And thus through your Word, it is not the depth of the sea but 'the earth', separated from the bitterness of the waters, that brings forth, not the creeping and flying creatures that have life, but the living soul itself. For now it has more need of baptism as the heathen have, and as it had itself when it was covered with the [bitter] waters, for there is no other entrance into the kingdom of heaven, since you have appointed that this should be the entrance. Nor does this soul seek after great, miraculous works any longer in order to produce 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 made bitter by infidelity. And tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to them that do not believe. That earth which you have founded upon the waters has no need of those flying kinds of creatures which the waters brought forth at your word. Rather, send forth your Word into it by your messengers. For we tell of their works, but it is you who work in them that they may bring forth a living soul, because the earth is the cause that they work these things in it, just as the sea was the cause that produced the creeping creatures that have life and the fowls that fly under the firmament of heaven, of whom the earth now has no need.
Yet the earth feeds upon that FISH that was taken out of the deep upon that Table which you have prepared in the presence of those who believe. For this reason he was raised from the deep, that he might feed the dry land. And the birds, though bred in the sea, are yet multiplied on the earth.
For man's infidelity was the cause of the first preaching of the Evangelists, but the faithful are also exhorted and greatly blessed by them in many ways from day to day. But the living soul takes its origin from the earth, for it profits only the faithful to keep themselves from the love of this world so that their soul may live unto you, their soul which was dead while it lived in pleasures, in death-bringing pleasures, Lord. For you, Lord, are the life-giving delight of the pure heart.
Now, therefore, let your ministers work on the earth - not as in the waters of infidelity, by preaching and speaking, by miracles and signs and mysterious words, in which ignorance, the mother of marvels, maybe intent upon them out of a fear of occult signs. For such is the entrance to the faith for the sons of Adam, forgetful of you while they hide themselves from your face and become a dark deep. But let your ministers work now as on the dry land, separated from the swirling eddies of the great deep. Let them be an example to the faithful by living before them and stirring them up to imitation. People listen to them not only to hear, but also to act. Seek the Lord and your soul shall live, that the earth may bring forth the living soul. Be not conformed to the world. Keep yourselves from it. The soul lives by avoiding what dies by loving. Keep yourselves from the unbridled savagery of pride, the lazy, sensual pleasures of luxury, and from what is falsely called knowledge. Thus the wild beasts may be tamed, the cattle subdued to the yoke, the serpents rendered harmless. For these are the movements of our mind allegorically figured; that is to say, the haughtiness of pride, the delight of lust and the poison of curiosity are the movements of a dead soul - not so dead as to lose all motion, however. It dies by forsaking the fountain of life, and so is received by this transitory world and conformed to it.
But your Word, O God, is the fountain of eternal life and does not pass away. Therefore, this departure of the soul is kept in check by your Word when it says to us be not conformed to this world, so that the earth may bring forth a living soul in the fountain of life - that is, a soul restrained in your Word through your Evangelists by imitating the followers of your Christ. For this is what after its kind means, because a man is likely to follow his friends. Because as I am, Paul says, because I have become as you are. Thus in this living soul there shall be good beasts in gentleness of action. For you have commanded, Do your work in meekness and you will be loved by all. And there will be good cattle, which neither if they eat shall over abound, nor starve if they eat too little; and good serpents, not destructive to do harm, but wise, to take heed; and only exploring as much into this temporal creation as is sufficient that eternity may be clearly seen, being understood through the things that have been made. For these creatures are obedient to reason when, kept in check from their deadly propensities, they live and are good.
Thus, O Lord our God, our Creator, when our affections have been turned from the love of the world, by which we were dying by evil living, and when we have begun to be living soul by good living, and when your Word Be not conformed to this world which you spoke by your apostle is made good in us, you immediately add another word to it, But be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Now it does not say after your kind, as if following your neighbour who went before you, nor as living after the example of some better man, for you did not say, "Let man be made after his kind," but Let us make man after our own image and likeness, so that we might prove what your will is.
This is why that dispenser of yours who fathered children by the Gospel said, Be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God, in order that they might not forever remain as babes who needed to be fed with milk, nor have to be cared for by a nursemaid.
Therefore you did not say, "Let man be made," but Let us make man. Nor did you say, 'according to his kind', but after our image and likeness. For when man is renewed in his mind, and sees and understands your truth, he does not need another person as his director, that he may imitate his kind. But by your direction he proves what is that good, that acceptable and perfect will of yours. Yes, you teach him, now made capable, to perceive the Trinity of the Unity and the Unity of the Trinity. And so it is said in the plural, Let us make man. Then this is added in the singular: And God made man. To the plural, After our likeness, is added the singular, After the image of God. Thus mankind is renewed in the knowledge of God after the image of him that created him, and being made spiritual, he judges all things (all things, that is, which are to be judged), yet he himself is judged of no man.
The words, he judges all things, mean that mankind has dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over all cattle and wild beasts, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. For he does this by the discernment of his mind, by which he perceives the things of the Spirit of God. Without this, man being placed in honour, had no understanding, and is compared to the brute beasts and became like one of them.
In your Church, therefore, O our God, according to your grace which you have bestowed on it (for we are your workmanship, created for good works), you made not only those who are in spiritual authority, but those who are spiritually subject to them (male and female you made mankind). But in your grace spiritually, there is neither male nor female according to the sex of the body, neither Jew nor Greek, neither bond nor free. Therefore spiritual persons, whether they are those in authority or those who obey, judge spiritually. They do not judge by that spiritual knowledge which shines in the firmament, for they ought not to presume to judge by so sublime an authority; nor does it become them to judge your Book itself, even though some things there do not seem clear, because we submit our understanding to it and hold it certain that even what is hidden from our understanding is still rightly and truly spoken. In this way man, though now spiritual and renewed in the knowledge of God after the image of him who created him, ought to be a doer of the Law, not a judge. Neither does the judge concerning the division between spiritual and carnal men, who are known to your eyes, O God, and who have not as yet revealed themselves to us by works, that by their fruits we may know them. But you, O Lord, already know them, and you have divided and called them in secret before the firmament was made. Nor does this person, though spiritual, judge the storm-tossed people of the world. For what has he to do to judge those who are outside, knowing not which of them shall hereafter come into the sweetness of your grace, and which of them will continue in the perpetual bitterness of their ungodliness?
Humanity, therefore, whom you have made after your own image, did not receive dominion over the lights of heaven, nor over that hidden heaven itself, nor over the day and night, which you called into being before the creation of heaven, nor over the gathering together of the waters which is called 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 crawl on the earth.
He judges and approves what he finds right, and disapproves what he finds amiss, whether in the celebration of those sacraments by which those are initiated whom your mercy searches out in many waters; or in that, in which that FISH is set forth, which, raised from the deep, the devout earth feeds upon; or in the expressions and signs of words, subjected to the authority of your Book, which burst forth sound out of the mouth, as it were, under the firmament, by interpreting, explaining, discoursing, disputing, blessing, or praying to you, so that the people may answer Amen. The reason all these words must be vocally pronounced is the deep of this world, the blindness of the flesh which cannot see thoughts, so that it is necessary to speak aloud in the ears. Thus, although winged birds are multiplied on 'the earth', yet they derive their beginning from 'the waters.'
The spiritual man also judges by approving what is right and disapproving what he finds wrong in the works and morals of the faithful, in their alms, which is signified by the earth bringing forth fruit; and he judges concerning the living soul, living by the taming of its passions by chastity, by fasting, by holy meditations. And he judges concerning those things which are perceived by the bodily senses, for it is now said that he should judge concerning everything in which he also had the power of correction.
But what is this? What kind of mystery, that you bless mankind, Lord, that they may increase and multiply and replenish the earth? Do you not give us a hint to understand something in this? Why did you not also bless the light, which you called day, nor the firmament of heaven, nor the [greater and lesser] lights, nor the stars, nor the earth, nor the sea? I might say, O God, who created us after your image, that it was your good pleasure to bestow this blessing exclusively on mankind if you had not in the same way blessed the fishes and the whales, that they should increase and multiply and replenish the waters of the sea, and that the birds should be multiplied on the earth. In the same way, I might say that this blessing pertained properly to such creatures as are bred of their own kind if I had found it given to the fruit trees and herbs, and beasts of the earth. But it is not said Increase and multiply either to the herbs, or the trees, or the beasts or the reptiles. Yet all of these increase by propagation and preserve their kind.
What shall I say then, O Truth, my Light? Shall I say that it was said idly and vainly? Not so, Father of goodness! Far be it from a minister of your Word to say so. And if I do not understand what you mean by that phrase, let my betters - those who have more understanding than I have - make better use of it, in proportion as you, my God, have given to each one to understand. But let my confession also be pleasing in your eyes, which I confess to you, that I believe, Lord, that you have not spoken this way in vain; and I will not suppress what this lesson suggests to me. For it is true, and I do not see what should hinder me from understanding the figurative sayings of your Holy Bible/Sacred Scripture in this way. For I know a thing may be conveyed many ways by bodily expressions, which is understood in only one way by the mind, and that the mind may understand in many different ways what is signified by one bodily expression. Behold the single love of God and of our neighbour is expressed by how many sacraments and innumerable languages and how many different ways of speaking there are in each language. Thus do the off-springs of the waters increase and multiply. Observe again, whoever reads this; see what Sacred Scripture declares and the voice pronounces only one way: In the beginning God created heaven and earth. Is it not understood in many different ways, not by any deceit of error, but by different kinds of true meanings? Thus do man's 'off-springs' increase and multiply.
If, then, we conceive of the different natures of the things themselves (not allegorically, but properly), then the phrase increase and multiply corresponds to all things that come from seed. But if we treat the words as spoken figuratively, which I rather suppose to be the purpose of the Sacred Scripture (which surely does not superfluously ascribe this blessing only to the off-spring of marine animals and man), then we find that multitude applies to spiritual creatures as well as physical ones, as heaven and earth, and to souls both righteous and unrighteous, as light and darkness; and the word refers to holy writers through whom the Law was ministered to us as the firmament which is placed between the waters [above] and the waters [below]; and to the society of bitter people as the sea; and to the zeal of holy souls as the dry land; and to the works of mercy belonging to this present life as green herbs, bearing seed, and trees bringing forth fruit; and to spiritual gifts which are manifest for our edification as the lights of heaven; and to passions shaped to temperance as the living soul. In all these instances we meet with multitudes, abundance, and increase.
But it will increase and multiply in such a way that one thing may be expressed many ways, and one expression may be understood many ways. We do not find this true except in ideas mentally conceived and expressed through bodily signs. I interpret the phase, the generation of the waters, to refer to the bodily signs [words and sacraments] made necessary by our involvement in the flesh. By things mentally conceived - human generations - I take to refer to that in which reason brings forth its fruit. And therefore I believe, Lord, that you have said to both these kinds, Increase and multiply. For in this blessing I see that you have granted us a power and a faculty to express in several ways what we understand in only one, and to understand in several ways what we read expressed obscurely in only one way. Thus the waters of the sea are replenished which can be moved only by a variety of signs. Thus the earth is also replenished with human off-spring, its dryness appearing in its thirst for truth and by the fact that reason rules over it.
I would also say, O Lord and God, what the following Sacred Scripture reminds me of. I will say it without fear. For I will say the truth, you inspiring me with what you will that I say out of these words. For I believe myself to speak truth by no other inspiration than yours since you are the Truth and every man a liar. He, therefore, who speaks a lie speaks of his own. So I will speak of you that I may speak the truth.
You have given us for food every seed-bearing herb on all the earth, and every tree that has seed-bearing fruit, and not to us alone, but also to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the earth, and to all creeping things. But you have not given them to the fish and to the great whales. Now we were saying that these fruits of the earth signified and allegorically expressed the works of mercy which are provided for the necessities of this life out of the fruitful earth. Such an earth was the devout Onesiphorus, to whose house you gave mercy because he often refreshed your Paul and was not ashamed of his chains. This also the Macedonian brethren did, and they bore the same fruit, supplying what he [Paul] needed. But how he grieved over some 'trees' who did not afford him the fruit due to him, when he says, At my first answer no man stood by me; but all forsook me! I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge. For these fruits are due to such as minister spiritual doctrine to us through their understanding of the divine mysteries, and they are due to them as men. Yes, and they are due to them also as the living souls who give themselves as examples in their own self-denial. And they are due to them as flying creatures, because of their blessings which are multiplied on the earth, for their sound has gone forth into all the earth.
Those who are delighted by these truths are fed by them. Those whose god is their belly find no delight in them. For it is not what is given that bears the fruit, but the spirit in which it is given. Therefore, I see clearly why he [Paul] rejoiced over one who served God and not his own belly. I see it and I rejoice with him. For he had received from the Philippians what they had sent... - P A G E T H R E E -
BY SAINT AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO
Wishing you, 'Happy Reading', and may God, the Father, the Son of the living God, Jesus Christ, fills your heart, mind, thoughts, and grants you: The Holy Spirit, that is, Wisdom, Knowledge, Understanding, Counsel, Piety, Fortitude, Fear of the Lord, and also His fruits of the Holy Spirit, that is, Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Trustfulness, Gentleness and Self-Control. Amen! God blessing be upon you!
Why do you call Me, "Lord, Lord" and not do what I say?' "Everyone who comes to Me and listens to My words and acts on them - I will show you what he/she is like. He/She is like a man/woman who when he/she built his/her house dug, deep, and laid the foundations on rock; when the river was in flood it bore down on that house but could not shake it, it was so well built. But the one who listens and does nothing is like the man/woman who built his/her house on soil, with no foundations: as soon as the river bore down on it, it collapsed; and what a ruin that house became!" - Luke 6:46-49 -
If we live by the truth and in love, we shall grow in all ways into Christ Jesus, who is the head by whom the whole body is fitted and joined together, every joint adding its own strength, for each separate part to work according to it function. So the body grows until it has built itself up, in love." - Ephesians 4:15-16 -
I still have many things to say to you but they would be too much for you now. But when the spirit of truth comes, he will lead you to the complete truth, since he will not be speaking as from himself, but will say only what he has learnt; and he will tell you of the things to come. He/She will glorify me, since all he/she tells you will be taken from what is mine. Everything the Father has is mine; that is why I said: all he/she tells you will be taken from what is mine." - John 16:12-15 -
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