Chapter XII.--Allegorical Explanation of Genesis, Chap. I., Concerning the Origin of the Church and Its Worship.
13. Proceed in thy confession, say to the Lord thy God, O my faith, Holy, Holy, Holy, O Lord my God, in Thy name have we been baptized, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, in Thy name do we baptize, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, [1206] because among us also in His Christ did God make heaven and earth, namely, the spiritual and carnal people of His Church. [1207] Yea, and our earth, before it received the "form of doctrine," [1208] was invisible and formless, and we were covered with the darkness of ignorance. For Thou correctest man for iniquity, [1209] and "Thy judgments are a great deep." [1210] But because Thy Spirit was "borne over the waters," [1211] Thy mercy forsook not our misery, [1212] and Thou saidst, "Let there be light," "Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." [1213] Repent ye, let there be light. [1214] And because our soul was troubled within us, [1215] we remembered Thee, O Lord, from the land of Jordan, and that mountain [1216] equal unto Thyself, but little for our sakes; and upon our being displeased with our darkness, we turned unto Thee, "and there was light." And, behold, we were sometimes darkness, but now light in the Lord. [1217]
[1206] Matt. xxviii. 19.
[1207] He similarly interprets "heaven and earth" in his De Gen. ad Lit. ii. 4. With this compare Chrysostom's illustration in his De Pænit. hom. 8. The Church is like the ark of Noah, yet different from it. Into that ark as the animals entered, so they came forth. The fox remained a fox, the hawk a hawk, and the serpent a serpent. But with the spiritual ark it is not so, for in it evil dispositions are changed. This illustration of Chrysostom is used with an effective but rough eloquence by the Italian preacher Segneri, in his Quaresimale, serm. iv. sec.
[1208] Rom. vi. 17.
[1209] Ps. xxxix. 11.
[1210] Ps. xxxvi. 6.
[1211] Gen. i. 3.
[1212] See p. 47, note 10, above.
[1213] Matt. iii. 2.
[1214] "His putting repentance and light together is, for that baptism was anciently called illumination, as Heb. vi. 4, Ps. xlii. 2."--W. W. See also p. 118, note 4, part 1, above, for the meaning of "illumination."
[1215] Ps. xlii. 6.
[1216] That is, Christ. See p. 130, note 8, part 2, above; and compare the De Div. Quæst., lxxxiii. 6.
[1217] Eph. v. 8.
Chapter XIII.--That the Renewal of Man is Not Completed in This World.
14. But as yet "by faith, not by sight," [1218] for "we are saved by hope; but hope that is seen is not hope." [1219] As yet deep calleth unto deep [1220] but in "the noise of Thy waterspouts." [1221] And as yet doth he that saith, I "could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal," [1222] even he, as yet, doth not count himself to have apprehended, and forgetteth those things which are behind, and reacheth forth to those things which are before, [1223] and groaneth being burdened; [1224] and his soul thirsteth after the living God, as the hart after the water-brooks, and saith, "When shall I come?" [1225] "desiring to be clothed upon with his house which is from heaven;" [1226] and calleth upon this lower deep, saying, "Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind." [1227] And, "Be not children in understanding, howbeit in malice be ye children," that in "understanding ye may be perfect;" [1228] and "O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you?" [1229] But now not in his own voice, but in Thine who sentest Thy Spirit from above; [1230] through Him who "ascended up on high," [1231] and set open the flood-gates of His gifts, [1232] that the force of His streams might make glad the city of God. [1233] For, for Him doth "the friend of the bridegroom" [1234] sigh, having now the first-fruits of the Spirit laid up with Him, yet still groaning within himself, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of his body; [1235] to Him he sighs, for he is a member of the Bride; for Him is he jealous, for he is the friend of the Bridegroom; [1236] for Him is he jealous, not for himself; because in the voice of Thy "waterspouts," [1237] not in his own voice, doth he call on that other deep, for whom being jealous he feareth, lest that, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so their minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in our Bridegroom, Thine only Son. [1238] What a light of beauty will that be when "we shall see Him as He is," [1239] and those tears be passed away which "have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God?" [1240]
[1218] 2 Cor. v. 7.
[1219] Rom. viii. 24.
[1220] The "deep" Augustin interprets (as do the majority of Patristic commentators), in Ps. xli. 8, sec. 13, to be the heart of man; and the "deep" that calls unto it, is the preacher who has his own "deep" of infirmity, even as Peter had.
[1221] Ps. xlii. 7.
[1222] 1 Cor. iii. 1.
[1223] Phil. iii. 13.
[1224] 2 Cor. v. 2, 4.
[1225] Ps. xlii. 1, 2.
[1226] 2 Cor. v. 2.
[1227] Rom. xii. 2.
[1228] 1 Cor. xiv. 20 (margin).
[1229] Gal. iii. 1.
[1230] Acts ii. 19.
[1231] Eph. iv. 8.
[1232] Mal. iii. 10.
[1233] Ps. xlvi. 4.
[1234] John iii. 29.
[1235] Rom. viii. 23.
[1236] John iii. 29.
[1237] Ps. xlii. 7.
[1238] 2 Cor. xi. 3, and 1 John iii. 3.
[1239] Ibid. ver. 2.
[1240] Ps. xlii. 3.