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- confessions
- text
- multipliedst them by blessing.
Speak I untruly, or do I mingle and confound, and not distinguish
between the lucid knowledge of these things in the firmament of heaven,
and the material works in the wavy sea, and under the firmament of
heaven? For of those things whereof the knowledge is substantial and
defined, without any increase by generation, as it were lights of wisdom
and knowledge, yet even of them, the material operations are many and
divers; and one thing growing out of another, they are multiplied by Thy
blessing, O God, who hast refreshed the fastidiousness of mortal senses;
that so one thing in the understanding of our mind, may, by the motions
of the body, be many ways set out, and expressed. These Sacraments have
the waters brought forth; but in Thy word. The necessities of the people
estranged from the eternity of Thy truth, have brought them forth,
but in Thy Gospel; because the waters themselves cast them forth, the
diseased bitterness whereof was the cause, why they were sent forth in
Thy Word.
Now are all things fair that Thou hast made; but behold, Thyself art
unutterably fairer, that madest all; from whom had not Adam fallen, the
brackishness of the sea had never flowed out of him, that is, the human
race so profoundly curious, and tempestuously swelling, and restlessly
tumbling up and down; and then had there been no need of Thy dispensers
to work in many waters, after a corporeal and sensible manner,
mysterious doings and sayings. For such those moving and flying
creatures now seem to me to mean, whereby people being initiated and
consecrated by corporeal Sacraments, should not further profit, unless
their soul had a spiritual life, and unless after the word of admission,
it looked forwards to perfection.
And hereby, in Thy Word, not the deepness of the sea, but the earth
separated from the bitterness of the waters, brings forth, not the
moving creature that hath life, but the living soul. For now hath it no
more need of baptism, as the heathen have, and as itself had, when it
was covered with the waters; (for no other entrance is there into the
kingdom of heaven, since Thou hast appointed that this should be the
entrance): nor does it seek after wonderfulness of miracles to work
belief; for it is not such, that unless it sees signs and wonders, it
will not believe, now that the faithful earth is separated from the
waters that were bitter with infidelity; and tongues are for a sign, not
to them that believe, but to them that believe not. Neither then does
that earth which Thou hast founded upon the waters, need that flying
kind, which at Thy word the waters brought forth. Send Thou Thy word
into it by Thy messengers: for we speak of their working, yet it is Thou
that workest in them that they may work out a living soul in it. The
earth brings it forth, because the earth is the cause that they work
this in the soul; as the sea was the cause that they wrought upon
the moving creatures that have life, and the fowls that fly under the
firmament of heaven, of whom the earth hath no need; although it feeds
upon that fish which was taken out of the deep, upon that table which
Thou hast prepared in the presence of them that believe. For therefore
was He taken out of the deep, that He might feed the dry land; and the
fowl, though bred in the sea, is yet multiplied upon the earth. For of
the first preachings of the Evangelists, man's infidelity was the cause;
yet are the faithful also exhorted and blessed by them manifoldly, from
day to day. But the living soul takes his beginning from the earth: for
it profits only those already among the Faithful, to contain themselves
from the love of this world, that so their soul may live unto Thee,
which was dead while it lived in pleasures; in death-bringing pleasures,
Lord, for Thou, Lord, art the life-giving delight of the pure heart.
Now then let Thy ministers work upon the earth,--not as upon the waters
of infidelity, by preaching and speaking by miracles, and Sacraments,
and mystic words; wherein ignorance, the mother of admiration, might
be intent upon them, out of a reverence towards those secret signs. For
such is the entrance unto the Faith for the sons of Adam forgetful of
Thee, while they hide themselves from Thy face, and become a darksome
deep. But--let Thy ministers work now as on the dry land, separated from
the whirlpools of the great deep: and let them be a pattern unto the
Faithful, by living before them, and stirring them up to imitation. For
thus do men hear, so as not to hear only, but to do also. Seek the Lord,
and your soul shall live, that the earth may bring forth the living
soul. Be not conformed to the world. Contain yourselves from it: the
soul lives by avoiding what it dies by affecting. Contain yourselves
from the ungoverned wildness of pride, the sluggish voluptuousness of
luxury, and the false name of knowledge: that so the wild beasts may be
tamed, the cattle broken to the yoke, the serpents, harmless. For
these be the motions of our mind under an allegory; that is to say, the
haughtiness of pride, the delight of lust, and the poison of curiosity,
are the motions of a dead soul; for the soul dies not so as to lose all
motion; because it dies by forsaking the fountain of life, and so is
taken up by this transitory world, and is conformed unto it.
But Thy word, O God, is the fountain of life eternal; and passeth not
away: wherefore this departure of the soul is restrained by Thy word,
when it is said unto us, Be not conformed unto this world; that so the
earth may in the fountain of life bring forth a living soul; that is,
a soul made continent in Thy Word, by Thy Evangelists, by following the
followers of Thy Christ. For this is after his kind; because a man is
wont to imitate his friend. Be ye (saith he) as I am, for I also am
as you are. Thus in this living soul shall there be good beasts, in
meekness of action (for Thou hast commanded, Go on with thy business in
meekness, so shalt thou be beloved by all men); and good cattle, which
neither if they eat, shall they over-abound, nor, if they eat not, have
any lack; and good serpents, not dangerous, to do hurt, but wise to take
heed; and only making so much search into this temporal nature, as may
suffice that eternity be clearly seen, being understood by the things
that are made. For these creatures are obedient unto reason, when being
restrained from deadly prevailing upon us, they live, and are good.
For behold, O Lord, our God, our Creator, when our affections have
been restrained from the love of the world, by which we died through
evil-living; and begun to be a living soul, through good living; and
Thy word which Thou spokest by Thy apostle, is made good in us, Be not
conformed to this world: there follows that also, which Thou presently
subjoinedst, saying, But be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind;
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.