowledge of God after His image
that created him, ought to be a doer of the law, not a judge. Neither
doth he judge of that distinction of spiritual and carnal men, who
are known unto Thine eyes, O our God, and have not as yet discovered
themselves unto us by works, that by their fruits we might know them:
but Thou, Lord, dost even now know them, and hast divided and called
them in secret, or ever the firmament was made. Nor doth he, though
spiritual, judge the unquiet people of this world; for what hath he
to do, to judge them that are without, knowing not which of them shall
hereafter come into the sweetness of Thy grace; and which continue in
the perpetual bitterness of ungodliness?
Man therefore, whom Thou hast made after Thine own image, received not
dominion over the lights of heaven, nor over that hidden heaven
itself, nor over the day and the night, which Thou calledst before the
foundation of the heaven, nor over the gathering together of the waters,
which is the sea; but He received dominion over the fishes of the sea,
and the fowls of the air, and over all cattle, and over all the earth,
and over all creeping things which creep upon the earth. For He judgeth
and approveth what He findeth right, and He disalloweth what He findeth
amiss, whether in the celebration of those Sacraments by which such
are initiated, as Thy mercy searches out in many waters: or in that, in
which that Fish is set forth, which, taken out of the deep, the devout
earth feedeth upon: or in the expressions and signs of words, subject to
the authority of Thy Book,--such signs, as proceed out of the mouth,
and sound forth, flying as it were under the firmament, by interpreting,
expounding, discoursing disputing, consecrating, or praying unto Thee,
so that the people may answer, Amen. The vocal pronouncing of all which
words, is occasioned by the deep of this world, and the blindness of the
flesh, which cannot see thoughts; So that there is need to speak aloud
into the ears; so that, although flying fowls be multiplied upon the
earth, yet they derive their beginning from the waters. The spiritual
man judgeth also by allowing of what is right, and disallowing what he
finds amiss, in the works and lives of the faithful; their alms, as it
were the earth bringing forth fruit, and of the living soul, living
by the taming of the affections, in chastity, in fasting, in holy
meditations; and of those things, which are perceived by the senses of
the body. Upon all these is he now said to judge, wherein he hath also
power of correction.
But what is this, and what kind of mystery? Behold, Thou blessest
mankind, O Lord, that they may increase and multiply, and replenish the
earth; dost Thou not thereby give us a hint to understand something? why
didst Thou not as well bless the light, which Thou calledst day; nor the
firmament of heaven, nor the lights, nor the stars, nor the earth, nor
the sea? I might say that Thou, O God, who created us after
Thine Image, I might say, that it had been Thy good pleasure to bestow
this blessing peculiarly upon man; hadst Thou not in like manner blessed
the fishes and the whales, that they should increase and multiply, and
replenish the waters of the sea, and that the fowls should be multiplied
upon the earth. I might say likewise, that this blessing pertained
properly unto such creatures, as are bred of their own kind, had I found
it given to the fruit-trees, and plants, and beasts of the earth. But
now neither unto the herbs, nor the trees, nor the beasts, nor serpents
is it said, Increase and multiply; notwithstanding all these as well as
the fishes, fowls, or men, do by generation increase and continue their
kind.
What then shall I say, O Truth my Light? "that it was idly said, and
without meaning?" Not so, O Father of piety, far be it from a minister
of Thy word to say so. And if I understand not what Thou meanest by
that phrase, let my betters, that is, those of more understanding than
myself, make better use of it, according as Thou, my God, hast given to
each man to understand. But let my confession also be pleasing in Thine
eyes, wherein I confess unto Thee, that I believe, O Lord, that Thou
spokest not so in vain; nor will I suppress, what this lesson suggests
to me. For it is true, nor do I see what should hinder me from thus
understanding the figurative sayings of Thy Bible. For I know a thing
to be manifoldly signified by corporeal expressions, which is understood
one way by the mind; and that understood many ways in the mind, which
is signified one way by corporeal expression. Behold, the single love
of God and our neighbour, by what manifold sacraments, and innumerable
languages, and in each several language, in how innumerable modes of
speaking, it is corporeally expressed. Thus do the offspring of the
waters increase and multiply.