2. Thus, after their simplicity and innocence, did these daughters [of Lot] so speak, imagining that all mankind had perished, even as the Sodomites had done, and that the anger of God had come down upon the whole earth. Wherefore also they are to be held excusable, since they supposed that they only, along with their father, were left for the preservation of the human race; and for this reason it was that they deceived their father. Moreover, by the words they used this fact was pointed out--that there is no other one who can confer upon the elder and younger church the [power of] giving birth to children, besides our Father. Now the father of the human race is the Word of God, as Moses points out when he says, "Is not He thy father who hath obtained thee [by generation], and formed thee, and created thee?" [4234] At what time, then, did He pour out upon the human race the life-giving seed--that is, the Spirit of the remission of sins, through means of whom we are quickened? Was it not then, when He was eating with men, and drinking wine upon the earth? For it is said, "The Son of man came eating and drinking;" [4235] and when He had lain down, He fell asleep, and took repose. As He does Himself say in David, "I slept, and took repose." [4236] And because He used thus to act while He dwelt and lived among us, He says again, "And my sleep became sweet unto me." [4237] Now this whole matter was indicated through Lot, that the seed of the Father of all--that is, of the Spirit of God, by whom all things were made--was commingled and united with flesh-- that is, with His own workmanship; by which commixture and unity the two synagogues--that is, the two churches--produced from their own father living sons to the living God.
3. And while these things were taking place, his wife remained in [the territory of] Sodomm, no longer corruptible flesh, but a pillar of salt which endures for ever; [4238] and by those natural processes [4239] which appertain to the human race, indicating that the Church also, which is the salt of the earth, [4240] has been left behind within the confines of the earth, and subject to human sufferings; and while entire members are often taken away from it, the pillar of salt still endures, [4241] thus typifying the foundation of the faith which maketh strong, and sends forward, children to their Father.
[4229] [Thus far we have a most edifying instruction. The reader will be less edified with what follows, but it is a very striking example of what is written: "to the pure all things are pure." Tit. i. 15.]
[4230] Gen. xix. 33.
[4231] Gen. xix. 35.
[4232] "Id est duæ synagogæ," referring to the Jews and Gentiles. Some regard the words as a marginal gloss which has crept into the text.
[4233] Gen. xix. 31, 32.
[4234] Deut. xxxii. 6, LXX. [Let us reflect that this effort to spiritualize this awful passage in the history of Lot is an innocent but unsuccessful attempt to imitate St. Paul's allegory, Gal. iv. 24.]
[4235] Matt. xi. 19.
[4236] Ps. iii. 6.
[4237] Jer. xxxi. 26.
[4238] Comp. Clem. Rom., chap. xi. Josephus (Antiq., i. 11, 4) testifies that he had himself seen this pillar.
[4239] The Latin is "per naturalia," which words, according to Harvey, correspond to di emmenorrhoias. There is a poem entitled Sodoma preserved among the works of Tertullian and Cyprian which contains the following lines:--
"Dicitur et vivens, alio jam corpore, sexus
Munificos solito dispungere sanguine menses."
[4240] Matt. v. 13.
[4241] The poem just referred to also says in reference to this pillar:--
"Ipsaque imago sibi formam sine corpore servans
Durat adhuc, et enim nuda statione sub æthram
Nec pluviis dilapsa situ, nec diruta ventis.
Quin etiam si quis mutilaverit advena formam,
Protinus ex sese suggestu vulnera complet." [That a pillar of salt is still to be seen in this vicinity, is now confirmed by many modern travellers (report of Lieut. Lynch, United States Navy), which accounts for the natural inference of Josephus and others on whom our author relied. The coincidence is noteworthy.]