OT § 3

ON GENESIS. — In the beginning God made heaven and earth (Gen. 1:1). If He made heaven in the beginning, and the earth, and if heaven is the firmament, as is evident in what follows, then this is not literally true, because light was made first, and therefore the firmament: for it could not signify some other heaven, since it is describing the making of the world as perfected by the working of God. For this reason, because people were misled by various opinions about the cause of the world, Moses, inspired by God, showed what the true ordering of the world was. To some it seemed that it had no beginning; to others that it did have a beginning, but was fashioned by certain Angels; to others again that it was likewise made, but by a certain Saklas, who is also the god of opposing power; but a few, following the path of truth concerning its origin, asserted that God was its maker. Therefore, because of those who were drawn away by false opinions of diversity, Moses was compelled to show what its true cause was, lest the children of Israel, freed from the power of the Egyptians, should still not be released from their false understanding. For they, more than the rest, pursued the study of error: for in ancient times they above others devoted themselves to vain philosophy. Indeed Moses, because he was adopted by Pharaoh’s daughter, is said to have been taught in all the wisdom of the Egyptians (Acts 7:22). What then is the meaning of his words, In the beginning God made heaven and earth? If it signifies the firmament, according to what we showed above, let us see what he says. We think that Moses, so as to remove all error about the lower creation and about the materials of the world’s construction, indicated that in the beginning the very substances from which the world is constituted were made; for if he had kept silence about this, they might perhaps be thought to be eternal substances, considered to be yoked to God. So that the one who receives testimony about this matter cannot doubt that the world was made, since he confesses that the substances which served for the expenditure of the world were subjected in the beginning. Therefore, In the beginning God made heaven and earth, that is, the upper and the lower substance. The upper is that from which heaven consists; the lower, however, is a certain thick dreg-like concretion which advanced into the dry land that is called earth, and into darkness. Therefore He says in the prophet Isaiah, I am God, who made light and created darkness (Isa. 45:6–7). When these were created, He made at the same time the substance, that is, water, darkness, and earth before times: for times are under the firmament. For the firmament, as some think, is the ice of the waters. And it is therefore called firmament, because the waters, being solidified by divine power, are made firm, which, from covering or concealing, is called heaven. And therefore, because water is the greater element, it is mentioned first, since a part of it advanced into the vault of the world. The earth, however, is the pavement: which indeed David, by the Holy Spirit, confesses to have been created. For he says, And the waters that are above the heavens, let them praise the name of the Lord. For He Himself spoke, and they were made; He Himself commanded, and they were created (Ps. 148:4–5). After these elements, before the joining together of the world, God made light, so that His works should go forth in the light, which light, by a fixed arrangement, completed the course of the day. Night came to be according to the measure of the day, which likewise, when the measure of its span was fulfilled, was illumined by the coming of the morning light: and therefore the first day was completed when the second began; for the night is reckoned to the day, so that together they are called one day: for because darkness is subject to light, it lacks authority and cannot make up a number. For thirty days are called one moon, even though nights are included with them. Therefore the service of light, by which it uses up the space assigned to it, is called day. But the substance of darkness, before it is illumined, is called night. And that space which is between the setting and the rising is night. For it is not darkness that makes the night, just as it is not light that makes the day, because darkness remains in its own nature. The coming of light makes day, and its departure makes night. Not without reason, therefore, is the night subject to the day. So, when light was made, and the course of twelve hours completed, and likewise the space of the night of twelve hours also passed, there was an equinox on the first day: and from then the day began to grow longer than the night, namely throughout three months, which are the spring season. From that increase the day then diminishes through three other months, which are the summer season. And again there is an equinox, so that from then the night grows longer than the day through another three months, which are the autumn season. And again the night, from the greatness by which it surpasses the day, begins to diminish until the end of the fourth season, which is winter. And the equinox returns to the first season, when God created the world, which day is understood to be the eleventh day before the Kalends of April, when the first day of Passover is, that is, the first day of the first month. For in the Law it is commanded that on the tenth day of the first month in the evening they should prepare themselves to celebrate Passover on the fourteenth day of the month, that is, from the eleventh. For already the evening of the tenth day shines into the eleventh, so that from the eleventh day before the Kalends of April the beginning of the first month should be. For at the beginning the moon was made on the fourteenth, because all things were made full. Add three days from the evening of the tenth, and these are the three days before the luminaries that were made, so that the world was made on the eleventh day before the Kalends of April; for the number of the moon from the eleventh comes to the fourteenth, to which the first month of Passover in its entirety is assigned, so that on the solemn day of Passover it should be neither beyond the eleventh day before the Kalends of April, nor beyond the fourteenth moon, because the world was made on the eleventh, and on the fourteenth the moon was made brighter with greater light. Between the beginning, therefore, and the brightness with which the world was illumined, our Savior both suffered and rose again; for He suffered on the fourteenth moon, and rose on the first day, which is therefore called the Lord’s Day, because the Lord Himself made it, who made the multiplied months, and the seasons, and the years. And so that it might never be celebrated in exactly the same way, the course of the moon in its wanings and waxings brings this about. But the earth was invisible and unformed. It is clear that the earth, after it was made, was invisible and unformed: for it was covered by waters, and therefore was invisible; and it was unformed because, being fluid, it was not suitable for cultivation. And darkness was upon the abyss. He says that darkness was upon the abyss, that is, upon the boundless water on every side. And the spirit of God was borne above the water (Gen. 1:2). This water he signifies as the extremity, above which the spirit of God, because it was borne above it, shows that the darkness was upon the infinite depth. As for the spirit of God above the waters, since where the spirit of God was, there was no obscurity, it illuminated the water as far as it could. But it could not illuminate the abyss, that is, the immense depth: that is, it illuminated the higher waters, and beneath there was darkness, and over the abyss. He therefore calls this the spirit of God not because he wishes this to be understood as the Holy Spirit, but because he wishes it to be understood spiritually over the material creation, and by calling him the spirit of God who was moving above the waters, he signifies that he is wholly of God, so as to overturn the perverse assertion used by some, who say there is something that is not of God. For it is neither orderly nor reasonable that the Holy Spirit should be said to have been over the waters, since he is over all creation. For whatever is of God is above all powers and principalities and likewise above all spiritual powers. Nor should anyone’s mind be disturbed because he is called the spirit of God, when it is established that all things are God’s. For God, among other things when he was about to make the flood, says: My spirit shall not remain in these men, because they are flesh (Gen. 6:3); and in Ezekiel, among other things: Therefore says the Lord to these bones, I will spread skin over you, and I will give my spirit in you, and you shall live (Ezek. 37:5). Do these things belong to the office of the Holy Spirit, and not to the soul? Therefore this spirit of God is indeed, like the rest, but is the governor of material substances; for his appointed order is to preside over these. When light was made, and the course of day set in order, and the second day completed, he made the firmament, that is, heaven, so that the light in the earth of the firmament might govern the day, so that it might be as a lamp in a house. This firmament, I say, was made from the aforesaid substance of water. For now the world is being joined together in form, so that from the confusion of things, with substances distinguished, individual parts might be fitted which would contribute to the members of the world. For the substances which we said were first made are expended upon the world. And therefore it is called “world” (mundus), because the things that were mixed together, once separated from one another and brought into form, made it called “world,” to whose structure they contributed. Therefore the firmament, that is, heaven, was made in the midst of the waters, so that it might divide between the water that was above the firmament and the water that was below the firmament; so that by God’s power the firmament might stand in the midst of the waters, having water beneath itself, and within itself, and above and around itself; so that it might be concave on the outside and fortified within, lest the waters, whether inner or outer, should penetrate its concavity, so that it might be as a house fortified and strengthened, that those dwelling in it might be secure. On the third day he commanded the water that was under heaven, that is, within the capacity of the firmament, to be gathered into one place, so that the dry land, which is the earth, might appear, and therefore it came to pass. For the breadth of the earth having been drawn out, there was made as it were a basin, in which all the water that was within the firmament might be sunk down, and the dry land appeared. When the water receded, it was necessary that the earth, made visible, should appear, which before had been invisible. Then the dry land was called earth, and the gatherings of the waters seas. And he commanded the earth to bring forth grass for food, and fruit-bearing trees for seed upon the earth. Then on the fourth day God commanded luminaries to be made in the firmament of heaven, that they might shine upon the earth: the greater luminary at the beginning of the day, and the lesser luminary at the beginning of the night, and the stars. These relate to the conception and birth and nourishment of those things which are begotten in the world, and to the signs of seasons needed for fixed intervals, and also to the adornment of the whole world. For just as it belongs to the adornment of a house if its ceiling has panels marked with gold, so also the stars, shining with diverse light, provide adornment to the world. Therefore to the light which was first made, the brightness of the sun is added, so that these are joined and inseparable. And to the night, which was dark, a luminary is given; and because the moon was at the fourteenth day when it was made, therefore he says, The lesser luminary at the beginning of the night: for when it was made, it shone the whole night. From the part, therefore, it is said “at the beginning of the night,” because it does not always shine in the evening. But the greater luminary, which we call the sun, remains at the beginning of the day, because it was compacted together with the prior light. For three days the world existed without these luminaries; for as yet there were not those for whose benefit their functions would serve. But when the earth brought forth grass for food and fruit-bearing trees, there was need of things that would nourish or preserve what had been brought forth. Because all generation of these is completed through their intervention, it was not fitting that these should be made first, lest, by the effect of those things produced from the earth, they should be thought to have arisen; but he made those first, so that therefore these might be without doubt understood to have been made without them. Then on the fifth day he commanded the waters to bring forth creeping things of living souls, and winged creatures flying over the earth beneath the firmament of heaven, and it was so. And among other things, And God saw, he says, that they were good, and he said, Increase and multiply (Gen. 1:21–22). He added, And God saw that they were good, because some say they are evil, so that at least in this way they may feel shame. For when they please God and their maker, surely they ought to displease no one. For fools are accustomed to say, Therefore, they say, he saw, and they pleased him, because previously he did not know. O dull ones, how could He not know? Whatever He willed came forth. Can anyone will what he does not know? And can He who is able to act be said not to know what He is doing? And what is more, He did not make them Himself, but commanded that they be made; and is He who commands not possessed of the power to make? But because all things are possible for Him, when He commanded that what could not do so should begin to be able, it was in order that it might contribute to His praise. There is therefore a double power, that He should command what is insensible to bring forth what is sensible. On the sixth day He commanded the earth to bring forth living soul, quadrupeds, and beasts of the earth; and so it was done, and they were brought forth. And God saw that they were good, and very good, because all are necessary. On the day mentioned above, therefore, God said: Let us make man in our image and likeness, and, He said, let him have power over all things that have been made upon the earth (Gen. 1:26). First indeed God made the substances out of which He would frame the world; when it was compacted, adorned with all its embellishments, and furnished with what was necessary, He then made man, who would enjoy it and all that is in it. For whereas He had commanded that everything on earth should be brought forth from water and earth, yet when He made man, He is described as having taken clay of the earth in His hands, so that He might teach how greatly man differs from the things He had already made. He wishes it to pertain to the honor of man that he is described as being made by the hands of God, and made in the image and likeness of God, that is, of the Father and the Son. What it is to be in the image and likeness of God, although we have said elsewhere, yet this place and its occasion require that we say it again. The words are from the Father to the Son, saying, Let us make man in our image and likeness: although in the work the person of both is understood, of Him who speaks and of Him who hears. This then is the image of God in man, that one man was made as it were a lord, from whom the rest would arise, having the dominion of God as His vicar; for every king bears the image of God. Therefore woman was not made in the image of God. Therefore it says, And God made man; in the image of God He made him. Therefore it is that the Apostle says, A man indeed ought not to cover his head, because he is the image and glory of God; but the woman covers it for this reason, because she is not the glory or image of God (1 Cor. 11:7). The likeness of God in man is this, that just as from the Father is the Son, so from man is woman. In this plainly there is a difference, because she was made, whereas He was born. Yet to some it seems that God made all things at once. For, they say, if He made by His word, why is it not said that He made everything at once? For it is the custom among men to believe that things are made in stages. For the power of God it seems more fitting if it is said that He made all things in one day. However, we see great providence in this work and order. For He could certainly have made all things together; but diverse reason forbade it, and with all these matters set apart, faith must be given to divine Scripture, which says, and often says, For in six days, it says, the Lord your God made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them (Exod. 20:11). First then, they ought to have been made in such a way that they might feel and know that they had been made: for when they did not all see themselves at once, but one today, another tomorrow, they recognized that they are contained in a beginning, and in no way could they suspect eternity, since they recognize each other in parts. For if all things had existed at once, there would be no sense of weakness for them, but they would think that they had not begun. For those things which suddenly exist all together by the word of God do not feel themselves being made, unless they see something before themselves and something after themselves. And lest that which was made first might think itself unmade, by seeing greater things made after itself, it believes of itself what it has seen in the other that is nobler. Finally, the light which is called day has before itself heaven and earth, that is, water and dry land. But when water itself and dry land and the confused darkness had been made, they could not claim eternity for themselves, because none of these dared to claim for itself fixedness and identity. Again, the sun and moon, though they are most bright, have many things before them. Therefore it was brought about that the greater things are later, and the earlier lesser things, when they see each other, none of these claims eternity for itself. Furthermore, the work completed in six days contains within itself the whole age of the world, so that the works of six days have the figure of six thousand years: because what in each age was going to happen is contained in order in the works of the six days; for instance, because in the earlier ages there was not going to be such great knowledge of God upon the earth, the earlier days appear without splendor; and that cattle were made before man, because our forefathers, uncultivated and rural, were going to live in the manner of cattle; but that man should be made on the sixth day, this event was brought about because in the sixth millennium of years the coming of Christ made man so that he should not be subject to death. And that man should be the image of God, because by God’s gift he would be conformed in image to the Son of God, as the apostle John says, We know, he says, that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him (1 Jn. 3:2). And the Vessel of election: being conformed, he says, to the image of the Son of God (Rom. 8:29). Moreover, the tree of life which was set in paradise was the image of God’s future grace, which is the body of the Lord; whoever eats it will live forever. For the tree of the knowledge of good and evil signifies that the Law was given through Moses, which, when it made sin known that previously lay hidden, gave the knowledge of good and evil. For it showed what was good and what was evil. And as to the fact that on the seventh day He rested from His works, this signifies that, once the sixth millennium of years is completed, in the seventh millennium He will rest, with the world ceasing from all secular work. We have said these few things out of many, so that we might open a path for understanding according to what we have shown above.

We might infer that because the writer says three times "according to their kinds," our attention is called to three classes. First quadrupeds and creeping things according to their kinds, and here I believe he has indicated what quadrupeds he means, namely, those that belong to the class of creeping things, such as lizards, amphibians, and the like. Thus, in repeating the enumeration of animals, the author did not repeat the name quadrupeds apparently because he included them in the term "creeping things." With this in view, he did not say simply "creeping things" but rather "all creeping things of earth." "Of earth" is added because there are also creeping things in the waters, and "all" is added to include those also that move on four feet, the class specifically intended above by the term quadruped. Next, the beasts are another class, indicated also by the expression "according to their kinds," and they are all those animals, excluding reptiles, that prowl about with fearsome mouths and claws. Finally, the herds make up a third class designated by the phrase "according to their kinds." These have no such fierce and violent ways as wild beasts, although some may attack with their horns.

6. Beasts bear witness to the faith. Have you confidence in the Lord? Thou shall walk upon the asp and the basilisk and you shall trample under feet the lion and the dragon. With faith you have the power to walk upon serpents and scorpions. Do you not see that the viper which attached itself to the hand of Paul, while he gathered sticks, did not injure him, because it found the saint full of faith? If you have not faith, do not fear beasts so much as your faithlessness, which renders you susceptible of all corruption. But I see that for a long time you have been asking me for an account of the creation of man, and I think I can hear you all cry in your hearts, We are being taught the nature of our belongings, but we are ignorant of ourselves. Let me then speak of it, since it is necessary, and let me put an end to my hesitation. In truth the most difficult of sciences is to know one's self. Not only our eye, from which nothing outside us escapes, cannot see itself; but our mind, so piercing to discover the sins of others, is slow to recognise its own faults. Thus my speech, after eagerly investigating what is external to myself, is slow and hesitating in exploring my own nature. Yet the beholding of heaven and earth does not make us know God better than the attentive study of our being does; I am, says the Prophet, fearfully and wonderfully made; that is to say, in observing myself I have known Your infinite wisdom.

5. But let us return to the spectacle of creation. The easiest animals to catch are the most productive. It is on account of this that hares and wild goats produce many little ones, and that wild sheep have twins, for fear lest these species should disappear, consumed by carnivorous animals. Beasts of prey, on the contrary, produce only a few and a lioness with difficulty gives birth to one lion; because, if they say truly, the cub issues from its mother by tearing her with its claws; and vipers are only born by gnawing through the womb, inflicting a proper punishment on their mother. Thus in nature all has been foreseen, all is the object of continual care. If you examine the members even of animals, you will find that the Creator has given them nothing superfluous, that He has omitted nothing that is necessary. To carnivorous animals He has given pointed teeth which their nature requires for their support. Those that are only half furnished with teeth have received several distinct receptacles for their food. As it is not broken up enough in the first, they are gifted with the power of returning it after it has been swallowed, and it does not assimilate until it has been crushed by rumination. The first, second, third, and fourth stomachs of ruminating animals do not remain idle; each one of them fulfils a necessary function. The neck of the camel is long so that it may lower it to its feet and reach the grass on which it feeds. Bears, lions, tigers, all animals of this sort, have short necks buried in their shoulders; it is because they do not live upon grass and have no need to bend down to the earth; they are carnivorous and eat the animals upon whom they prey.

Why has the elephant a trunk? This enormous creature, the greatest of terrestrial animals, created for the terror of those who meet it, is naturally huge and fleshy. If its neck was large and in proportion to its feet it would be difficult to direct, and would be of such an excessive weight that it would make it lean towards the earth. As it is, its head is attached to the spine of the back by short vertebrae and it has its trunk to take the place of a neck, and with it it picks up its food and draws up its drink. Its feet, without joints, like united columns, support the weight of its body. If it were supported on lax and flexible legs, its joints would constantly give way, equally incapable of supporting its weight, should it wish either to kneel or rise. But it has under the foot a little ankle joint which takes the place of the leg and knee joints whose mobility would never have resisted this enormous and swaying mass. Thus it had need of this nose which nearly touches its feet. Have you seen them in war marching at the head of the phalanx, like living towers, or breaking the enemies' battalions like mountains of flesh with their irresistible charge? If their lower parts were not in accordance with their size they would never have been able to hold their own. Now we are told that the elephant lives three hundred years and more, another reason for him to have solid and unjointed feet. But, as we have said, his trunk, which has the form and the flexibility of a serpent, takes its food from the earth and raises it up. Thus we are right in saying that it is impossible to find anything superfluous or wanting in creation. Well! God has subdued this monstrous animal to us to such a point that he understands the lessons and endures the blows we give him; a manifest proof that the Creator has submitted all to our rule, because we have been made in His image. It is not in great animals only that we see unapproachable wisdom; no less wonders are seen in the smallest. The high tops of the mountains which, near to the clouds and continually beaten by the winds, keep up a perpetual winter, do not arouse more admiration in me than the hollow valleys, which escape the storms of lofty peaks and preserve a constant mild temperature. In the same way in the constitution of animals I am not more astonished at the size of the elephant, than at the mouse, who is feared by the elephant, or at the scorpion's delicate sting, which has been hollowed like a pipe by the supreme artificer to throw venom into the wounds it makes. And let nobody accuse the Creator of having produced venomous animals, destroyers and enemies of our life. Else let them consider it a crime in the schoolmaster when he disciplines the restlessness of youth by the use of the rod and whip to maintain order.

Thus when the soul of brutes appeared it was not concealed in the earth, but it was born by the command of God. Brutes have one and the same soul of which the common characteristic is absence of reason. But each animal is distinguished by peculiar qualities. The ox is steady, the ass is lazy, the horse has strong passions, the wolf cannot be tamed, the fox is deceitful, the stag timid, the ant industrious, the dog grateful and faithful in his friendships. As each animal was created the distinctive character of his nature appeared in him in due measure; in the lion spirit, taste for solitary life, an unsociable character. True tyrant of animals, he, in his natural arrogance, admits but few to share his honours. He disdains his yesterday's food and never returns to the remains of the prey. Nature has provided his organs of voice with such great force that often much swifter animals are caught by his roaring alone. The panther, violent and impetuous in his leaps, has a body fitted for his activity and lightness, in accord with the movements of his soul. The bear has a sluggish nature, ways of its own, a sly character, and is very secret; therefore it has an analogous body, heavy, thick, without articulations such as are necessary for a cold dweller in dens.

When we consider the natural and innate care that these creatures without reason take of their lives we shall be induced to watch over ourselves and to think of the salvation of our souls; or rather we shall be the more condemned when we are found falling short even of the imitation of brutes. The bear, which often gets severely wounded, cares for himself and cleverly fills the wounds with mullein, a plant whose nature is very astringent. You will also see the fox heal his wounds with droppings from the pine tree; the tortoise, gorged with the flesh of the viper, finds in the virtue of marjoram a specific against this venomous animal and the serpent heals sore eyes by eating fennel.

And is not reasoning intelligence eclipsed by animals in their provision for atmospheric changes? Do we not see sheep, when winter is approaching, devouring grass with avidity as if to make provision for future scarcity? Do we not also see oxen, long confined in the winter season, recognise the return of spring by a natural sensation, and look to the end of their stables towards the doors, all turning their heads there by common consent? Studious observers have remarked that the hedgehog makes an opening at the two extremities of his hole. If the wind from the north is going to blow he shuts up the aperture which looks towards the north; if the south wind succeeds it the animal passes to the northern door. What lesson do these animals teach man? They not only show us in our Creator a care which extends to all beings, but a certain presentiment of future even in brutes. Then we ought not to attach ourselves to this present life and ought to give all heed to that which is to come. Will you not be industrious for yourself, O man? And will you not lay up in the present age rest in that which is to come, after having seen the example of the ant? The ant during summer collects treasures for winter. Far from giving itself up to idleness, before this season has made it feel its severity, it hastens to work with an invincible zeal until it has abundantly filled its storehouses. Here again, how far it is from being negligent! With what wise foresight it manages so as to keep its provisions as long as possible! With its pincers it cuts the grains in half, for fear lest they should germinate and not serve for its food. If they are damp it dries them; and it does not spread them out in all weathers, but when it feels that the air will keep of a mild temperature. Be sure that you will never see rain fall from the clouds so long as the ant has left the grain out.

What language can attain to the marvels of the Creator? What ear could understand them? And what time would be sufficient to relate them? Let us say, then, with the prophet, O Lord, how manifold are your works! In wisdom have you made them all. We shall not be able to say in self-justification, that we have learned useful knowledge in books, since the untaught law of nature makes us choose that which is advantageous to us. Do you know what good you ought to do your neighbour? The good that you expect from him yourself. Do you know what is evil? That which you would not wish another to do to you. Neither botanical researches nor the experience of simples have made animals discover those which are useful to them; but each knows naturally what is salutary and marvellously appropriates what suits its nature.

4. Virtues exist in us also by nature, and the soul has affinity with them not by education, but by nature herself. We do not need lessons to hate illness, but by ourselves we repel what afflicts us, the soul has no need of a master to teach us to avoid vice. Now all vice is a sickness of the soul as virtue is its health. Thus those have defined health well who have called it a regularity in the discharge of natural functions; a definition that can be applied without fear to the good condition of the soul. Thus, without having need of lessons, the soul can attain by herself to what is fit and conformable to nature. Hence it comes that temperance everywhere is praised, justice is in honour, courage admired, and prudence the object of all aims; virtues which concern the soul more than health concerns the body. Children love your parents, and you, parents provoke not your children to wrath. Does not nature say the same? Paul teaches us nothing new; he only tightens the links of nature. If the lioness loves her cubs, if the she wolf fights to defend her little ones, what shall man say who is unfaithful to the precept and violates nature herself; or the son who insults the old age of his father; or the father whose second marriage has made him forget his first children?

With animals invincible affection unites parents with children. It is the Creator, God Himself, who substitutes the strength of feeling for reason in them. From whence it comes that a lamb as it bounds from the fold, in the midst of a thousand sheep recognises the colour and the voice of its mother, runs to her, and seeks its own sources of milk. If its mother's udders are dry, it is content, and, without stopping, passes by more abundant ones. And how does the mother recognise it among the many lambs? All have the same voice, the same colour, the same smell, as far at least as regards our sense of smell. Yet there is in these animals a more subtle sense than our perception which makes them recognise their own. The little dog has as yet no teeth, nevertheless he defends himself with his mouth against any one who teases him. The calf has as yet no horns, nevertheless he already knows where his weapons will grow. Here we have evident proof that the instinct of animals is innate, and that in all beings there is nothing disorderly, nothing unforeseen. All bear the marks of the wisdom of the Creator, and show that they have come to life with the means of assuring their preservation.

The dog is not gifted with a share of reason; but with him instinct has the power of reason. The dog has learned by nature the secret of elaborate inferences, which sages of the world, after long years of study, have hardly been able to disentangle. When the dog is on the track of game, if he sees it divide in different directions, he examines these different paths, and speech alone fails him to announce his reasoning. The creature, he says, is gone here or there or in another direction. It is neither here nor there; it is therefore in the third direction. And thus, neglecting the false tracks, he discovers the true one. What more is done by those who, gravely occupied in demonstrating theories, trace lines upon the dust and reject two propositions to show that the third is the true one?

Does not the gratitude of the dog shame all who are ungrateful to their benefactors? Many are said to have fallen dead by their murdered masters in lonely places. Others, when a crime has just been committed, have led those who were searching for the murderers, and have caused the criminals to be brought to justice. What will those say who, not content with not loving the Master who has created them and nourished them, have for their friends men whose mouth attacks the Lord, sitting at the same table with them, and, while partaking of their food, blaspheme Him who has given it to them?

Behold the word of God pervading creation, beginning even then the efficacy which is seen displayed today, and will be displayed to the end of the world! As a ball, which one pushes, if it meet a declivity, descends, carried by its form and the nature of the ground and does not stop until it has reached a level surface; so nature, once put in motion by the Divine command, traverses creation with an equal step, through birth and death, and keeps up the succession of kinds through resemblance, to the last. Nature always makes a horse succeed to a horse, a lion to a lion, an eagle to an eagle, and preserving each animal by these uninterrupted successions she transmits it to the end of all things. Animals do not see their peculiarities destroyed or effaced by any length of time; their nature, as though it had been just constituted, follows the course of ages, for ever young. Let the earth bring forth the living creature. This command has continued and earth does not cease to obey the Creator. For, if there are creatures which are successively produced by their predecessors, there are others that even today we see born from the earth itself. In wet weather she brings forth grasshoppers and an immense number of insects which fly in the air and have no names because they are so small; she also produces mice and frogs. In the environs of Thebes in Egypt, after abundant rain in hot weather, the country is covered with field mice. We see mud alone produce eels; they do not proceed from an egg, nor in any other manner; it is the earth alone which gives them birth. Let the earth produce a living creature.

Cattle are terrestrial and bent towards the earth. Man, a celestial growth, rises superior to them as much by the mould of his bodily conformation as by the dignity of his soul. What is the form of quadrupeds? Their head is bent towards the earth and looks towards their belly, and only pursues their belly's good. Your head, O man! Is turned towards heaven; your eyes look up. When therefore you degrade yourself by the passions of the flesh, slave of your belly, and your lowest parts, you approach animals without reason and becomest like one of them. You are called to more noble cares; seek those things which are above where Christ sits. Colossians 3:1 Raise your soul above the earth; draw from its natural conformation the rule of your conduct; fix your conversation in heaven. Your true country is the heavenly Jerusalem; your fellow citizens and your compatriots are the first-born which are written in heaven. Hebrews 12:23

The command of God advanced step by step and earth thus received her adornment. Yesterday it was said, Let the waters produce moving things, and today let the earth bring forth the living creature. Is the earth then alive? And are the mad-minded Manichæans right in giving it a soul? At these words Let the earth bring forth, it did not produce a germ contained in it, but He who gave the order at the same time gifted it with the grace and power to bring forth. When the earth had heard this command Let the earth bring forth grass and the tree yielding fruit, it was not grass that it had hidden in it that it caused to spring forth, it did not bring to the surface a palm tree, an oak, a cypress, hitherto kept back in its depths. It is the word of God which forms the nature of things created. Let the earth bring forth; that is to say not that she may bring forth that which she has but that she may acquire that which she lacks, when God gives her the power. Even so now, Let the earth bring forth the living creature, not the living creature that is contained in herself, but that which the command of God gives her. Further, the Manichæans contradict themselves, because if the earth has brought forth the life, she has left herself despoiled of life. Their execrable doctrine needs no demonstration.

But why did the waters receive the command to bring forth the moving creature that has life and the earth to bring forth the living creature? We conclude that, by their nature, swimming creatures appear only to have an imperfect life, because they live in the thick element of water. They are hard of hearing, and their sight is dull because they see through the water; they have no memory, no imagination, no idea of social intercourse. Thus divine language appears to indicate that, in aquatic animals, the carnal life originates their psychic movements, while in terrestrial animals, gifted with a more perfect life, the soul enjoys supreme authority. In fact the greater part of quadrupeds have more power of penetration in their senses; their apprehension of present objects is keen, and they keep all exact remembrance of the past. It seems therefore, that God, after the command given to the waters to bring forth moving creatures that have life, created simply living bodies for aquatic animals, while for terrestrial animals He commanded the soul to exist and to direct the body, showing thus that the inhabitants of the earth are gifted with greater vital force. Without doubt terrestrial animals are devoid of reason. At the same time how many affections of the soul each one of them expresses by the voice of nature! They express by cries their joy and sadness, recognition of what is familiar to them, the need of food, regret at being separated from their companions, and numberless emotions. Aquatic animals, on the contrary, are not only dumb; it is impossible to tame them, to teach them, to train them for man's society. The ox knows his owner, and the ass his master's crib. Isaiah 1:3 But the fish does not know who feeds him. The ass knows a familiar voice, he knows the road which he has often trodden, and even, if man loses his way, he sometimes serves him as a guide. His hearing is more acute than that of any other terrestrial animal. What animal of the sea can show so much rancour and resentment as the camel? The camel conceals its resentment for a long time after it has been struck, until it finds an opportunity, and then repays the wrong. Listen, you whose heart does not pardon, you who practise vengeance as a virtue; see what you resemble when you keep your anger for so long against your neighbour like a spark, hidden in the ashes, and only waiting for fuel to set your heart ablaze!

2. Let the earth bring forth a living soul. Why did the earth produce a living soul? So that you may make a difference between the soul of cattle and that of man. You will soon learn how the human soul was formed; hear now about the soul of creatures devoid of reason. Since, according to Scripture, the life of every creature is in the blood, as the blood when thickened changes into flesh, and flesh when corrupted decomposes into earth, so the soul of beasts is naturally an earthy substance. Let the earth bring forth a living soul. See the affinity of the soul with blood, of blood with flesh, of flesh with earth; and remounting in an inverse sense from the earth to the flesh, from the flesh to the blood, from the blood to the soul, you will find that the soul of beasts is earth. Do not suppose that it is older than the essence of their body, nor that it survives the dissolution of the flesh; avoid the nonsense of those arrogant philosophers who do not blush to liken their soul to that of a dog; who say that they have been formerly themselves women, shrubs, fish. Have they ever been fish? I do not know; but I do not fear to affirm that in their writings they show less sense than fish. Let the earth bring forth the living creature. Perhaps many of you ask why there is such a long silence in the middle of the rapid rush of my discourse. The more studious among my auditors will not be ignorant of the reason why words fail me. What! Have I not seen them look at each other, and make signs to make me look at them, and to remind me of what I have passed over? I have forgotten a part of the creation, and that one of the most considerable, and my discourse was almost finished without touching upon it. Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that has life and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament, of heaven. Genesis 1:20 I spoke of fish as long as eventide allowed: today we have passed to the examination of terrestrial animals; between the two, birds have escaped us. We are forgetful like travellers who unmindful of some important object, are obliged, although they be far on their road, to retrace their steps, punished for their negligence by the weariness of the journey. So we have to turn back. That which we have omitted is not to be despised. It is the third part of the animal creation, if indeed there are three kinds of animals, land, winged and water.

1. How did you like the fare of my morning's discourse? It seemed to me that I had the good intentions of a poor giver of a feast, who, ambitious of having the credit of keeping a good table saddens his guests by the poor supply of the more expensive dishes. In vain he lavishly covers his table with his mean fare; his ambition only shows his folly. It is for you to judge if I have shared the same fate. Yet, whatever my discourse may have been, take care lest you disregard it. No one refused to sit at the table of Elisha; and yet he only gave his friends wild vegetables. 2 Kings 4:39 I know the laws of allegory, though less by myself than from the works of others. There are those truly, who do not admit the common sense of the Scriptures, for whom water is not water, but some other nature, who see in a plant, in a fish, what their fancy wishes, who change the nature of reptiles and of wild beasts to suit their allegories, like the interpreters of dreams who explain visions in sleep to make them serve their own ends. For me grass is grass; plant, fish, wild beast, domestic animal, I take all in the literal sense. For I am not ashamed of the gospel. Romans 1:16 Those who have written about the nature of the universe have discussed at length the shape of the earth. If it be spherical or cylindrical, if it resemble a disc and is equally rounded in all parts, or if it has the forth of a winnowing basket and is hollow in the middle; all these conjectures have been suggested by cosmographers, each one upsetting that of his predecessor. It will not lead me to give less importance to the creation of the universe, that the servant of God, Moses, is silent as to shapes; he has not said that the earth is a hundred and eighty thousand furlongs in circumference; he has not measured into what extent of air its shadow projects itself while the sun revolves around it, nor stated how this shadow, casting itself upon the moon, produces eclipses. He has passed over in silence, as useless, all that is unimportant for us. Shall I then prefer foolish wisdom to the oracles of the Holy Spirit? Shall I not rather exalt Him who, not wishing to fill our minds with these vanities, has regulated all the economy of Scripture in view of the edification and the making perfect of our souls? It is this which those seem to me not to have understood, who, giving themselves up to the distorted meaning of allegory, have undertaken to give a majesty of their own invention to Scripture. It is to believe themselves wiser than the Holy Spirit, and to bring forth their own ideas under a pretext of exegesis. Let us hear Scripture as it has been written. 2. Let the earth bring forth the living creature. Genesis 1:24 Behold the word of God pervading creation, beginning even then the efficacy which is seen displayed today, and will be displayed to the end of the world! As a ball, which one pushes, if it meet a declivity, descends, carried by its form and the nature of the ground and does not stop until it has reached a level surface; so nature, once put in motion by the Divine command, traverses creation with an equal step, through birth and death, and keeps up the succession of kinds through resemblance, to the last. Nature always makes a horse succeed to a horse, a lion to a lion, an eagle to an eagle, and preserving each animal by these uninterrupted successions she transmits it to the end of all things. Animals do not see their peculiarities destroyed or effaced by any length of time; their nature, as though it had been just constituted, follows the course of ages, for ever young. Let the earth bring forth the living creature. This command has continued and earth does not cease to obey the Creator. For, if there are creatures which are successively produced by their predecessors, there are others that even today we see born from the earth itself. In wet weather she brings forth grasshoppers and an immense number of insects which fly in the air and have no names because they are so small; she also produces mice and frogs. In the environs of Thebes in Egypt, after abundant rain in hot weather, the country is covered with field mice. We see mud alone produce eels; they do not proceed from an egg, nor in any other manner; it is the earth alone which gives them birth. Let the earth produce a living creature. Cattle are terrestrial and bent towards the earth. Man, a celestial growth, rises superior to them as much by the mould of his bodily conformation as by the dignity of his soul. What is the form of quadrupeds? Their head is bent towards the earth and looks towards their belly, and only pursues their belly's good. Your head, O man! Is turned towards heaven; your eyes look up. When therefore you degrade yourself by the passions of the flesh, slave of your belly, and your lowest parts, you approach animals without reason and becomest like one of them. You are called to more noble cares; seek those things which are above where Christ sits. Colossians 3:1 Raise your soul above the earth; draw from its natural conformation the rule of your conduct; fix your conversation in heaven. Your true country is the heavenly Jerusalem; your fellow citizens and your compatriots are the first-born which are written in heaven. Hebrews 12:23 3. Let the earth bring forth the living creature. Thus when the soul of brutes appeared it was not concealed in the earth, but it was born by the command of God. Brutes have one and the same soul of which the common characteristic is absence of reason. But each animal is distinguished by peculiar qualities. The ox is steady, the ass is lazy, the horse has strong passions, the wolf cannot be tamed, the fox is deceitful, the stag timid, the ant industrious, the dog grateful and faithful in his friendships. As each animal was created the distinctive character of his nature appeared in him in due measure; in the lion spirit, taste for solitary life, an unsociable character. True tyrant of animals, he, in his natural arrogance, admits but few to share his honours. He disdains his yesterday's food and never returns to the remains of the prey. Nature has provided his organs of voice with such great force that often much swifter animals are caught by his roaring alone. The panther, violent and impetuous in his leaps, has a body fitted for his activity and lightness, in accord with the movements of his soul. The bear has a sluggish nature, ways of its own, a sly character, and is very secret; therefore it has an analogous body, heavy, thick, without articulations such as are necessary for a cold dweller in dens. When we consider the natural and innate care that these creatures without reason take of their lives we shall be induced to watch over ourselves and to think of the salvation of our souls; or rather we shall be the more condemned when we are found falling short even of the imitation of brutes. The bear, which often gets severely wounded, cares for himself and cleverly fills the wounds with mullein, a plant whose nature is very astringent. You will also see the fox heal his wounds with droppings from the pine tree; the tortoise, gorged with the flesh of the viper, finds in the virtue of marjoram a specific against this venomous animal and the serpent heals sore eyes by eating fennel. And is not reasoning intelligence eclipsed by animals in their provision for atmospheric changes? Do we not see sheep, when winter is approaching, devouring grass with avidity as if to make provision for future scarcity? Do we not also see oxen, long confined in the winter season, recognise the return of spring by a natural sensation, and look to the end of their stables towards the doors, all turning their heads there by common consent? Studious observers have remarked that the hedgehog makes an opening at the two extremities of his hole. If the wind from the north is going to blow he shuts up the aperture which looks towards the north; if the south wind succeeds it the animal passes to the northern door. What lesson do these animals teach man? They not only show us in our Creator a care which extends to all beings, but a certain presentiment of future even in brutes. Then we ought not to attach ourselves to this present life and ought to give all heed to that which is to come. Will you not be industrious for yourself, O man? And will you not lay up in the present age rest in that which is to come, after having seen the example of the ant? The ant during summer collects treasures for winter. Far from giving itself up to idleness, before this season has made it feel its severity, it hastens to work with an invincible zeal until it has abundantly filled its storehouses. Here again, how far it is from being negligent! With what wise foresight it manages so as to keep its provisions as long as possible! With its pincers it cuts the grains in half, for fear lest they should germinate and not serve for its food. If they are damp it dries them; and it does not spread them out in all weathers, but when it feels that the air will keep of a mild temperature. Be sure that you will never see rain fall from the clouds so long as the ant has left the grain out. What language can attain to the marvels of the Creator? What ear could understand them? And what time would be sufficient to relate them? Let us say, then, with the prophet, O Lord, how manifold are your works! In wisdom have you made them all. We shall not be able to say in self-justification, that we have learned useful knowledge in books, since the untaught law of nature makes us choose that which is advantageous to us. Do you know what good you ought to do your neighbour? The good that you expect from him yourself. Do you know what is evil? That which you would not wish another to do to you. Neither botanical researches nor the experience of simples have made animals discover those which are useful to them; but each knows naturally what is salutary and marvellously appropriates what suits its nature. 4. Virtues exist in us also by nature, and the soul has affinity with them not by education, but by nature herself. We do not need lessons to hate illness, but by ourselves we repel what afflicts us, the soul has no need of a master to teach us to avoid vice. Now all vice is a sickness of the soul as virtue is its health. Thus those have defined health well who have called it a regularity in the discharge of natural functions; a definition that can be applied without fear to the good condition of the soul. Thus, without having need of lessons, the soul can attain by herself to what is fit and conformable to nature. Hence it comes that temperance everywhere is praised, justice is in honour, courage admired, and prudence the object of all aims; virtues which concern the soul more than health concerns the body. Children love your parents, and you, parents provoke not your children to wrath. Does not nature say the same? Paul teaches us nothing new; he only tightens the links of nature. If the lioness loves her cubs, if the she wolf fights to defend her little ones, what shall man say who is unfaithful to the precept and violates nature herself; or the son who insults the old age of his father; or the father whose second marriage has made him forget his first children? With animals invincible affection unites parents with children. It is the Creator, God Himself, who substitutes the strength of feeling for reason in them. From whence it comes that a lamb as it bounds from the fold, in the midst of a thousand sheep recognises the colour and the voice of its mother, runs to her, and seeks its own sources of milk. If its mother's udders are dry, it is content, and, without stopping, passes by more abundant ones. And how does the mother recognise it among the many lambs? All have the same voice, the same colour, the same smell, as far at least as regards our sense of smell. Yet there is in these animals a more subtle sense than our perception which makes them recognise their own. The little dog has as yet no teeth, nevertheless he defends himself with his mouth against any one who teases him. The calf has as yet no horns, nevertheless he already knows where his weapons will grow. Here we have evident proof that the instinct of animals is innate, and that in all beings there is nothing disorderly, nothing unforeseen. All bear the marks of the wisdom of the Creator, and show that they have come to life with the means of assuring their preservation. The dog is not gifted with a share of reason; but with him instinct has the power of reason. The dog has learned by nature the secret of elaborate inferences, which sages of the world, after long years of study, have hardly been able to disentangle. When the dog is on the track of game, if he sees it divide in different directions, he examines these different paths, and speech alone fails him to announce his reasoning. The creature, he says, is gone here or there or in another direction. It is neither here nor there; it is therefore in the third direction. And thus, neglecting the false tracks, he discovers the true one. What more is done by those who, gravely occupied in demonstrating theories, trace lines upon the dust and reject two propositions to show that the third is the true one? Does not the gratitude of the dog shame all who are ungrateful to their benefactors? Many are said to have fallen dead by their murdered masters in lonely places. Others, when a crime has just been committed, have led those who were searching for the murderers, and have caused the criminals to be brought to justice. What will those say who, not content with not loving the Master who has created them and nourished them, have for their friends men whose mouth attacks the Lord, sitting at the same table with them, and, while partaking of their food, blaspheme Him who has given it to them? 5. But let us return to the spectacle of creation. The easiest animals to catch are the most productive. It is on account of this that hares and wild goats produce many little ones, and that wild sheep have twins, for fear lest these species should disappear, consumed by carnivorous animals. Beasts of prey, on the contrary, produce only a few and a lioness with difficulty gives birth to one lion; because, if they say truly, the cub issues from its mother by tearing her with its claws; and vipers are only born by gnawing through the womb, inflicting a proper punishment on their mother. Thus in nature all has been foreseen, all is the object of continual care. If you examine the members even of animals, you will find that the Creator has given them nothing superfluous, that He has omitted nothing that is necessary. To carnivorous animals He has given pointed teeth which their nature requires for their support. Those that are only half furnished with teeth have received several distinct receptacles for their food. As it is not broken up enough in the first, they are gifted with the power of returning it after it has been swallowed, and it does not assimilate until it has been crushed by rumination. The first, second, third, and fourth stomachs of ruminating animals do not remain idle; each one of them fulfils a necessary function. The neck of the camel is long so that it may lower it to its feet and reach the grass on which it feeds. Bears, lions, tigers, all animals of this sort, have short necks buried in their shoulders; it is because they do not live upon grass and have no need to bend down to the earth; they are carnivorous and eat the animals upon whom they prey. Why has the elephant a trunk? This enormous creature, the greatest of terrestrial animals, created for the terror of those who meet it, is naturally huge and fleshy. If its neck was large and in proportion to its feet it would be difficult to direct, and would be of such an excessive weight that it would make it lean towards the earth. As it is, its head is attached to the spine of the back by short vertebrae and it has its trunk to take the place of a neck, and with it it picks up its food and draws up its drink. Its feet, without joints, like united columns, support the weight of its body. If it were supported on lax and flexible legs, its joints would constantly give way, equally incapable of supporting its weight, should it wish either to kneel or rise. But it has under the foot a little ankle joint which takes the place of the leg and knee joints whose mobility would never have resisted this enormous and swaying mass. Thus it had need of this nose which nearly touches its feet. Have you seen them in war marching at the head of the phalanx, like living towers, or breaking the enemies' battalions like mountains of flesh with their irresistible charge? If their lower parts were not in accordance with their size they would never have been able to hold their own. Now we are told that the elephant lives three hundred years and more, another reason for him to have solid and unjointed feet. But, as we have said, his trunk, which has the form and the flexibility of a serpent, takes its food from the earth and raises it up. Thus we are right in saying that it is impossible to find anything superfluous or wanting in creation. Well! God has subdued this monstrous animal to us to such a point that he understands the lessons and endures the blows we give him; a manifest proof that the Creator has submitted all to our rule, because we have been made in His image. It is not in great animals only that we see unapproachable wisdom; no less wonders are seen in the smallest. The high tops of the mountains which, near to the clouds and continually beaten by the winds, keep up a perpetual winter, do not arouse more admiration in me than the hollow valleys, which escape the storms of lofty peaks and preserve a constant mild temperature. In the same way in the constitution of animals I am not more astonished at the size of the elephant, than at the mouse, who is feared by the elephant, or at the scorpion's delicate sting, which has been hollowed like a pipe by the supreme artificer to throw venom into the wounds it makes. And let nobody accuse the Creator of having produced venomous animals, destroyers and enemies of our life. Else let them consider it a crime in the schoolmaster when he disciplines the restlessness of youth by the use of the rod and whip to maintain order. 6. Beasts bear witness to the faith. Have you confidence in the Lord? Thou shall walk upon the asp and the basilisk and you shall trample under feet the lion and the dragon. With faith you have the power to walk upon serpents and scorpions. Do you not see that the viper which attached itself to the hand of Paul, while he gathered sticks, did not injure him, because it found the saint full of faith? If you have not faith, do not fear beasts so much as your faithlessness, which renders you susceptible of all corruption. But I see that for a long time you have been asking me for an account of the creation of man, and I think I can hear you all cry in your hearts, We are being taught the nature of our belongings, but we are ignorant of ourselves. Let me then speak of it, since it is necessary, and let me put an end to my hesitation. In truth the most difficult of sciences is to know one's self. Not only our eye, from which nothing outside us escapes, cannot see itself; but our mind, so piercing to discover the sins of others, is slow to recognise its own faults. Thus my speech, after eagerly investigating what is external to myself, is slow and hesitating in exploring my own nature. Yet the beholding of heaven and earth does not make us know God better than the attentive study of our being does; I am, says the Prophet, fearfully and wonderfully made; that is to say, in observing myself I have known Your infinite wisdom.

The command of God advanced step by step and earth thus received her adornment. Yesterday it was said, Let the waters produce moving things, and today let the earth bring forth the living creature. Is the earth then alive? And are the mad-minded Manichæans right in giving it a soul? At these words Let the earth bring forth, it did not produce a germ contained in it, but He who gave the order at the same time gifted it with the grace and power to bring forth. When the earth had heard this command Let the earth bring forth grass and the tree yielding fruit, it was not grass that it had hidden in it that it caused to spring forth, it did not bring to the surface a palm tree, an oak, a cypress, hitherto kept back in its depths. It is the word of God which forms the nature of things created. Let the earth bring forth; that is to say not that she may bring forth that which she has but that she may acquire that which she lacks, when God gives her the power. Even so now, Let the earth bring forth the living creature, not the living creature that is contained in herself, but that which the command of God gives her. Further, the Manichæans contradict themselves, because if the earth has brought forth the life, she has left herself despoiled of life. Their execrable doctrine needs no demonstration. But why did the waters receive the command to bring forth the moving creature that has life and the earth to bring forth the living creature? We conclude that, by their nature, swimming creatures appear only to have an imperfect life, because they live in the thick element of water. They are hard of hearing, and their sight is dull because they see through the water; they have no memory, no imagination, no idea of social intercourse. Thus divine language appears to indicate that, in aquatic animals, the carnal life originates their psychic movements, while in terrestrial animals, gifted with a more perfect life, the soul enjoys supreme authority. In fact the greater part of quadrupeds have more power of penetration in their senses; their apprehension of present objects is keen, and they keep all exact remembrance of the past. It seems therefore, that God, after the command given to the waters to bring forth moving creatures that have life, created simply living bodies for aquatic animals, while for terrestrial animals He commanded the soul to exist and to direct the body, showing thus that the inhabitants of the earth are gifted with greater vital force. Without doubt terrestrial animals are devoid of reason. At the same time how many affections of the soul each one of them expresses by the voice of nature! They express by cries their joy and sadness, recognition of what is familiar to them, the need of food, regret at being separated from their companions, and numberless emotions. Aquatic animals, on the contrary, are not only dumb; it is impossible to tame them, to teach them, to train them for man's society. The ox knows his owner, and the ass his master's crib. Isaiah 1:3 But the fish does not know who feeds him. The ass knows a familiar voice, he knows the road which he has often trodden, and even, if man loses his way, he sometimes serves him as a guide. His hearing is more acute than that of any other terrestrial animal. What animal of the sea can show so much rancour and resentment as the camel? The camel conceals its resentment for a long time after it has been struck, until it finds an opportunity, and then repays the wrong. Listen, you whose heart does not pardon, you who practise vengeance as a virtue; see what you resemble when you keep your anger for so long against your neighbour like a spark, hidden in the ashes, and only waiting for fuel to set your heart ablaze! 2. Let the earth bring forth a living soul. Why did the earth produce a living soul? So that you may make a difference between the soul of cattle and that of man. You will soon learn how the human soul was formed; hear now about the soul of creatures devoid of reason. Since, according to Scripture, the life of every creature is in the blood, as the blood when thickened changes into flesh, and flesh when corrupted decomposes into earth, so the soul of beasts is naturally an earthy substance. Let the earth bring forth a living soul. See the affinity of the soul with blood, of blood with flesh, of flesh with earth; and remounting in an inverse sense from the earth to the flesh, from the flesh to the blood, from the blood to the soul, you will find that the soul of beasts is earth. Do not suppose that it is older than the essence of their body, nor that it survives the dissolution of the flesh; avoid the nonsense of those arrogant philosophers who do not blush to liken their soul to that of a dog; who say that they have been formerly themselves women, shrubs, fish. Have they ever been fish? I do not know; but I do not fear to affirm that in their writings they show less sense than fish. Let the earth bring forth the living creature. Perhaps many of you ask why there is such a long silence in the middle of the rapid rush of my discourse. The more studious among my auditors will not be ignorant of the reason why words fail me. What! Have I not seen them look at each other, and make signs to make me look at them, and to remind me of what I have passed over? I have forgotten a part of the creation, and that one of the most considerable, and my discourse was almost finished without touching upon it. Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that has life and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament, of heaven. Genesis 1:20 I spoke of fish as long as eventide allowed: today we have passed to the examination of terrestrial animals; between the two, birds have escaped us. We are forgetful like travellers who unmindful of some important object, are obliged, although they be far on their road, to retrace their steps, punished for their negligence by the weariness of the journey. So we have to turn back. That which we have omitted is not to be despised. It is the third part of the animal creation, if indeed there are three kinds of animals, land, winged and water. Let the waters it is said bring forth abundantly moving creature that has life and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. Why do the waters give birth also to birds? Because there is, so to say, a family link between the creatures that fly and those that swim. In the same way that fish cut the waters, using their fins to carry them forward and their tails to direct their movements round and round and straightforward, so we see birds float in the air by the help of their wings. Both endowed with the property of swimming, their common derivation from the waters has made them of one family. At the same time no bird is without feet, because finding all its food upon the earth it cannot do without their service. Rapacious birds have pointed claws to enable them to close on their prey; to the rest has been given the indispensable ministry of feet to seek their food and to provide for the other needs of life. There are a few who walk badly, whose feet are neither suitable for walking nor for preying. Among this number are swallows, incapable of walking and seeking their prey, and the birds called swifts who live on little insects carried about by the air. As to the swallow, its flight, which grazes the earth, fulfils the function of feet. 3. There are also innumerable kinds of birds. If we review them all, as we have partly done the fish, we shall find that under one name, the creatures which fly differ infinitely in size, form and colour; that in their life, their actions and their manners, they present a variety equally beyond the power of description. Thus some have tried to imagine names for them of which the singularity and the strangeness might, like brands, mark the distinctive character of each kind known. Some, as eagles, have been called Schizoptera, others Dermoptera, as the bats, others Ptilota, as wasps, others Coleoptera, as beetles and all those insects which brought forth in cases and coverings, break their prison to fly away in liberty. But we have enough words of common usage to characterise each species and to mark the distinction which Scripture sets up between clean and unclean birds. Thus the species of carnivora is of one sort and of one constitution which suits their manner of living, sharp talons, curved beak, swift wings, allowing them to swoop easily upon their prey and to tear it up after having seized it. The constitution of those who pick up seeds is different, and again that of those who live on all they come across. What a variety in all these creatures! Some are gregarious, except the birds of prey who know no other society than conjugal union; but innumerable kinds, doves, cranes, starlings, jackdaws, like a common life. Among them some live without a chief and in a sort of independence; others, as cranes, do not refuse to submit themselves to a leader. And a fresh difference between them is that some are stationary and non-migratory; others undertake long voyages and the greater part of them migrate at the approach of winter. Nearly all birds can be tamed and are capable of training, except the weakest, who through fear and timidity cannot bear the constant and annoying contact of the hand. Some like the society of man and inhabit our dwellings; others delight in mountains and in desert places. There is a great difference too in their peculiar notes. Some twitter and chatter, others are silent, some have a melodious and sonorous voice, some are wholly inharmonious and incapable of song; some imitate the voice of man, taught their mimicry either by nature or training; others always give forth the same monotonous cry. The cock is proud; the peacock is vain of his beauty; doves and fowls are amorous, always seeking each other's society. The partridge is deceitful and jealous, lending perfidious help to the huntsmen to seize their prey. 4. What a variety, I have said, in the actions and lives of flying creatures. Some of these unreasoning creatures even have a government, if the feature of government is to make the activity of all the individuals centre in one common end. This may be observed in bees. They have a common dwelling place; they fly in the air together, they work at the same work together; and what is still more extraordinary is that they give themselves to these labours under the guidance of a king and superintendent, and that they do not allow themselves to fly to the meadows without seeing if the king is flying at their head. As to this king, it is not election that gives him this authority; ignorance on the part of the people often puts the worst man in power; it is not fate; the blind decisions of fate often give authority to the most unworthy. It is not heredity that places him on the throne; it is only too common to see the children of kings, corrupted by luxury and flattery, living in ignorance of all virtue. It is nature which makes the king of the bees, for nature gives him superior size, beauty, and sweetness of character. He has a sting like the others, but he does not use it to revenge himself. It is a principle of natural and unwritten law, that those who are raised to high office, ought to be lenient in punishing. Even bees who do not follow the example of their king, repent without delay of their imprudence, since they lose their lives with their sting. Listen, Christians, you to whom it is forbidden to recompense evil for evil and commanded to overcome evil with good. Take the bee for your model, which constructs its cells without injuring any one and without interfering with the goods of others. It gathers openly wax from the flowers with its mouth, drawing in the honey scattered over them like dew, and injects it into the hollow of its cells. Thus at first honey is liquid; time thickens it and gives it its sweetness. The book of Proverbs has given the bee the most honourable and the best praise by calling her wise and industrious. How much activity she exerts in gathering this precious nourishment, by which both kings and men of low degree are brought to health! How great is the art and cunning she displays in the construction of the store houses which are destined to receive the honey! After having spread the wax like a thin membrane, she distributes it in contiguous compartments which, weak though they are, by their number and by their mass, sustain the whole edifice. Each cell in fact holds to the one next to it, and is separated by a thin partition; we thus see two or three galleries of cells built one upon the other. The bee takes care not to make one vast cavity, for fear it might break under the weight of the liquid, and allow it to escape. See how the discoveries of geometry are mere by-works to the wise bee! The rows of honey-comb are all hexagonal with equal sides. They do not bear on each other in straight lines, lest the supports should press on empty spaces between and give way; but the angles of the lower hexagons serve as foundations and bases to those which rise above, so as to furnish a sure support to the lower mass, and so that each cell may securely keep the liquid honey. 5. How shall we make an exact review of all the peculiarities of the life of birds? During the night cranes keep watch in turn; some sleep, others make the rounds and procure a quiet slumber for their companions. After having finished his duty, the sentry utters a cry, and goes to sleep, and the one who awakes, in his turn, repays the security which he has enjoyed. You will see the same order reign in their flight. One leads the way, and when it has guided the flight of the flock for a certain time, it passes to the rear, leaving to the one who comes after the care of directing the march. The conduct of storks comes very near intelligent reason. In these regions the same season sees them all migrate. They all start at one given signal. And it seems to me that our crows, serving them as escort, go to bring them back, and to help them against the attacks of hostile birds. The proof is that in this season not a single crow appears, and that they return with wounds, evident marks of the help and of the assistance that they have lent. Who has explained to them the laws of hospitality? Who has threatened them with the penalties of desertion? For not one is missing from the company. Listen, all inhospitable hearts, you who shut your doors, whose house is never open either in the winter or in the night to travellers. The solicitude of storks for their old would be sufficient, if our children would reflect upon it, to make them love their parents; because there is no one so failing in good sense, as not to deem it a shame to be surpassed in virtue by birds devoid of reason. The storks surround their father, when old age makes his feathers drop off, warm him with their wings, and provide abundantly for his support, and even in their flight they help him as much as they are able, raising him gently on each side upon their wings, a conduct so notorious that it has given to gratitude the name of antipelargosis. Let no one lament poverty; let not the man whose house is bare despair of his life, when he considers the industry of the swallow. To build her nest, she brings bits of straw in her beak; and, as she cannot raise the mud in her claws, she moistens the end of her wings in water and then rolls in very fine dust and thus procures mud. After having united, little by little, the bits of straw with this mud, as with glue, she feeds her young; and if any one of them has its eyes injured, she has a natural remedy to heal the sight of her little ones. This sight ought to warn you not to take to evil ways on account of poverty; and, even if you are reduced to the last extremity, not to lose all hope; not to abandon yourself to inaction and idleness, but to have recourse to God. If He is so bountiful to the swallow, what will He not do for those who call upon Him with all their heart? The halcyon is a sea bird, which lays its eggs along the shore, or deposits them in the sand. And it lays in the middle of winter, when the violence of the winds dashes the sea against the land. Yet all winds are hushed, and the wave of the sea grows calm, during the seven days that the halcyon sits. For it only takes seven days to hatch the young. Then, as they are in need of food so that they may grow, God, in His munificence, grants another seven days to this tiny animal. All sailors know this, and call these days halcyon days. If divine Providence has established these marvellous laws in favour of creatures devoid of reason, it is to induce you to ask for your salvation from God. Is there a wonder which He will not perform for you— you have been made in His image, when for so little a bird, the great, the fearful sea is held in check and is commanded in the midst of winter to be calm. 6. It is said that the turtle-dove, once separated from her mate, does not contract a new union, but remains in widowhood, in remembrance of her first alliance. Listen, O women! What veneration for widowhood, even in these creatures devoid of reason, how they prefer it to an unbecoming multiplicity of marriages. The eagle shows the greatest injustice in the education which she gives to her young. When she has hatched two little ones, she throws one on the ground, thrusting it out with blows from her wings, and only acknowledges the remaining one. It is the difficulty of finding food which has made her repulse the offspring she has brought forth. But the osprey, it is said, will not allow it to perish, she carries it away and brings it up with her young ones. Such are parents who, under the plea of poverty, expose their children; such are again those who, in the distribution of their inheritance, make unequal divisions. Since they have given existence equally to each of their children, it is just that they should equally and without preference furnish them with the means of livelihood. Beware of imitating the cruelty of birds with hooked talons. When they see their young are from henceforth capable of encountering the air in their flight, they throw them out of the nest, striking them and pushing them with their wings, and do not take the least care of them. The love of the crow for its young is laudable! When they begin to fly, she follows them, gives them food, and for a very long time provides for their nourishment. Many birds have no need of union with males to conceive. But their eggs are unfruitful, except those of vultures, who more often, it is said, bring forth without coupling: and this although they have a very long life, which often reaches its hundredth year. Note and retain, I pray you, this point in the history of birds; and if ever you see any one laugh at our mystery, as if it were impossible and contrary to nature that a virgin should become a mother without losing the purity of her virginity, bethink you that He who would save the faithful by the foolishness of preaching, has given us beforehand in nature a thousand reasons for believing in the marvellous. 7. Let the waters bring forth the moving creatures that have life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. They received the command to fly above the earth because earth provides them with nourishment. In the firmament of heaven, that is to say, as we have said before, in that part of the air called οὐρανός, heaven, from the word ὁ ρᾶν, which means to see; called firmament, because the air which extends over our heads, compared to the æther, has greater density, and is thickened by the vapours which exhale from the earth. You have then heaven adorned, earth beautified, the sea peopled with its own creatures, the air filled with birds which scour it in every direction. Studious listener, think of all these creations which God has drawn out of nothing, think of all those which my speech has left out, to avoid tediousness, and not to exceed my limits; recognise everywhere the wisdom of God; never cease to wonder, and, through every creature, to glorify the Creator. There are some kinds of birds which live by night in the midst of darkness; others which fly by day in full light. Bats, owls, night-ravens are birds of night: if by chance you cannot sleep, reflect on these nocturnal birds and their peculiarities and glorify their Maker. How is it that the nightingale is always awake when sitting on her eggs, passing the night in a continual melody? How is it that one animal, the bat, is at the same time quadruped and fowl? That it is the only one of the birds to have teeth? That it is viviparous like quadrupeds, and traverses the air, raising itself not upon wings, but upon a kind of membrane? What natural love bats have for each other! How they interlace like a chain and hang the one upon the other! A very rare spectacle among men, who for the greater part prefer individual and private life to the union of common life. Have not those who give themselves up to vain science the eyes of owls? The sight of the owl, piercing during the night time, is dazzled by the splendour of the sun; thus the intelligence of these men, so keen to contemplate vanities, is blind in presence of the true light. During the day, also, how easy it is for you to admire the Creator everywhere! See how the domestic cock calls you to work with his shrill cry, and how, forerunner of the sun, and early as the traveller, he sends forth labourers to the harvest! What vigilance in geese! With what sagacity they divine secret dangers! Did they not once upon a time save the imperial city? When enemies were advancing by subterranean passages to possess themselves of the capitol of Rome, did not geese announce the danger? Is there any kind of bird whose nature offers nothing for our admiration? Who announces to the vultures that there will be carnage when men march in battle array against one another? You may see flocks of vultures following armies and calculating the result of warlike preparations; a calculation very nearly approaching to human reasoning. How can I describe to you the fearful invasions of locusts, which rise everywhere at a given signal, and pitch their camps all over a country? They do not attack crops until they have received the divine command. Or shall I describe how the remedy for this curse, the thrush, follows them with its insatiable appetite, and the devouring nature that the loving God has given it in His kindness for men? How does the grasshopper modulate its song? Why is it more melodious at midday owing to the air that it breathes in dilating its chest? But it appears to me that in wishing to describe the marvels of winged creatures, I remain further behind than I should if my feet had tried to match the rapidity of their flight. When you see bees, wasps, in short all those flying creatures called insects, because they have an incision all around, reflect that they have neither respiration nor lungs, and that they are supported by air through all parts of their bodies. Thus they perish, if they are covered with oil, because it stops up their pores. Wash them with vinegar, the pores reopen and the animal returns to life. Our God has created nothing unnecessarily and has omitted nothing that is necessary. If now you cast your eyes upon aquatic creatures, you will find that their organization is quite different. Their feet are not split like those of the crow, nor hooked like those of the carnivora, but large and membraneous; therefore they can easily swim, pushing the water with the membranes of their feet as with oars. Notice how the swan plunges his neck into the depths of the water to draw his food from it, and you will understand the wisdom of the Creator in giving this creature a neck longer than his feet, so that he may throw it like a line, and take the food hidden at the bottom of the water. 8. If we simply read the words of Scripture we find only a few short syllables. Let the waters bring forth fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven, but if we enquire into the meaning of these words, then the great wonder of the wisdom of the Creator appears. What a difference He has foreseen among winged creatures! How He has divided them by kinds! How He has characterized each one of them by distinct qualities! But the day will not suffice me to recount the wonders of the air. Earth is calling me to describe wild beasts, reptiles and cattle, ready to show us in her turn sights rivalling those of plants, fish, and birds. Let the earth bring forth the living soul of domestic animals, of wild beasts, and of reptiles after their kind. What have you to say, you who do not believe in the change that Paul promises you in the resurrection, when you see so many metamorphoses among creatures of the air? What are we not told of the horned worm of India! First it changes into a caterpillar, then becomes a buzzing insect, and not content with this form, it clothes itself, instead of wings, with loose, broad plates. Thus, O women, when you are seated busy with your weaving, I mean of the silk which is sent you by the Chinese to make your delicate dresses, remember the metamorphoses of this creature, conceive a clear idea of the resurrection, and do not refuse to believe in the change that Paul announces for all men. But I am ashamed to see that my discourse oversteps the accustomed limits; if I consider the abundance of matters on which I have just discoursed to you, I feel that I am being borne beyond bounds; but when I reflect upon the inexhaustible wisdom which is displayed in the works of creation, I seem to be but at the beginning of my story. Nevertheless, I have not detained you so long without profit. For what would you have done until the evening? You are not pressed by guests, nor expected at banquets. Let me then employ this bodily fast to rejoice your souls. You have often served the flesh for pleasure, today persevere in the ministry of the soul. Delight yourself also in the Lord and he shall give you the desire of your heart. Do you love riches? Here are spiritual riches. The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold and precious stones. Do you love enjoyment and pleasures? Behold the oracles of the Lord, which, for a healthy soul, are sweeter than honey and the honey-comb. If I let you go, and if I dismiss this assembly, some will run to the dice, where they will find bad language, sad quarrels and the pangs of avarice. There stands the devil, inflaming the fury of the players with the dotted bones, transporting the same sums of money from one side of the table to the other, now exalting one with victory and throwing the other into despair, now swelling the first with boasting and covering his rival with confusion. Of what use is bodily fasting and filling the soul with innumerable evils? He who does not play spends his leisure elsewhere. What frivolities come from his mouth! What follies strike his ears! Leisure without the fear of the Lord is, for those who do not know the value of time, a school of vice. I hope that my words will be profitable; at least by occupying you here they have prevented you from sinning. Thus the longer I keep you, the longer you are out of the way of evil. An equitable judge will deem that I have said enough, not if he considers the riches of creation, but if he thinks of our weakness and of the measure one ought to keep in that which tends to pleasure. Earth has welcomed you with its own plants, water with its fish, air with its birds; the continent in its turn is ready to offer you as rich treasures. But let us put an end to this morning banquet, for fear satiety may blunt your taste for the evening one. May He who has filled all with the works of His creation and has left everywhere visible memorials of His wonders, fill your hearts with all spiritual joys in Jesus Christ, our Lord, to whom belong glory and power, world without end. Amen.

The soul of brute beasts did not emerge after having been hidden in the earth, but it was called into existence of the time of the command.

"Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds: cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds." Consider the word of God moving through all creation, having begun at that time, active up to the present and efficacious until the end, even to the consummation of the world. As a ball, when pushed by someone and then meeting with a slope, is borne downward by its own shape and the inclination of the ground and does not stop before some level surface receives it, so too the nature of existing objects, set in motion by one command, passes through creation, without change, by generation and destruction, preserving the succession of the species through resemblance, until it reaches the very end.

Let us glorify the Master Craftsman for all that has been done wisely and skillfully, and from the beauty of the visible things let us form an idea of him who is more than beautiful. And from the greatness of these perceptible and circumscribed bodies let us conceive of him who is infinite and immense and who surpasses all understanding in the plenitude of his power. For even if we are ignorant of things made, yet at least that which in general comes under our observation is so wonderful that even the most acute mind is shown to be at a loss as regards the least of the things in the world, either in the ability to explain it worthily or to render due praise to the Creator, to whom be all glory, honor and power forever.

God also said: Let the earth produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creeping things, and wild animals according to their species. And it was so. After the heavens were adorned with stars, after the air, which due to its proximity deserved the name of heaven, was filled with flying creatures, and after the waters, which are closely connected by nature to the air, were enriched with their animals, from which also rains, snows, hail, and the like derive, it was fitting that the earth too should be filled with its own animals, that is, those born from itself. For it also has a chief connection with the waters, for without their moisture and irrigation, it can neither bear fruit nor even sustain itself, as Peter attests, who says: For the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by God's word (II Peter 3:5). Therefore, God commands the earth to produce livestock, and creeping things, and wild animals; because under the true name of wild animals, everything that rages with mouth or claws, except for serpents, is understood to be comprehended, but the name of creeping things on the earth also includes serpents, and by the name of livestock are designated the animals that are in the use of humans. Where therefore the condition of the other four-footed animals is described, for example, deer, roe deer, antelopes, and goats, and similar creatures, unless perhaps we should say that these also, due to the wildness of their untamed nature, are numbered among the wild animals, according to the old translation, in which it is written: Let the earth bring forth a living soul according to its kind: four-footed creatures, and creeping things, and wild animals, there is no question at all, because under the name of four-footed creatures, all are comprehended which, except for wild animals and creeping things, the earth produced, whether those under human care or those that are wild and in the field.

There is the adornment of opaque nature, namely the earth, and this was accomplished on the sixth day, on which beasts were made, and creeping things were made, and also for the consummation of all things human nature was made.

God said: "Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds: cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds." Different natures of animals sprang forth from the one earth at a single command—the gentle sheep and the carnivorous lion—and the various tendencies of irrational animals that display analogies to various human characteristics. Thus the fox typifies the craftiness of men, the snake the venomous treachery of friends and the neighing horse the wanton young man. There is the busy ant to rouse the indolent and sluggish; for when a man spends an idle youth, then he is instructed by the irrational creatures, being chided by the sacred Scripture, which says, "Go to the ant, O sluggard, and considering her ways, emulate her and become wiser than she." For when you observe her treasuring up food for herself in good season, imitate her. Treasure up for yourself the fruits of good works for the world to come.

After Moses spoke about the creation of the swarming things and of the birds and the sea serpents on the fifth day, he turned to write about the creeping things and the animals and the beasts that were created on the sixth day, saying, "And God said, 'Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds: cattle and reptiles and beasts.'" [ Gen1:24 ] Although the entire earth was swarming with swarming things, nevertheless the cattle and the beasts were made on the border of Paradise so that they might dwell at the appointed place of Adam. ,

Then the entire earth stirred with creeping things as it had been commanded. The earth also brought forth the beasts of the field as companions to the wild beasts, and it brought forth as many beasts as would be useful for the service of that one who, on that very day, was to transgress the commandment of his Lord.

It wasn't simply for our use that he produced all these things; it was also for our benefit in the sense that we might see the overflowing abundance of his creatures and be overwhelmed at the Creator's power, and be in a position to know that all these things were produced by a certain wisdom and ineffable love out of regard for the human being that was destined to come into being.

"And God said: Let the earth bring forth the living soul according to its kind, four-footed things and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kind. And it was made so. And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kind, and all the creeping things of the earth according to their kind. And God saw that they are good." According to the letter indeed there is no question. For it is plainly said that either the animals or the four-footed things or the beasts or the serpents upon the earth were created by God. But to fit these to the things which we explained above, according to the spiritual understanding, is not an idle matter. There indeed it was said: "Let the waters bring forth creeping things of living souls and flying things flying over the earth according to the firmament of heaven," but here it says: "Let the earth bring forth the living soul according to its kind, four-footed things and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kind." And those things indeed which were brought forth from the waters, we said, ought to be understood as the movements and thoughts of our mind, which are brought forth from the depth of the heart. But now this which is said: "Let the earth bring forth the living soul according to its kind, of the four-footed things and creeping things and beasts upon the earth according to their kind," I think indicates the movements of our exterior man, that is, of the carnal and earthly man. Indeed he indicated nothing flying among those things which he speaks of concerning the flesh, but only "four-footed things" and "creeping things" and "beasts of the earth." According indeed to that which was said by the Apostle, that "there dwells no good in my flesh" and that "the wisdom of the flesh is an enemy to God," these surely are the things which the earth, that is, our flesh, brings forth, concerning which the Apostle again instructs, saying: "Mortify your members which are upon the earth, fornication, uncleanness, unchastity, avarice, idolatry," and the rest. When, therefore, all these things which are seen came to be by the command of God through his Word, and this immense visible world was being prepared, and at the same time it was being shown through the figure of allegory what the things were that could adorn the lesser world, that is, man, then man himself is now created according to the things which are declared in what follows.

The saying that man and animals have a like beginning in generation is true of the body; for all animals alike are made of earth. But it is not true of the soul. For the souls of brutes are produced by some power of the body; whereas the human soul is produced by God. To signify this it is written as to other animals: "Let the earth bring forth the living soul" (Genesis 1:24): while of man it is written (Genesis 2:7) that "He breathed into his face the breath of life."

And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds, and the cattle, and every creeping thing of the earth according to its kind. The change in words is to be noted, because above it is said that God commanded the earth to produce the beasts, and the cattle, and the creeping things, and the beasts of the earth; but now, in a changed order, God is said to have made the beasts of the earth and the cattle and every creeping thing of the earth; and it is to be understood that everything which was willed happened faster than said; and it matters not that human speech first names in the order of creatures what divine power created all at once.

But when it follows: And God saw that it was good, it is rightly asked why it is not added here what was said of the creatures brought forth from the waters: And He blessed them, saying: Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. Is it perhaps because what was said by God about the first creation of the living soul commended, He left us to understand the same about the second? Especially since in the works of this day He would later add many other things; moreover, concerning man, He took care to necessarily iterate this, saying: And God blessed them, and said: Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, lest anyone think that the honorable union was to be compared to sinful and disgraceful fornication. But when the worldly dwelling place was made and adorned, it remained that the inhabitant himself, for whom all things were being prepared, the man and master of things, should be created, it follows:

Beasts: by "beasts," wild animals such as bears and lions are designated. According to their kinds: animals and plants may be said to be produced according to their kinds, to signify their remoteness from the Divine image and likeness, whereas man is said to be made "to the image and likeness of God." Cattle: By "cattle," domestic animals are signified, which in any way are of service to man: everything that creepeth: By "creeping things" those animals are meant which either have no feet and cannot rise from the earth, as serpents, or those whose feet are too short to life them far from the ground, as the lizard and tortoise. But since certain animals, as deer and goats, seem to fall under none of these classes, the word "quadrupeds" is added. Or perhaps the word "quadruped" is used first as being the genus, to which the others are added as species, for even some reptiles, such as lizards and tortoises, are four-footed.

But let us define more accurately the meaning of the phrase "to the image of God." Is it true that the flesh is made "to the image of God"? In that case, is there earth in God, since flesh is of earth? Is God corporeal, that is to say, weak and subject like the flesh to the passions? Perhaps the head may seem to you to be made in the likeness of God because it stands aloft, or the eyes because they observe or the ears because they hear? As to the question of height, are we to consider ourselves to be tall just because we tower a little over the earth? Are we not ashamed to be thought of as like to God merely because we are taller than serpents or other creeping creatures or even than deer, sheep or wolves? In that respect, how much taller are elephants and camels in comparison with us! Sight is important to us in order to enable us to behold the things of the world and to have knowledge of what is not reported by any person but is grasped by our sense of sight. How significant, in fact, is this power of sight! Because of it we may be said to have the likeness of God, who sees all, observes all, comprehends our hidden emotions and searches into the secrets of our hearts! Am I not ashamed to admit that it is not in my power to see parts of my body? What is in front of me I can see, but I am unable to see what is behind me. I have no view of my neck or of the back of my head, and I cannot see my loins. In like manner, what avail is our sense of hearing if we cannot either see or hear what is only a short distance away? If walls should intervene, both sight and hearing are impeded. Furthermore, our bodies are fixed and enclosed in a narrow space, whereas all wild animals have a wider range and are also swifter than men. The flesh, therefore, cannot be made to the image of God. This is true, however, of our souls, which are free to wander far and wide in acts of reflection and of counsel. Our souls are able to envisage and reflect on all things. We who are now in Italy have in mind what seems to pertain to affairs in the East or in the West. We seem to have dealings with men who dwell in Persia. We envision those who have their homes in Africa, if there happen to be acquaintances of ours who enjoy the hospitality of that land. We accompany these people on their departure and draw near to them in their voyage abroad. We are one with them in their absence. Those who are separated far from us engage us in conversation. We arouse the dead even to mutual interchange of thoughts and embrace them as if they were still living. We even go to the point of conferring on these people the usages and customs of our daily life. That, therefore, is made to the image of God that is perceived not by the power of the body but by that of the mind. It is that power that beholds the absent and embraces in its vision countries beyond the horizon. Its vision crosses boundaries and gazes intently on what is hidden. In one moment the utmost bounds of the world and its remote secret places are under its ken. God is attained, and Christ is approached. There is a descent into hell, and aloft in the sky there is an ascent into heaven. Hear, then, what Scripture says: "But our citizenship is in heaven." Is not that, therefore, in which God is ever-present made to the likeness of God? Listen to what the apostle says in that regard: "We all, therefore, with faces unveiled, reflecting as in a mirror the glory of God, are being transformed into his very image from glory to glory, as through the Spirit of the Lord."

WHY, SINCE MAN AND WOMAN ARE ONE FLESH, IS MAN THE IMAGE OF GOD AND NOT WOMAN? — Man and woman are indeed of one substance, both in soul and in flesh; but man holds a higher rank, because woman is from man, as the Apostle says: “The head of the woman is the man” (Eph. 5:25; 1 Cor. 11:3). For it was the cause that made man greater, not the substance. In one body, too, there are greater and lesser members, not by nature, but by arrangement.

BY WHAT REASONING CAN THE WICKEDNESS OF ARIUS BE SIMPLY REFUTED FROM THE LAW? — If we grant authority to reason, the very meaning of the names “Father” and “Son” shows their unity. You ask, how? For the true Son of God would not be so called unless He had come forth from the substance of God the Father. Truth and justice in God would not permit Him to call someone “Son” truly if that Son were not from Himself. He is not truly the Son of God if He is not from Him. But Scripture says He is true; therefore He is from Him. Whoever denies that Christ was born of God does an injustice to Scripture, which calls Him the true Son of God precisely in order to signify that He was born of God. For if He is not from God, and yet is called the true Son of God, then Scripture is deceitful. But if Scripture does not deceive, then whoever does not confess that Christ came forth from God both nullifies Scripture and denies Christ to be the true Son of God. It is not will that makes a true Son, but birth. “But,” they say, “this falls under the power of God, that He can make what is false into true.” On the contrary, this is the power of God, for which He is worthy of all praise: that what is true with Him is true, and what is false is false. That is the mark of a liar, to call the false true; this does not apply to God. For God can indeed do all things, but He does nothing except what accords with His truth and justice. It is, then, clear that Christ is called the true Son of God so that He may be understood as His own Son, that is, born of His substance. Therefore the Apostle says: “He who did not spare His own Son” (Rom. 8:32); and in another Epistle: “Who, though He was in the form of God, did not count it robbery to be equal with God” (Phil. 2:6). If then He did not consider it robbery to declare Himself equal with God, He thereby showed Himself to be the true Son of God. For He could not be equal with God unless He were from Him. Those are equal who are either both true or both false. Beginning and eternal being, or unity, do not admit equality. By saying that He is one with the Father, Christ makes Himself equal to God. “For not only,” it says, “was He breaking the sabbath, but He also called God His Father, making Himself equal with God” (Jn. 5:18), that is, His peer. Is it not clear that this equality comes down from the property of His birth? In calling Himself God’s own Son, that is, His true Son, He made Himself equal with God. Therefore He says: “He who sees Me, sees also My Father” (Jn. 14:9). Because they are of one substance, he who sees one sees both. “For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted to the Son to have life in Himself” (Jn. 5:26); that is, the Father begot the Son equal to Himself; and “all that is the Father’s is the Son’s, and what is the Son’s is the Father’s” (Jn. 17:10); and “no one can snatch anything out of the Father’s hand, nor out of the Son’s hand” (cf. John 10:29). And He adds: “I and the Father are one” (Jn. 10:30); and, “The words that I speak to you, I do not speak from Myself; but the Father who dwells in Me, He Himself speaks; and the works that I do, He does. Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me; or else believe for the very works’ sake” (Jn. 14:10–12). Since generation is not from oneself but from the One who begets, therefore whatever He does, He calls it the Father’s work, so that by all these things it may be confirmed that Christ is called the true Son of God so that He may be believed to be born of Him, lest His substance be thought to lie outside the nature of the one God. His great humility is therefore His greatest praise. For when He appears to place Himself in subjection, saying, “The words that I speak to you, I do not speak from Myself; but the Father who dwells in Me, He Himself speaks; and the works that I do, He does,” (Jn.14:10) He proves that He has His origin from God and shows that He is His Power, since He says that what He is, is not from Himself but from Him. By this Christ is praised, not lowered. For one who speaks from himself is not a true Son. You see, then, that the Arians misunderstand Christ precisely where He ought to be rightly understood; and they reject Him and call Him false precisely where He is proved to be the true Son of God: for He asks to be glorified by the Father, and promises to glorify the Father whom He asks; and where He seems to humble Himself, He exalts Himself. For when the Father gives testimony to His Son, He bears witness to His own praise; and when the Son proclaims the Father, He reveals His own glory. The majesty and nobility of the Father are the nobility of the true Son. Therefore whatever is said to belong to the Father undoubtedly belongs also to the Son; and whatever is said to belong to the Son belongs also to the Father. For the Spirit is called the Spirit of God, and the same Spirit is called the Spirit of Christ. The Church is called the Church of God, and is called the Church of Christ. God is adored, and Christ is adored. Service is rendered to God, and service is rendered to Christ. The saints are called priests of God, and they are called priests of Christ. The temple of the holy city is said to be God’s, and likewise Christ’s. The holy city is said to be enlightened by the light of God, and in the same way by the light of Christ. It is the throne of God, and also of Christ. God is Judge, and Christ is Judge: for the prophet Isaiah saw the Lord of hosts seated on the throne of majesty, that is, Christ (Isa. 6:1), which the Arians do not deny. Of God the Father it is read that He is King of kings and Lord of lords (1 Tim. 6:15), and the same is read of Christ, the true Son of God (Rev. 17:14; 19:16). Therefore everywhere Father and Son are equated in divinity, so that the number of persons does not go beyond the measure of one God. Between Father and Son there is no difference except this alone: that the Father is unbegotten, but the Son begotten; that is, the Father is from no one, but the Son is from the Father, this, indeed, is sublime in the Son. For from this we learn the eternity of His nobility, and that He is the true Son of the true Father. From where comes that which is read in Genesis, where God says, “Let us make man in Our image and likeness” (Gen. 1:26)? Therefore, if their image and likeness are one, how are they not also one in nature? In spiritual realities, where there are, of course, no outward forms, nothing will be similar except by substance; so where the image of two is one, how will their substance not be one as well? Therefore, we read that their image and likeness are one and the same, so that we might believe that the one is in no way different from the other; that is, that Christ is truly the Son of God, because His birth is not unlike that of the One who begets Him. Finally, the Jews, understanding that He called God His own Father, said to Pilate, “We have a Law, and according to the Law He must die, because He made Himself the Son of God” (Jn. 19:7). The Jews understood, and Christians claim they do not understand? Those who did not believe, understood; and those who claim to believe, act so that they may not understand? At least let them admit this: the prophet Isaiah, in order to show that Christ is God, not from Himself indeed, but God from God, says among other things: “After you they shall come, bound in chains, and they shall worship you, and shall pray in you, for in you is God, and there is no God besides you. For you are God, and we did not know it; the God of Israel, the Savior” (Isa. 45:14–15). As far as an upright mind is concerned, these things are clear. By them the Father is shown to be in the Son, and the Son is shown to be God of the same substance as the Father. In Him in whom God is, and besides Him God is not, and He Himself is God, what else can He be said to be, but what God the Father is, and in no respect different? This is what it is for the two to be one. For God is in Him, because although He is God, He is not God from Himself. He is from the Father, because He is the Son. And besides Him there is no God, because He is the only-begotten Son of the Father. But He Himself is God, because the substance of God and of Christ is one and the same. Therefore no uncertainty is left, so that the substance of the Father and of the Son may be believed to be one. For He is the true Son of a true Father. So also is that saying of the prophet Jeremiah; for he says among other things: “This is our God, and another shall not be reckoned with Him. He found out every way of knowledge, and gave it to Jacob His servant, and to Israel His beloved. Afterward He was seen upon the earth and lived among men” (Baruch 3:36–38). Can this be said of one who is of inferior stock, with whom no other can be reckoned? Or can anything be said to be God other than the Father, such that it would advance to God as an insult to the Father? For if no other god can be reckoned with Him, and He is apart from God the Father, see whether what follows ought to be said, for it is dangerous. He would be said to be greater than the Father. Thinking that they are showing reverence to God the Father if they separate the Son from Him, they reduce from Him; so that Him whom they wish to make lesser, with wicked and blinded mind, they set above the One to whose authority they think He ought to bow. But Scripture, in order to teach that the Son differs in nothing from the Father (He would differ if He were not true), says that no other is to be reckoned with Him; because no other substance can be found similar to the substance of God, which is also that of Christ. For it could not teach in any other way that Christ is from God, than by saying that no other can be reckoned with Him. Knowing that the Son of God could in no way be called subject to God the Father, so as to show Him to be equal, it says, “No other shall be reckoned with Him”; because He is equal to God the Father, since He is God: for He is His true Son. Therefore the prophet says, “This is our God”; that is, the God of Israel. If this is He, He Himself is the one God. Of Him Scripture says, “Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one God” (Deut. 6:4); and surely this is not the Father, but His Son. You see then that the person of the Son does not prejudice the one God, if He also is called one God: since Scripture bears witness to this. Where does this come from, unless because the Father and the Son are one, since unity is signified not by persons but by nature? Or they are not two in substance, but one; nor two in divinity, but one God: so that whether the Father speaks or the Son speaks, it is said that one God has spoken. For if the Lord Himself, among other things, concerning male and female, says, “They are no longer two, but one flesh” (Mark 10:8); how much more are the Father and the Son not two gods, but one substance? Now that Father and Son are said to be two, the cause is birth; but that they are not again two gods, the cause is the unity of divinity. With what dullness then do they preach that Christ is created, that is, made, when it is read that God made nothing without Christ (Jn. 1:3)? If therefore nothing was made without Him, He Himself will not be a thing made. For if He is a thing made, something was made without Him. But far be it; for nothing was without Him. Being born of God, He did not begin to exist, but has always existed. For birth is nothing else than proceeding forth; and proceeding forth is revealing. Therefore He was not made, but brought forth. And in order that Christ might be shown to have gone forth or proceeded from the essence of God, His birth was called a proceeding forth; so that, because His birth is not unlike the Begetter, Christ’s consubstantiality with God might be beyond doubt, and that mind which says, “There was a time when He was not,” might be condemned. For He who is read to have proceeded from God, in order that He might be shown to have always been with God, cannot at some time not have been. No one proceeds from God in a place where he was not. The Arians are accustomed to interpret therefore about the Son of God, saying, “Therefore Christ is called the true Son of God, because God made Him in such a way that He is true.” As though there were something false that God makes. And all those things which we said above about the unity of the Father and the Son, what will they be, when they have been so strengthened and confirmed, if it is thought that one must feel differently here? Will many things solidified by divine visions be able to be torn apart by the single testimony of one degenerate? Nevertheless this must be cut off, lest iniquity flatter itself even about this very point. “So,” they say, “He made Him in such a way that He is true, so that will was put in place of birth, and making in place of begetting. For so much must be granted,” they say, “to the power of God, that He can make things which are not, as though they were. Since they rely on this cunning trickery against the Son of God, we must answer them from those very points on which they believe, because they are already convicted in other matters, so that they may appear convicted in the whole sum. For this proposition, as far as its meaning is concerned, has no weight; but as far as the words are concerned, it creates obscurity so that the issue does not quickly appear. For it is as if an Egyptian were placed in the dark, because a bad cause cannot be defended with a good meaning. Therefore, to defend their wickedness, they use sacrilegious words. If, then, this is the power of God, that He could make it true that Christ is His Son, though He was not born from His own being; then He made Him such as He Himself is, so that what generation was going to bestow, the making has accomplished. If, therefore, you say there is no difference between God and Christ, it might perhaps be doubted whether this is not asserted by you unkindly, so that what is said in word might also be in meaning: that because He is called true Son, He may be understood as true, through the fact that He is of one substance with the Father, though not by generation but by making; since, as you say, God can do everything, so that what is made may be as though it were not made. But if, following the rule of reason, you say that what has a beginning cannot be equal and consubstantial with that which is eternal, you lay bare the deceit of your hatred: for, in order to evade the meaning of the word, you falsely say that Christ is truly the Son of God, while denying Him equality with God the Father. For He is not true if He is unequal. Can He be called a true Son, if the Father is not also called true? For if the Son is true, the Father will also be true; and equality proves this truth. But if they are unequal, neither of them is true. Yet since the witness of the Scriptures, by which Christ is approved as the true Son of God, cannot be made void, He must be believed to be born of God the Father: because, in order that this truth might be established, He is read as both equal to and on a par with God. But you, who proclaim the immeasurable power of God, say that God cannot beget, because His nature is simple; and by this you also do an insult to God the Father Himself. For you call Him a liar, since you deny the Son whom He declares to be His own and true; and you betray your hypocrisy, because you falsely proclaim God to be powerful. For if you proclaim the power of God in that which you assert to have been made true out of what was false, so as to mock what is true, how much more ought you to accept this, if you were of sound mind, whereby what is called true is proved true, and the testimony that God the Father gave about His Son is confirmed as true? For the Lord said, “With God,” He says, “all things are possible” (Matt. 19:26), so that whatever seems impossible to men may be possible to God. For if the reasoning of the flesh is followed, neither did a Virgin give birth, nor did Jonah live in the belly of the whale (Jonah 2:1), nor will the dead rise, nor did God beget a Son, because a simple nature cannot beget, since in this world nothing is generated without mixture. All these things must either be believed together or refuted together. For if the reasoning of the world must be maintained, it should have authority in all these matters. But if there is some reasoning proper to spiritual things, he must be called carnal who, infected with the reasoning of the world, denies that anything can be done otherwise than he knows. They are also accustomed to propose something else with their usual evasion. They say, “Did the Father beget the Son by will, or not?” so that when they hear, of course, that it was by will, they may at once, as enemies of the Son of God, reply, “Therefore the will is before the Son,” so that from this He may appear not eternal, since He did not receive a beginning by birth, but came into existence. And yet if they think this, not only will the will be before the Son, but also before the Father; because the cause of generation is the Father and the Son. Unbelief follows carnal notions in everything. For it introduces the cause of God as if He were a man, as though He had first considered and devised that He should beget, as if subject to weakness; whereas in God neither was there generation without will, nor will without generation. For the will itself is generation. Indeed, it is a common expression, “God made,” “man made”; but God makes in one way, man makes in another; and so also in other causes. Therefore must we speak of God as is worthy of Him. They also raise another question about God the Father Himself, saying, “Did it come to Him that He should beget, or is it of His nature always to beget?” They bring this forward so that they may also assert that God is a liar, who testifies that He has begotten Christ, and that they may make Christ not true, but adopted. For, they say, if He has begotten, He must always beget; so that, because He does not always beget, He may not be believed to have begotten Christ: as though it were denied that He made the world, because He does not make others. What disrespect, what lack of discipline it is, to lay down a law for God, so that if He has begotten, He must either have begotten many, or could not have begotten one; not even believing the Lord Himself, who declared Himself the only-begotten Son of God. After these things which have been shown above to be equal in the Father and the Son, let us see whether what is written about the Holy Spirit agrees with them, so that the Trinity which we hold in our saving profession may not admit a difference of nature, just as it has no diversity of faith. For although there is no salvation without any one of these, yet their power appears to be one, which gives salvation to those who believe in it. Since we have brought forward the words of the Father as testimony to the Son, now, as testimony to the Holy Spirit, let us use the words of the Son, by which he declares that the Holy Spirit does not differ from himself: so that, as the Father is witness with the Son, and the Son is witness to the Holy Spirit, the Trinity may be understood to be of one nature. The Lord therefore says among other things: I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Paraclete, that he may be with you forever, the Spirit of truth (Jn. 14:16–17). When he says that another Paraclete is to be sent, he clearly shows that he himself is a Paraclete. For this is read also in the Epistle of John; he says: We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, who intercedes for our sins (1 Jn. 2:1). And again the Lord says, I am the truth (Jn. 14:6). Behold the clear unity of the Holy Spirit and the Son of God. For what the Son says about himself, he says likewise about the Holy Spirit. Now we must set forth what Scripture arranges in this sense. It is read in Isaiah that he saw the Lord of hosts seated on a throne of majesty (Isa. 6:1), whom John the Evangelist understood to be Christ, saying among other things, These things said Isaiah when he saw his majesty, and spoke about him (Jn. 12:41). The Apostle says that this one is the Holy Spirit. For he says in the last part of the Acts of the Apostles, Well did the Holy Spirit speak to your fathers, saying, With hearing you shall hear and shall not understand, etc. (Acts 28:25–26). These words were spoken by the Lord of hosts. This is the one God, who, whether he be understood as the Father, or the Son, or the Holy Spirit, is not contrary to himself, because one is their divinity and one their power. For if, in an decree from the praetorium of one captain, the other captains also are said to command, because of the authority of a single power, how much more, under the rule of one God, if one of the three has spoken, will it not be unsuitable to say that the three have spoken? For their nature and will are one. They are also accustomed to prejudice the Holy Spirit by claiming that he must therefore be considered inferior, because he is placed third in order; though there is such simplicity in the divine Scriptures that you sometimes find the third placed first. As the occasion requires, so they are set down. For it is no injury to any of them, because one is their divinity. Indeed we read in Isaiah, with the Lord saying, I am the first, and I am forever: and my hand founded the earth, and my right hand established heaven. And in what follows: I have spoken, I have called, I have brought him, and I have made his way prosperous. Come near to me, and hear these things: I have not spoken in secret from the beginning: from the time that they came to be, I was there, and now the Lord has sent me and his Spirit (Isa. 48:12–13, 15–16). Whom do you suppose to be the one who founded the earth? For it is he who says that he has been sent. Is it the Father? Far from it. It is therefore the Son who says that he has been sent by God and by the Holy Spirit. Behold the equality between the Son and the Holy Spirit. For just as the Holy Spirit is read to have been sent by the Father and the Son, so Christ is sent by God and by the Holy Spirit. For this is proper to the Father alone, that he should not be said to be sent. Consider the words of the Apostle, who in another order embraces the Trinity: for he says among other things in the second Epistle to the Thessalonians, May the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the patience of Christ (2 Thess. 3:5). Whom do you think he calls “the Lord,” if not the Holy Spirit? And what is strange in this, since he whom Isaiah saw seated on the throne of majesty, this same one he calls the Holy Spirit, the Lord of hosts, as we showed above. And the Apostle John signifies that God is understood in the Holy Spirit, saying among other things, In this we have known that God remains in us, by the Holy Spirit whom he has given us (1 Jn. 4:13). If therefore it is through his Spirit that he himself remains in us, it is not in doubt that the Holy Spirit is of God. And there is no question that whatever is of God is God. From this the Apostle says, No one knows the things that are in God except the Spirit of God (1 Cor. 2:11). How can he know the things that are in God unless he is of the same divinity? For a lower nature cannot know what is in a higher; how much less could a creature know what was in its Creator? And to the Corinthians, in the first Epistle, departing from the usual order which is in the tradition of the faith, he begins with the Holy Spirit when he recalls the workings of graces and mysteries; and he adds the Lord Jesus; and in the third place he sets God, whom he says to be working in the Holy Spirit and in the Lord (ibid. 12:4–6): just as the Lord also says, The Father, remaining in me, he himself does the works (Jn. 14:10). For through that by which the Holy Spirit and Christ are “of God the Father,” their working is the work of God. In fact he calls the Holy Spirit also “Lord,” and he calls the Lord also “God,” because of the unity of nature. Therefore, since in this place he says that the same one who is God and Lord works all things in all, he concludes below, saying, But all these things are worked by one and the same Spirit, distributing to each as he wills (1 Cor. 12:11). What is more evident, that the three have one operation? For when one works, the three are said to work; why, except because they are of one divinity? For there is no doubt that the gift of graces is properly worked by the Holy Spirit. But in order to teach that God and Lord and the Holy Spirit are one because of the sameness of nature, he shows that the work of the Holy Spirit is the work of the three. And to make clear that, as far as person is concerned, this work is the Holy Spirit’s alone, he says, But all these things are worked by one and the same Spirit, distributing to each as he wills. Therefore he acts as he wills, because his will is the will of God. For he does not say “as God wills,” but “as the Spirit wills.” A creature compels itself to do the will of God; but the Holy Spirit wills this by nature. And in order that it may clearly shine forth that the Holy Spirit works all things, the Lord says among other things: “If I by the finger of God cast out devils,” etc. (Luke 11:20). He calls the Holy Spirit the finger of God, to prove that He is from God. Finally, He testifies that the Jews, who said that He cast out devils by Beelzebub, the prince of devils, blasphemed against the Holy Spirit. Moses also, because he worked signs through the Holy Spirit, is acknowledged by the magicians, who say, “This is the finger of God” (Exod. 8:19). For in the Acts of the Apostles we read: “As they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said: Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them” (Acts 13:2). Behold, service is rendered to the Lord, and the Holy Spirit claims this for Himself. From this it plainly appears that He is Lord, just as God the Father is. And Christ called Saul from heaven and sent him to preach (Acts 9:4); and in like manner the Holy Spirit claims this for Himself, saying, “for the work to which I have called them.” For no one is ignorant that the Savior appointed bishops for the Churches. Indeed, before He ascended into heaven, laying His hand upon the Apostles, He ordained them as bishops. The Apostle attributes this to the Holy Spirit when he says: “Take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you bishops, to rule the Church of the Lord Jesus” (Acts 20:28). And among other things Peter says to Ananias: “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart, that you should lie to the Holy Spirit?” And further on, he says: “You have not lied to men, but to God” (Acts 5:3–4). It is clear that the Holy Spirit is called God, since Ananias, who lied to the Holy Spirit, is said to have lied to God. If he had in no way wished the Holy Spirit to be understood as God, he would have said, “You have not lied to men, but to the Holy Spirit,” so that he would indicate Him as neither God nor man. And what is surprising in this? For the Apostle at one time calls a man the temple of God (2 Cor. 6:16), and at another time the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 6:19), because by nature they are one. For if the Holy Spirit were in no way understood to be God, with what boldness would he later say, “The temple of God is holy, and that temple are you” (2 Cor. 3:17)? For one God is proclaimed in all the Scriptures; but His mystery is adored in the Trinity. Therefore Scripture so speaks, that under the profession of one God, the things which are of Him, that is, His Son and His Holy Spirit, are understood to be in the same honor in which God Himself is. For the mystery of God has been revealed in order that His glory might be signified in the Trinity. Wherefore, what is from God is not called God with full authority, lest it be believed that another is made apart from Him who is the One. But understanding is given, so that we may believe that in this manner the salvation of the creature consists in the Trinity, because one is their divinity. For neither could the Creator and the creatures, the Lord and the servants, eternity and those things that are under a beginning, be joined together and placed in the same order, since without one of them salvation is for none. For everything that is God, whether the Son or the Holy Spirit, is called so to its injury, if it is reckoned outside the honor and glory of the one God. Therefore the Scriptures show Christ to be God, they show the Holy Spirit to be God, so that, seeing, they may know what He is who is shown. It is as if someone were to show a gem without crying out that it is a gem: just because he does not cry out, will that which is seen not be a gem? In the same way, through the things discussed above, the Scriptures show what we ought to believe, enclosing our understanding within the faith of the one God, in the mystery of the Trinity.

HOW MAN WAS MADE IN THE IMAGE OF GOD, AND WHETHER THIS WAS FOR DOMINION, AND WHETHER WOMAN TOO? — “Let us make,” he says, “man in our image and likeness” (Gen. 1:26). Some think this should be understood in light of another passage of Scripture, namely that in which we read that God said, “Come, let us go down and confuse their languages” (Gen. 11:7). For, as far as outward appearance goes, it seems similar: it is one voice speaking in the plural; but it differs in meaning, because the reasons are not the same. There, he speaks of creating man, whom God wills to be created in his image and likeness. But when he says, “Come, let us go down and confuse their languages,” this refers to the fact that men should not understand one another; therefore God can be seen as speaking to the angels, like a commander to his army. He speaks in common, because he was going to act through them, as their Creator; and therefore he says, “Let us confuse their languages.” For when he says, “Let us make man in our image and likeness,” it cannot be said that he spoke to the angels, because one cannot say that there is one single image of God and of the angels, as of an emperor and his companions. For where there is one single image, the dignity and nature cannot be different. Accordingly he added, “And God made man; in the image of God he made him” (Gen. 1:27): so that it is God who said, and God who made; not another or a different god, but the same God. For when one speaks to one, he did not signify a different nature, but a person. For although God is one, there are nonetheless three persons: and therefore there is one God, because whether in the Son or in the Holy Spirit, there is the one substance of God; for what proceeds from that substance cannot fail to be what he himself is. Therefore the person of God the Father is the one who says, “Let us make”; and the person of the Son is the one who makes man in the image of God; whether in the image of the Father or of himself, it makes no difference, because the image of both is one. Moreover, the Son made through the Holy Spirit. For just as the Father is said to make through the Son, so also the Son through the Holy Spirit, since he himself says, “I cast out demons by the Spirit of God” (Matt. 12:28). Therefore one image belongs to the three; because whether Father, Son, or Holy Spirit, there is one God. And consequently man was made one in the image of the one God. Man is the image of God in this respect, that just as there is one God in heaven, from whom all spiritual beings have their existence, so there should be one man on earth, from whom the rest would have their carnal origin. Yet some think that man was made in the image of God with respect to God’s dominion; and because it says, “And let him have dominion over the fish of the sea, and the birds of the air, and all the earth,” whereas not only the man but also the woman is seen to have these things subject to her, though it is certain that she does not have the image of God. This indeed fails in reason on two counts: for in that case it would be asserted that God did not say to the Son, “Let us make man in our image and likeness,” but to the heavenly dominions which the Apostle mentions, if man has the image of God in dominion; and it would be given to the woman, so that she too would be the image of God, which is absurd. For how can it be said of the woman that she is the image of God, when it is certain that she is subject to the rule of the man and has no authority? She can neither teach, nor act as a witness, nor pronounce a legal decision, nor judge; how much less can she exercise command?

WHAT IT IS TO HAVE MADE MAN IN THE IMAGE AND LIKENESS OF GOD; AND WHETHER WOMAN IS THE IMAGE OF GOD. — What it is to be in the image and likeness of God, although we have said elsewhere, yet this place and its occasion require that we say it again. The words are from the Father to the Son, saying, Let us make man in our image and likeness: although in the work the person of both is understood, of Him who speaks and of Him who hears. This then is the image of God in man, that one man was made as it were a lord, from whom the rest would arise, having the dominion of God as His vicar; for every king bears the image of God. Therefore woman was not made in the image of God. Therefore it says, And God made man; in the image of God He made him. Therefore it is that the Apostle says, A man indeed ought not to cover his head, because he is the image and glory of God; but the woman covers it for this reason, because she is not the glory or image of God (1 Cor. 11:7). The likeness of God in man is this, that just as from the Father is the Son, so from man is woman. In this plainly there is a difference, because she was made, whereas He was born. Yet to some it seems that God made all things at once. For, they say, if He made by His word, why is it not said that He made everything at once? For it is the custom among men to believe that things are made in stages. For the power of God it seems more fitting if it is said that He made all things in one day. However, we see great providence in this work and order. For He could certainly have made all things together; but diverse reason forbade it, and with all these matters set apart, faith must be given to divine Scripture, which says, and often says, For in six days, it says, the Lord your God made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them (Exod. 20:11). First then, they ought to have been made in such a way that they might feel and know that they had been made: for when they did not all see themselves at once, but one today, another tomorrow, they recognized that they are contained in a beginning, and in no way could they suspect eternity, since they recognize each other in parts. For if all things had existed at once, there would be no sense of weakness for them, but they would think that they had not begun. For those things which suddenly exist all together by the word of God do not feel themselves being made, unless they see something before themselves and something after themselves. And lest that which was made first might think itself unmade, by seeing greater things made after itself, it believes of itself what it has seen in the other that is nobler. Finally, the light which is called day has before itself heaven and earth, that is, water and dry land. But when water itself and dry land and the confused darkness had been made, they could not claim eternity for themselves, because none of these dared to claim for itself fixedness and identity. Again, the sun and moon, though they are most bright, have many things before them. Therefore it was brought about that the greater things are later, and the earlier lesser things, when they see each other, none of these claims eternity for itself. Furthermore, the work completed in six days contains within itself the whole age of the world, so that the works of six days have the figure of six thousand years: because what in each age was going to happen is contained in order in the works of the six days; for instance, because in the earlier ages there was not going to be such great knowledge of God upon the earth, the earlier days appear without splendor; and that cattle were made before man, because our forefathers, uncultivated and rural, were going to live in the manner of cattle; but that man should be made on the sixth day, this event was brought about because in the sixth millennium of years the coming of Christ made man so that he should not be subject to death. And that man should be the image of God, because by God’s gift he would be conformed in image to the Son of God, as the apostle John says, We know, he says, that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him (1 Jn. 3:2). And the Vessel of election: being conformed, he says, to the image of the Son of God (Rom. 8:29). Moreover, the tree of life which was set in paradise was the image of God’s future grace, which is the body of the Lord; whoever eats it will live forever. For the tree of the knowledge of good and evil signifies that the Law was given through Moses, which, when it made sin known that previously lay hidden, gave the knowledge of good and evil. For it showed what was good and what was evil. And as to the fact that on the seventh day He rested from His works, this signifies that, once the sixth millennium of years is completed, in the seventh millennium He will rest, with the world ceasing from all secular work. We have said these few things out of many, so that we might open a path for understanding according to what we have shown above.

But this is God's kindness to man, that of whom He is Maker, of them according to grace He afterwards becomes Father also; becomes, that is, when men, His creatures, receive into their hearts, as the Apostle says, 'the Spirit of His Son, crying, Abba, Father.' And these are they who, having received the Word, gained power from Him to become sons of God; for they could not become sons, being by nature creatures, otherwise than by receiving the Spirit of the natural and true Son. Wherefore, that this might be, 'The Word became flesh,' that He might make man capable of Godhead. This same meaning may be gained also from the Prophet Malachi, who says, 'Hath not One God created us? Have we not all one Father?' for first he puts 'created,' next 'Father,' to shew, as the other writers, that from the beginning we were creatures by nature, and God is our Creator through the Word; but afterwards we were made sons, and thenceforward God the Creator becomes our Father also. Therefore 'Father' is proper to the Son; and not 'creature,' but 'Son' is proper to the Father. Accordingly this passage also proves, that we are not sons by nature, but the Son who is in us; and again, that God is not our Father by nature, but of that Word in us, in whom and because of whom we 'cry, Abba, Father.' And so in like manner, the Father calls them sons in whomsoever He sees His own Son, and says, 'I begat;' since begetting is significant of a Son, and making is indicative of the works. And thus it is that we are not begotten first, but made; for it is written, 'Let Us make man;' but afterwards, on receiving the grace of the Spirit, we are said thenceforth to be begotten also; just as the great Moses in his Song with an apposite meaning says first 'He bought,' and afterwards 'He begat;' lest, hearing 'He begat,' they might forget their own original nature; but that they might know that from the beginning they are creatures, but when according to grace they are said to be begotten, as sons, still no less than before are men works according to nature.

Sometimes the meaning is altogether latent, as in Genesis: "Let us make man after our image and likeness." Both let us make and our is said in the plural, and ought not to be received except as of relatives. For it was not that gods might make, or make after the image and likeness of gods; but that the Father, and Son, and Holy Spirit might make after the image of the Father, and Son, and Holy Spirit, that man might subsist as the image of God. And God is the Trinity. But because that image of God was not made altogether equal to Him, as being not born of Him, but created by Him; in order to signify this, he is in such way the image as that he is "after the image," that is, he is not made equal by parity, but approaches to Him by a sort of likeness. For approach to God is not by intervals of place, but by likeness, and withdrawal from Him is by unlikeness. ... For how our, when the Son is the image of the Father alone? But man is said to be "after the image," on account, as we have said, of the inequality of the likeness; and therefore after our image, that man might be the image of the Trinity; not equal to the Trinity as the Son is equal to the Father, but approaching to it, as has been said, by a certain likeness; just as nearness may in a sense be signified in things distant from each other, not in respect of place, but of a sort of imitation.

No doubt every thing in the creatures which is in any way like God, is not also to be called His image; but that alone than which He Himself alone is higher. For that only is in all points copied from Him, between which and Himself no nature is interposed.

For God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness;" and a little after it is said, "So God created man in the image of God." Certainly, in that it is of the plural number, the word "our" would not be rightly used if man were made in the image of one person, whether of the Father, or of the Son, or of the Holy Spirit; but because he was made in the image of the Trinity, on that account it is said, "After our image." But again, lest we should think that three Gods were to be believed in the Trinity, whereas the same Trinity is one God, it is said, "So God created man in the image of God," instead of saying, "In His own image."

Does not the light of theology shine, in these words, as through windows; and does not the second Person show Himself in a mystical way, without yet manifesting Himself until the great day? Where is the Jew who resisted the truth and pretended that God was speaking to Himself? It is He who spoke, it is said, and it is He who made. Let there be light and there was light. But then their words contain a manifest absurdity. Where is the smith, the carpenter, the shoemaker, who, without help and alone before the instruments of his trade, would say to himself; let us make the sword, let us put together the plough, let us make the boot? Does he not perform the work of his craft in silence? Strange folly, to say that any one has seated himself to command himself, to watch over himself, to constrain himself, to hurry himself, with the tones of a master! But the unhappy creatures are not afraid to calumniate the Lord Himself. What will they not say with a tongue so well practised in lying? Here, however, words stop their mouth; And God said let us make man. Tell me; is there then only one Person? It is not written Let man be made, but, Let us make man. The preaching of theology remains enveloped in shadow before the appearance of him who was to be instructed, but, now, the creation of man is expected, that faith unveils herself and the dogma of truth appears in all its light. Let us make man. O enemy of Christ, hear God speaking to His Co-operator, to Him by Whom also He made the worlds, Who upholds all things by the word of His power. But He does not leave the voice of true religion without answer. Thus the Jews, race hostile to truth, when they find themselves pressed, act like beasts enraged against man, who roar at the bars of their cage and show the cruelty and the ferocity of their nature, without being able to assuage their fury. God, they say, addresses Himself to several persons; it is to the angels before Him that He says, Let us make man. Jewish fiction! A fable whose frivolity shows whence it has come. To reject one person, they admit many. To reject the Son, they raise servants to the dignity of counsellors; they make of our fellow slaves the agents in our creation. The perfect man attains the dignity of an angel; but what creature can be like the Creator? Listen to the continuation. In our image. What have you to reply? Is there one image of God and the angels? Father and Son have by absolute necessity the same form, but the form is here understood as becomes the divine, not in bodily shape, but in the proper qualities of Godhead. Hear also, you who belong to the new concision Philippians 3:2 and who, under the appearance of Christianity, strengthen the error of the Jews. To Whom does He say, in our image, to whom if it is not to Him who is the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, Hebrews 1:3 the image of the invisible God? Colossians 1:15 It is then to His living image, to Him Who has said I and my Father are one, John 10:30 He that has seen me has seen the Father, John 14:9 that God says Let us make man in our image. Where is the unlikeness in these Beings who have only one image?

And He said: Let us make man in our image and likeness. Now it appears more clearly why it is said of the created herbs and trees, fishes and birds, also terrestrial animals, that each was made according to its kind and species. For it was foreseen that his creation was coming, who would not only correspond by similarity and species to his own kind but would also be made in the image and likeness of his Creator. The nobility of this creation is also testified by the fact that, unlike the other creatures, God did not say: Let man be made, and man was made; or: Let the earth bring forth man, and the earth brought forth man; but, before he was made, it is said: Let us make man, so that, because a rational creature was being created, it might seem as if he were made with counsel. As if he were formed with effort out of the earth and raised by the inspiration of the Creator with the power of the vital spirit, so that he might exist not by the command of voice but by the dignity of operation, because he was being made in the image of the Creator. When it is said, Let us make man in our image and likeness, the unity of the Holy Trinity is openly commended. Indeed, the same indivisible Trinity was mystically hinted at in the preceding formation of things, when it was said: And God said: Let it be done, and God made it; and God saw that it was good. But now this same is more manifestly suggested, when it is said: Let us make man in our image and likeness, and rightly so, because until he who was to be taught was, the proclamation of Deity was hidden in profundity; but when the creation of man began to be expected, faith was revealed, and the dogma of truth clearly shone forth. For in that it is said, Let us make, the operation of the three persons is shown; and in what follows, in our image and likeness, the one and equal substance of the same Holy Trinity is indicated. For how would it be one image and likeness if the Son were lesser than the Father, if the Holy Spirit were lesser than the Son, if the glory of the whole Trinity were not consubstantial of the same power? Or how would it be said, Let us make, if there were not cooperative power of the three persons in one deity? Nor could it be said by God to the angels, Let us make man in our image and likeness, because no reason at all allows that we believe the image or likeness of God and the angels to be one and the same. And concerning how man was made in the image and likeness of God, the Apostle testifies, as he diligently admonishes us to recover within ourselves, through the grace of the same Creator, this which we lost in the first parent. Renew yourselves, he says, in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new man, who is created according to God in justice, holiness, and truth (Ephesians IV, 23). Therefore, Adam was created a new man from the earth according to God, so that he would be just, holy, and true, subject and humbly adhering to the grace of his Creator, who exists eternally and perfectly just, holy, and true: who because he corrupted through sin this very beautiful novelty of the divine image in himself, and procreated a corrupted offspring of the human race from himself, from where came the second Adam, that is, the Lord Himself and our Creator, born of the Virgin, created incorruptibly and unchangeably in God's image, immune from all fault, and full of all grace and truth, so that He might restore in us His image and likeness by His examples and gifts. For He is truly the new man created according to God, because He took from Adam the true substance of flesh so that He would draw nothing of the filthy vice from him: whose examples we follow according to our capacity, whose gifts we adhere to, whose commandments we obey; this is to recover the image of God which we lost in the old man, in the new. Therefore, man is created in the image of God not according to the body, but according to the intellect of the mind. Although even in the body he has a certain property which indicates this, for he is made with an upright stature, so that he might be admonished by this very thing that earthly things, such as those of the beasts whose entire pleasure is from the earth, are not to be pursued; from which all things prone and prostrate towards the ground are, according to what one of the poets has most beautifully and truly said: Other animals look downward toward the earth, but He gave man an uplifted face to look toward the heavens and the stars.

It is therefore fitting that his body matches his rational soul, not according to the outlines and shapes of the limbs, but rather according to that which is raised up to heaven to observe the things in the upper parts of the world, just as the rational soul ought to be raised in those things which excel most in spiritual nature, so that it may set its mind on things above, not on things on the earth. But it is well added.

And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the beasts, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth; because doubtless in this primarily man was made in the image of God, in that he surpasses the irrational beings: being made capable of reason, through which he can rightly govern all created things in the world, and enjoy the knowledge of Him who created all things. If set in this honor he does not understand to do good, he will be compared to the very same senseless animals over which he has been placed in authority, as the Psalmist testifies (Psalm 49:13).

To this vision of rapture corresponds the work of the sixth day: "God said, 'Let us make mankind in Our image and likeness,'" for it is of such great worth that it must "have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and every creature that crawls on earth." The higher a man is lifted up, the humbler he is, as is the case with Paul, who lowered himself through humility when it came to determining the nature of the union.

In the New Testament, after the universal scripture and the course of time, Christ was formed, as was man on the sixth day, that He may "have dominion over the fish of the sea," and "the birds of the air." As the Psalm says, "what is man that You should be mindful of him, or the son of man that You should care for him? You have made him little less than the angels, and crowned him with glory and honor. You have given him rule over the works of your hands, putting all things under his feet: all sheep and oxen, yes, and the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, the fishes of the sea," etc. And in order that it be understood of Christ, the Apostle says: "You have made him little less than the angels, and crowned him with glory and honor." And there follows: "But we do see Him who was made 'a little lower than the angels,' namely, Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of His having suffered death." Man was created out of a virgin soil that had never received blood, which signifies Christ born of the Virgin; and as Eve was formed out of Adam's side, so also the Church, out of the side of Christ. But since Christ never sinned, how can Adam's transgression correspond to Him? There must be transference from the head to the body.

Genesis 1: Let us make man in our image and likeness, and let him have dominion over the fish of the sea, etc.; on which words Augustine says in the nineteenth book of the City of God: "God did not will that rational man, made in the image of God, should have dominion except over irrational creatures"; but it belongs to the dictate of nature that man should preserve the divine institution: therefore it accords with natural right that man should not command man, nor that one should be subject to another by obeying. To which it must be said that in those words Augustine does not intend to exclude subjection and obedience, but coerced servitude, which indeed neither existed nor ought to have existed except through the intervention of the guilt of sin as a disease contrary to nature itself.

When the author of Genesis says that God made man in His own image, he may have pictured a vaguely corporeal God making man as a child makes a figure out of plasticine. A modern Christian philosopher may think of a process lasting from the first creation of matter to the final appearance on this planet of an organism fit to receive spiritual as well as biological life. But both mean essentially the same thing. Both are denying the same thing—the doctrine that matter by some blind power inherent in itself has produced spirituality.

Does this mean that Christians on different levels of general education conceal radically different beliefs under an identical form of words? Certainly not. For what they agree on is the substance, and what they differ about is the shadow. When one imagines his God seated in a local heaven above a flat earth, where another sees God and creation in terms of Professor Whitehead's philosophy, this difference touches precisely what does not matter.

The only rational line for the Christian vivisectionist to take is to say that the superiority of man over beast is a real objective fact, guaranteed by revelation, and that the propriety of sacrificing beast to man is a logical consequence. We are "worth more than many sparrows," and in saying this we are not merely expressing a natural preference for our own species simply because it is our own but conforming to a hierarchical order created by God and really present in the universe whether any one acknowledges it or not. The position may not be satisfactory. We may fail to see how a benevolent Deity could wish us to draw such conclusions from the hierarchical order He has created. We may find it difficult to formulate a human right of tormenting beasts in terms which would not equally imply an angelic right of tormenting men. And we may feel that though objective superiority is rightly claimed for man, yet that very superiority ought partly to consist in not behaving like a vivisector: that we ought to prove ourselves better than the beasts precisely by the fact of acknowledging duties to them which they do not acknowledge to us. But on all these questions different opinions can be honestly held.

Neither Will nor Reason is the product of Nature. Therefore either I am self-existent (a belief which no one can accept) or I am a colony of some Thought and Will that are self-existent. Such reason and goodness as we can attain must be derived from a self-existent Reason and Goodness outside ourselves, in fact, a Supernatural.

Their very kindness stings with intolerable insult. To be 'cured' against one's will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level with those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals. But to be punished, however severely, because we have deserved it, because we 'ought to have known better', is to be treated as a human person made in God's image.

For we did learn and achieve something. There is, hidden or flaunted, a sword between the sexes till an entire marriage reconciles them. It is arrogance in us to call frankness, fairness, and chivalry "masculine" when we see them in a woman; it is arrogance in them, to describe a man's sensitiveness or tact or tenderness as "feminine". But also what poor, warped fragments of humanity most mere men and mere women must be to make the implications of that arrogance plausible. Marriage heals this. Jointly the two become fully human. "In the image of God created He _them_." Thus, by a paradox, this carnival of sexuality leads us out beyond our sexes.

Wholly commanding himself, he commanded all lower lives with which he came into contact. Even now we meet rare individuals who have a mysterious power of taming beasts. This power the Paradisal man enjoyed in eminence. The old picture of the brutes sporting before Adam and fawning upon him may not be wholly symbolical. Even now more animals than you might expect are ready to adore man if they are given a reasonable opportunity: for man was made to be the priest and even, in one sense, the Christ, of the animals--the mediator through whom they apprehend so much of the Divine splendour as their irrational nature allows.

A statue has the shape of a man but is not alive. In the same way, man has (in a sense I am going to explain) the 'shape' or likeness of God, but he has not got the kind of life God has. Let us take the first point (man's resemblance to God) first. Everything God has made has some likeness to Himself. Space is like Him in its hugeness: not that the greatness of space is the same kind of greatness as God's, but it is a sort of symbol of it, or a translation of it into non-spiritual terms. Matter is like God in having energy: though, again, of course, physical energy is a different kind of thing from the power of God. The vegetable world is like Him because it is alive, and He is the 'living God'. But life, in this biological sense, is not the same as the life there is in God: it is only a kind of symbol or shadow of it. When we come on to the animals, we find other kinds of resemblance in addition to biological life. The intense activity and fertility of the insects, for example, is a first dim resemblance to the unceasing activity and the creativeness of God. In the higher mammals we get the beginnings of instinctive affection. That is not the same thing as the love that exists in God: but it is like it—rather in the way that a picture drawn on a flat piece of paper can nevertheless be 'like' a landscape. When we come to man, the highest of the animals, we get the completest resemblance to God which we know of. (There may be creatures in other worlds who are more like God than man is, but we do not know about them.) Man not only lives, but loves and reasons: biological life reaches its highest known level in him.

But what man, in his natural condition, has not got, is Spiritual life—the higher and different sort of life that exists in God.

For the image of God is His Word, the genuine Son of Mind, the Divine Word, the archetypal light of light; and the image of the Word is the true man, the mind which is in man, who is therefore said to have been made "in the image and likeness of God," assimilated to the Divine Word in the affections of the soul, and therefore rational.

the Old Testament says: Let us make man in our image and after our likeness. Here in both the words it expresses plurality, but the phrases in our image and after our likeness do not mean the same thing, but the former of them means one thing, and the other a different thing. The expression in our image has this sense, that man and man alone, as having all things in himself—things visible and things invisible, things perceived by the intellect and things perceived by the senses, things corruptible and things incorruptible, indicates that there is one Creator of all things that are, even God, and man is in this respect the image of God, through his knowing that there is one Creator of the universe, as the Apostle exclaims: For a man ought not to cover his head, being the image and glory of God; thus expressly declaring that man was made for the glory of God, and, in accordance with this, calling him His image, as man alone is capable of knowing that there is one Creator of the universe, even God, who formed man as the only living creature in whose composition are found all the natural qualities. But the other expression after our likeness has this sense, that Adam was a father and not a son, and, from his own substance by procession produced Eve, who is called neither a son nor a sister, and by generation produced his own son Sêth, who again was of his own substance, producing him by generation, and her by procession.

All men are made in God's image; but to be in his likeness is granted only to those who through great love have brought their own freedom into subjection to God. For only when we do not belong to ourselves do we become like him who through love has reconciled us to himself. No one achieves this unless he persuades his soul not to be distracted by the false glitter of this life.

After Moses spoke about the reptiles, the cattle and the beasts that were created on the sixth day, he turned to write about the creation of that man who was fashioned on the sixth day, saying, "And God said [Let us create man. . .]" [ Gen1:26 ] But to whom was God speaking? Here as well as in every place where He creates, it is clear that He was speaking to His Son. The Evangelist said about Him that "everything came to be through Him and without Him not one thing came to be." [ John1:1 ] Paul also attests to Him saying, "In Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, all that is visible and all that is invisible." [ Col1:15 ]

"And God said, 'Let us make man in our image." [ Gen1:26 ] According to what has been said up to this point, he is able, as it pleases him, to interpret for us: Moses explains ["in our image"] as follows "Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds, and over the cattle, and over all the earth." [ Gen1:26 ] It is the dominion that Adam received over the earth and over all that is in it that constitutes the likeness of God who has dominion over the heavenly things and the earthly things.

Therefore let us hold that the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are by nature one God; neither is the Father the one who is the Son, nor the Son the one who is the Father, nor the Holy Spirit the one who is the Father or the Son. For the essence, that which the Greeks call the ousia, of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit is one, in which essence the Father is not one thing and the Son a second thing and the Holy Spirit still a third thing, although in person the Father is different, the Son is different, and the Holy Spirit is different. All of this is demonstrated for us in the strongest fashion at the very beginning of the Holy Scriptures, when God says, "Let us make human beings in our image and likeness." When, using the singular number, he says "image," he shows that the nature is one, in whose image the human being was made. But when he says "our" in the plural, he shows that the very same God in whose image the human being was made is not one in person. For if in that one essence of Father, Son and Holy Spirit there were one person, "to our image" would not have been spoken but "in my image." Nor would he have said "let us make" but "I shall make." If in reality in those three persons three substances were to be understood or believed, "to our image" would not have been said; rather, "to our images"; for there could not be one image of three unequal natures. But while the human being is said to be made according to the one image of the one God, the divinity of the Holy Trinity in one essence is announced. Then and shortly thereafter, in place of what he had said above, "Let us make human beings in our image and likeness," Scripture thus told of the making of the human being by saying, "And God created humankind in his image; in the image of God he created them."

We do not laugh at the mere fact of something falling down; there is nothing humorous about leaves falling or the sun going down. When our house falls down we do not laugh. All the birds of the air might drop around us in a perpetual shower like a hailstorm without arousing a smile. If you really ask yourself why we laugh at a man sitting down suddenly in the street you will discover that the reason is not only recondite, but ultimately religious. All the jokes about men sitting down on their hats are really theological jokes; they are concerned with the Dual Nature of Man. They refer to the primary paradox that man is superior to all the things around him and yet is at their mercy.

But when the background of man's life is a grey background, then, in the name of man's sacred supremacy, I desire to paint on it in fire and gore. When the heavens fail man refuses to fail; when the sky seems to have written on it, in letters of lead and pale silver, the decree that nothing shall happen, then the immortal soul, the prince of the creatures, rises up and decrees that something shall happen, if it be only the slaughter of a policeman.

Civilisation in the best sense merely means the full authority of the human spirit over all externals. Barbarism means the worship of those externals in their crude and unconquered state. Barbarism means the worship of Nature; and in recent poetry, science, and philosophy there has been too much of the worship of Nature. Wherever men begin to talk much and with great solemnity about the forces outside man, the note of it is barbaric. When men talk much about heredity and environment they are almost barbarians.

Generally, the moral substance of liberty is this: that man is not meant merely to receive good laws, good food or good conditions, like a tree in a garden, but is meant to take a certain princely pleasure in selecting and shaping like the gardener. Perhaps that is the meaning of the trade of Adam. And the best popular words for rendering the real idea of liberty are those which speak of man as a creator. We use the word "make" about most of the things in which freedom is essential, as a country walk or a friendship or a love affair. When a man "makes his way" through a wood he has really created, he has built a road, like the Romans. When a man "makes a friend," he makes a man. And in the third case we talk of a man "making love," as if he were (as, indeed, he is) creating new masses and colours of that flaming material an awful form of manufacture. In its primary spiritual sense, liberty is the god in man, or, if you like the word, the artist.

For wheels are the mark of a man quite as much as wings are the mark of an angel. Wheels are the things that are as old as mankind and yet are strictly peculiar to man, that are prehistoric but not pre-human.

A distinguished psychologist, who is well acquainted with physiology, has told me that parts of himself are certainly levers, while other parts are probably pulleys, but that after feeling himself carefully all over, he cannot find a wheel anywhere. The wheel, as a mode of movement, is a purely human thing. On the ancient escutcheon of Adam (which, like much of the rest of his costume, has not yet been discovered) the heraldic emblem was a wheel--passant. As a mode of progress, I say, it is unique. Many modern philosophers, like my friend before mentioned, are ready to find links between man and beast, and to show that man has been in all things the blind slave of his mother earth. Some, of a very different kind, are even eager to show it; especially if it can be twisted to the discredit of religion. But even the most eager scientists have often admitted in my hearing that they would be surprised if some kind of cow approached them moving solemnly on four wheels. Wings, fins, flappers, claws, hoofs, webs, trotters, with all these the fantastic families of the earth come against us and close around us, fluttering and flapping and rustling and galloping and lumbering and thundering; but there is no sound of wheels.

I remember dimly, if, indeed, I remember aright, that in some of those dark prophetic pages of Scripture, that seem of cloudy purple and dusky gold, there is a passage in which the seer beholds a violent dream of wheels. Perhaps this was indeed the symbolic declaration of the spiritual supremacy of man. Whatever the birds may do above or the fishes beneath his ship, man is the only thing to steer; the only thing to be conceived as steering. He may make the birds his friends, if he can. He may make the fishes his gods, if he chooses. But most certainly he will not believe a bird at the masthead; and it is hardly likely that he will even permit a fish at the helm. He is, as Swinburne says, helmsman and chief: he is literally the Man at the Wheel.

Moses says what was said by God: "Let us make man according to our image and likeness." God says that. He says "let us make" to a co-operator, necessarily to Christ. And he says "according to the image." Therefore man is not the image of God, but he is "according to the image." For Jesus alone is the image of God, but man is "according to the image," that is, image of the image. But he says "according to our image." Therefore both Father and Son are one image.

This was to show that he could call into being not only a nature akin to himself but also one altogether alien to him. For akin to Deity are those natures which are intellectual and only to be comprehended by mind; but all of which sense can take cognizance are utterly alien to it, and of these the furthest removed from it are all those which are entirely destitute of soul and power of motion.Mind, then, and sense—thus distinguished from each other—had remained within their own boundaries and bore in themselves the magnificence of the Creator-Word, silent praisers and thrilling heralds of his mighty work. Not yet was there any mingling of both, nor any mixture of these opposites, tokens of a greater wisdom and generosity in the creation of natures; nor as yet were the whole riches of goodness made known. Now the Creator-Word, determining to exhibit this and to produce a single living being out of both (the invisible and the visible creation, I mean) fashions man; and taking a body from already existing matter, and placing in it a breath taken from himself (which the Word knew to be an intelligent soul and the image of God), as a sort of second world great in littleness, he placed him on the earth—a new angel, a mingled worshiper initiated fully into the visible creation but only partially into the intellectual; king of all on earth but subject to the King above; earthly and heavenly; temporal and yet immortal; visible and yet intellectual; halfway between greatness and lowliness; in one person combining spirit and flesh. Spirit because of the favor bestowed on him, flesh on account of the height to which he had been raised; the one that he might continue to live and glorify his benefactor, the other that he might suffer and by suffering be put in remembrance, and be corrected if he became proud in his greatness; a living creature, trained here and then moved elsewhere; and to complete the mystery, made godly by its inclination to God.

If the Son is in nature unlike the Father, how comes it that the likeness He forms of the different natures is one? for He Who said, "Let us make after our image," and by the plural signification revealed the Holy Trinity, would not, if the archetypes were unlike one another, have mentioned the image in the singular: for it would be impossible that there should be one likeness displayed of things which do not agree with one another: if the natures were different he would assuredly have begun their images also differently, making the appropriate image for each: but since the image is one, while the archetype is not one, who is so far beyond the range of understanding as not to know that the things which are like the same thing, surely resemble one another? Therefore He says (the word, it may be, cutting short this wickedness at the very formation of human life), "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness."

This same language was not used for (the creation) of other things. The command was simple when light was created; God said, "let there be light." Heaven was also made without deliberation.… These, though, were before (the creation of) humans. For humans, there was deliberation. He did not say, as he did when creating other things, "Let there be a human." See how worthy you are! Your origins are not in an imperative. Instead, God deliberated about the best way to bring to life a creation worthy of honor.

If, therefore, Scripture tells us that man was made last, after every animate thing, the lawgiver is doing nothing else than declaring to us the doctrine of the soul, considering that what is perfect comes last, according to a certain necessary sequence in the order of things: for in the rational are included the others also, while in the sensitive there also surely exists the vegetative form, and that again is conceived only in connection with what is material: thus we may suppose that nature makes an ascent as it were by steps-I mean the various properties of life-from the lower to the perfect form.

Scripture informs us that the Deity proceeded by a sort of graduated and ordered advance to the creation of man. After the foundations of the universe were laid, as the history records, man did not appear on the earth at once; but the creation of the brutes preceded his, and the plants preceded them. Thereby Scripture shows that the vital forces blended with the world of matter according to a gradation; first, it infused itself into insensate nature; and in continuation of this advanced into the sentient world; and then ascended to intelligent and rational beings. Accordingly, while all existing things must be either corporeal or spiritual, the former are divided into the animate and inanimate. By animate, I mean possessed of life: and of the things possessed of life, some have it with sensation, the rest have no sensation. Again, of these sentient things, some have reason, the rest have not. Seeing, then, that this life of sensation could not possibly exist apart from the matter which is the subject of it, and the intellectual life could not be embodied, either, without growing in the sentient, on this account the creation of man is related as coming last, as of one who took up into himself every single form of life, both that of plants and that which is seen in brutes. His nourishment and growth he derives from vegetable life; for even in vegetables such processes are to be seen when aliment is being drawn in by their roots and given off in fruit and leaves. His sentient organization he derives from the brute creation. But his faculty of thought and reason is incommunicable, and is a peculiar gift in our nature.… But since it is not possible for this reasoning faculty to exist in the life of the body without existing by means of sensations, and since sensation is already found subsisting in the brute creation, necessarily as it were, by reason of this one condition, our soul has touch with the other things which are knit up with it; and these are all those phenomena within us that we call "passions."

"Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." We possess the one by creation; we acquire the other by free will. In the first structure it is given us to be born in the image of God; by free will there is formed in us the being in the likeness of God.… "Let us make man in our image": Let him possess by creation what is in the image, but let him also become according to the likeness. God has given the power for this. If he had created you also in the likeness, where would your privilege be? Why have you been crowned? And if the Creator had given you everything, how would the kingdom of heaven have opened for you? But it is proper that one part is given you, while the other has been left incomplete: this is so that you might complete it yourself and might be worthy of the reward which comes from God.

God is in His own nature all that which our mind can conceive of good;-rather, transcending all good that we can conceive or comprehend. He creates man for no other reason than that He is good; and being such, and having this as His reason for entering upon the creation of our nature, He would not exhibit the power of His goodness in an imperfect form, giving our nature some one of the things at His disposal, and grudging it a share in another: but the perfect form of goodness is here to be seen by His both bringing man into being from nothing, and fully supplying him with all good gifts: but since the list of individual good gifts is a long one, it is out of the question to apprehend it numerically. The language of Scripture therefore expresses it concisely by a comprehensive phrase, in saying that man was made "in the image of God": for this is the same as to say that He made human nature participant in all good; for if the Deity is the fulness of good, and this is His image, then the image finds its resemblance to the Archetype in being filled with all good.

For the soul immediately shows its royal and exalted character, far removed as it is from the lowliness of private station, in that it owns no lord, and is self-governed, swayed autocratically by its own will; for to whom else does this belong than to a king? And further, besides these facts, the fact that it is the image of that Nature which rules over all means nothing else than this, that our nature was created to be royal from the first. For as, in men's ordinary use, those who make images of princes both mould the figure of their form, and represent along with this the royal rank by the vesture of purple, and even the likeness is commonly spoken of as "a king," so the human nature also, as it was made to rule the rest, was, by its likeness to the King of all, made as it were a living image, partaking with the archetype both in rank and in name, not vested in purple, nor giving indication of its rank by sceptre and diadem (for the archetype itself is not arrayed with these), but instead of the purple robe, clothed in virtue, which is in truth the most royal of all raiment, and in place of the sceptre, leaning on the bliss of immortality, and instead of the royal diadem, decked with the crown of righteousness; so that it is shown to be perfectly like to the beauty of its archetype in all that belongs to the dignity of royalty.

And then, again, this Word was manifested when the Word of God was made man, assimilating Himself to man, and man to Himself, so that by means of his resemblance to the Son, man might become precious to the Father. For in times long past, it was said that man was created after the image of God, but it was not [actually] shown; for the Word was as yet invisible, after whose image man was created, Wherefore also he did easily lose the similitude. When, however, the Word of God became flesh, He confirmed both these: for He both showed forth the image truly, since He became Himself what was His image; and He re-established the similitude after a sure manner, by assimilating man to the invisible Father through means of the visible Word.

Placing him in the midst of all the brothers, he inquired as to how the Catholic churches throughout the East interpreted what is said in Genesis: "Let us make man according to our image and likeness." Then he explained that the image and likeness of God was treated by all the heads of the churches not according to the lowly sound of the letter but in a spiritual way, and he proved this with a long discourse and many examples from Scripture, showing that nothing of this sort could be the case with that immeasurable and incomprehensible and invisible majesty—that it could be circumscribed in a human form and likeness, that indeed a nature that was incorporeal and uncomposed and simple could be apprehended by the eye or seized by the mind.

To begin, it is worthwhile to ask why God did not say, when the heavens were created, "Let us make the heavens" but instead, "Let there be a heaven.… Let there be light," and similarly for each other aspect of creation. "Let us make" suggests deliberation, collaboration and conference with another person. So what is it whose pending creation is granted so great an honor? It is humanity, the greatest and most marvelous of living beings, and the creation most worthy of honor before God.… There is here this deliberation, collaboration and communion not because God needs advice—God forbid saying such a thing!—but so that the very impact of the language of our creation would show us honor.

Some others base themselves on our arguments by asserting that God possesses an image in common with us, but they do not understand correctly what has been said. We did not speak about an image of being but about an image of command, as we will explain below. In fact, as a proof that divinity has no human form, listen to Paul's words: "But for a man it is not right to have his head covered, since he is the image and glory of God; but woman is the glory of man." This is why—he says—"she must wear a veil on her head." And in truth, in this passage he has called "image" this absence of difference of form with regard to God, and man is called image of God because God also possesses this figure: in their opinion, therefore, it should not be said that man only is the image of God but the woman as well. For man and woman have in common a single figure, character and resemblance. Why then is man called image of God, while the woman is not? Because Paul does not mean the image appearing in the form but the image concerning the command, which was given to man, not woman. Man in fact is subject to no creature, while woman is subject to man, according to God's words: "Your movement will be toward your husband, and he will rule you." This is why man is the image of God. He has no creature over him, and there is nobody over God: he rules on everything. Woman, on the other hand, is the glory of man, because she is subject to man.

Since this is so, God created man out of visible and invisible nature with his own hands according to the image and likeness, forming the body from the earth and through his own breathing upon it giving it a rational and intellectual soul, which we call the divine image. That which is "according to the image" is manifest in the intellect and free will. That which is "according to the likeness" is manifest in such likeness in virtue as is possible.

In recording the first creation of man, Moses before all others says, "And God said, Let us make man in our own image and likeness." Then he adds afterwards, "And God made man; in the image of God made he him; male and female made he them, and he blessed them." Now the fact that he said "he made him in the image of God" and was silent about the likeness points to nothing else but this, that man received the honor of God's image in his first creation, whereas the perfection of God's likeness was reserved for him at the consummation. The purpose of this was that man should acquire it for himself by his own earnest efforts to imitate God, so that while the possibility of attaining perfection was given to him in the beginning through the honor of the "image," he should in the end through the accomplishment of these works obtain for himself the perfect "likeness."

"And God said: Let us make man according to our image and likeness, and let him hold rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of heaven and the animals and all the earth and all the things that creep upon the earth." Consequently, according to the things which we explained above, he wills such a man as we have described to hold rule over the aforesaid beasts and birds and creeping things and four-footed things and all the rest. How these ought to be understood through allegory we have explained, when we said that the water, that is, his mind, is commanded to bring forth the spiritual sense and the earth to bring forth the sense of the flesh, so that the mind may rule over them and they may not rule over it. For God wills that this great "handiwork" of God, man, for whose sake also the whole world was created, be not only unstained by those things which we spoke of above, and immune from them, but also that he rule over them. But now let us consider from the very words of Scripture what kind of animal man is. All the other creatures come to be by the command of God, as Scripture says: "And God said: Let there be a firmament," "And God said: Let the water which is below heaven be gathered into one gathering, and let the dry land appear," "And God said: Let the earth bring forth the grass of hay." So also in the rest he speaks. But let us see which are the things that God himself made, and through these let us observe how great the greatness of man is. "In the beginning God made heaven and earth." Similarly he says: "And he made two great luminaries," and now again: "Let us make man." In these alone the handiwork of God himself is ascribed, but in no others; but only heaven and earth, sun and moon and stars, and now man were made by God, but all the rest are said to have been made by his command. From this, then, consider how great is the greatness of man, who is made equal to such great and such preeminent elements, who has the honor of heaven, on account of which "the kingdom of heaven" too is promised to him. He has also the honor of earth, since indeed he hopes to enter into the good land and "the land of the living flowing with milk and honey." He has the honor of the sun and moon, having the promise that he will shine "like the sun in the kingdom of God."

When man was created, this was originally man created after the image. In him there was nothing material. He who is after the image is not from matter. And God said: "Let us make man after Our image and after Our likeness, and let them have dominion..." and so forth. … That which is created after the image of God is understood as immaterial and surpassing every corporeal substance not only by Moses, but also by the Apostle, as is clear from the following words: "...having put on the new man, who is renewed unto knowledge after the image of Him who created him."

There are two images in man: one, which he received from God when he was made in the beginning, as it is written in Genesis: "according to the image and likeness of God"; the other of the earthy, which afterward, when he had been cast out of paradise because of disobedience and sin, he took on, persuaded by the enticements of "the prince of this world". For just as a coin or denarius bears the image of the emperors of the world, so he who does the works of "the ruler of these darknesses" bears the image of him whose works he has: which image Jesus here commanded to be rendered back and cast off from our face, and that image to be taken up according to which from the beginning we were fashioned to the likeness of God.

In order that the unity itself of the threefold majesty and imprint should encounter our understanding, the invisible majesty itself states so: "Let us make man in our image and according to our likeness." Look! He has demonstrated what we believe. God has engraved his image on the face of the human and has said "in our image." The knowledge of Father and Son is impressed upon the face of man; and the very features of his face, by means of the clay by which we are formed, revealed in the human original model how the Father and the Son were, so that man could admire God in man.

The inspired historian makes it very clear That at earth's dawn the Father not alone Nor without Christ his new creation formed. "God fashioned man," he says, "and gave to him The face of God." What but to say that he Was not alone, that God stood by God's side When the Lord made man in image of the Lord?

These are the virtues that man acquires by considering and controlling his own senses. He "takes off the old man, who was corrupted in the convolutions of his error," "and wears the new one, who is renewed in knowing the image of his Creator," and he becomes as a whole an effigy, likeness and image of his God. Like a living sacrifice, suitable and pleasing to God, he employs his body for his rational service. He consecrates and somehow presents to God the vows and the offerings of all his limbs and offers the sacrifices suitable for the action of grace, which are the rational fruits of the lips of those who confess his name by incessantly celebrating God in their body and soul, God to whom they belong now in definitive oblations.

If the number of the Trinity also offends you, as if it were not connected in the simple Unity, I ask you how it is possible for a Being who is merely and absolutely One and Singular, to speak in plural phrase, saying, "Let us make man in our own image, and after our own likeness;" Genesis 1:26 whereas He ought to have said, "Let me make man in my own image, and after my own likeness," as being a unique and singular Being? In the following passage, however, "Behold the man is become as one of us," Genesis 3:22 He is either deceiving or amusing us in speaking plurally, if He is One only and singular. Or was it to the angels that He spoke, as the Jews interpret the passage, because these also acknowledge not the Son? Or was it because He was at once the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, that He spoke to Himself in plural terms, making Himself plural on that very account? Nay, it was because He had already His Son close at His side, as a second Person, His own Word, and a third Person also, the Spirit in the Word, that He purposely adopted the plural phrase, "Let us make;" and, "in our image;" and, "become as one of us." For with whom did He make man? and to whom did He make him like? (The answer must be), the Son on the one hand, who was one day to put on human nature; and the Spirit on the other, who was to sanctify man. With these did He then speak, in the Unity of the Trinity, as with His ministers and witnesses. [Against Praxeas 12] Since then he is the image of the Creator (for He, when looking on Christ His Word, who was to become man, said, "Let us make man in our own image, after our likeness" Genesis 1:26 ), how can I possibly have another head but Him whose image I am? For if I am the image of the Creator there is no room in me for another head. [Against Maricon 5.7]

Let us make man to our image and likeness: Man is said to be after the image of God, not as regards his body, but as regards that whereby he excels other animals. Hence, when it is said, "Let us make man to our image and likeness", it is added, "And let him have dominion over the fishes of the sea" (Genesis 1:26). Now man excels all animals by his reason and intelligence; hence it is according to his intelligence and reason, which are incorporeal, that man is said to be according to the image of God. But equality does not belong to the essence of an image; for as Augustine says (QQ. 83, qu. 74): "Where there is an image there is not necessarily equality," as we see in a person's image reflected in a glass. Yet this is of the essence of a perfect image; for in a perfect image nothing is wanting that is to be found in that of which it is a copy. Now it is manifest that in man there is some likeness to God, copied from God as from an exemplar; yet this likeness is not one of equality, for such an exemplar infinitely excels its copy. Therefore there is in man a likeness to God; not, indeed, a perfect likeness, but imperfect. And Scripture implies the same when it says that man was made "to" God's likeness; for the preposition "to" signifies a certain approach, as of something at a distance. Let him have dominion over the fishes of the sea, and the birds of the air, and the beasts of the earth: Now all animals are naturally subject to man. This can be proved in three ways. First, from the order observed by nature; for just as in the generation of things we perceive a certain order of procession of the perfect from the imperfect (thus matter is for the sake of form; and the imperfect form, for the sake of the perfect), so also is there order in the use of natural things; thus the imperfect are for the use of the perfect; as the plants make use of the earth for their nourishment, and animals make use of plants, and man makes use of both plants and animals. Therefore it is in keeping with the order of nature, that man should be master over animals. Hence the Philosopher says (Polit. i, 5) that the hunting of wild animals is just and natural, because man thereby exercises a natural right. Secondly, this is proved by the order of Divine Providence which always governs inferior things by the superior. Wherefore, as man, being made to the image of God, is above other animals, these are rightly subject to his government. Thirdly, this is proved from a property of man and of other animals. For we see in the latter a certain participated prudence of natural instinct, in regard to certain particular acts; whereas man possesses a universal prudence as regards all practical matters. Now whatever is participated is subject to what is essential and universal. Therefore the subjection of other animals to man is proved to be natural.

WHAT IT MEANS THAT GOD MADE MAN IN THE IMAGE AND LIKENESS OF GOD, AND WHETHER WOMAN IS THE IMAGE OF GOD? — This is what it means that man was made in the image of God: because the One made one, so that just as all things are from the one God, so also the whole human race is from one man. But the likeness is this: that just as the Son is from the Father, so also the woman is from the man, so that the authority of a single principle may be preserved. Yet the Son was born from God the Father inexpressibly and incomprehensibly; whereas the woman, bodily, as we read (Gen. 2:21–22), was made from the man, so that through her birth might arise. But the Son of God was born for this reason, that through him creation might come into being. In this, therefore, there is a difference. For God was born of God, but a woman from a man: because there, there is simplicity, and it was not possible for the simple to be born except from the simple—spirit from spirit, God from God. Therefore the man is the image of God. For therefore it is written: God made man; in the image of God he made him. Therefore the Apostle also says: “A man indeed ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God; but the woman,” he says, “should cover her head” (1 Cor. 11:7, 6). Why? Because she is not the image of God. Therefore again the Apostle says: “I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man” (1 Tim. 2:12).

It is not They made. Here Scripture avoids the plurality of the Persons. After having enlightened the Jew, it dissipates the error of the Gentiles in putting itself under the shelter of unity, to make you understand that the Son is with the Father, and guarding you from the danger of polytheism. He created him in the image of God. God still shows us His co-operator, because He does not say, in His image, but in the image of God.

If God permits, we will say later in what way man was created in the image of God, and how he shares this resemblance. Today we say but only one word. If there is one image, from whence comes the intolerable blasphemy of pretending that the Son is unlike the Father? What ingratitude! You have yourself received this likeness and you refuse it to your Benefactor! You pretend to keep personally that which is in you a gift of grace, and you do not wish that the Son should keep His natural likeness to Him who begot Him.

But evening, which long ago sent the sun to the west, imposes silence upon me. Here, then, let me be content with what I have said, and put my discourse to bed. I have told you enough up to this point to excite your zeal; with the help of the Holy Spirit I will make for you a deeper investigation into the truths which follow. Retire, then, I beg you, with joy, O Christ-loving congregation, and, instead of sumptuous dishes of various delicacies, adorn and sanctify your tables with the remembrance of my words. May the Anomœan be confounded, the Jew covered with shame, the faithful exultant in the dogmas of truth, and the Lord glorified, the Lord to Whom be glory and power, world without end. Amen.

And God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him. What was said before, in His image, He doubled for the sake of confirmation, by adding, in the image of God He created him, so that He might more diligently impress upon us what kind of beings we were made by God, and more closely fix in our minds the hope of receiving the image of God, lest, walking in the image of God, we be vainly troubled, hoarding uncertain riches, but instead look for the Lord with longing, when we shall come and appear before His face, certain that when He appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. But now it is said, in the image of God He created him, when it was said earlier, let us make in our image, it signifies not that this plurality of persons makes us believe in multiple gods, but that we accept one God, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, on account of which it was said, in our image, and on account of which it is said, in the image of God.

Male and female He created them. It will be explained more fully in the following, from where and how God made the first humans. But now, for the sake of brevity, it is only mentioned that they were created, so that the work of the sixth day and the dedication of the seventh day along with the rest may be explained, and thus freely from time both this and other omitted matters that were worthy of mention may be said. However, God first created one male and one female alone, not like the other animals, which He created not single but multiple in each kind, so that by this He might bind the human race more closely together with the bond of charity, because it would remember that it was all born of one parent; for the sake of which union the sacred Scripture, when it said: "And God created man, in the image of God He created him," immediately added: "Male and female He created them," it did not wish to add: "in the image of God He created them," for the female too was created in the image of God, according to that which she also possessed a rational mind; but Scripture did not think it necessary to add this about her, considering that in the unity of conjunction it left it to be understood in her as well, and indeed it signified that it should be understood in the entire human race that originates from them. For every man even now, to the extent that he uses reason, has in himself the image of God; whence John says: "He was the true light which illuminates every man coming into this world" (John 1:9). For it is the light about which the Psalmist glories in the Lord, saying: "The light of Your countenance has been signed upon us, O Lord" (Psalm 4:7). And indeed rightly in this place it is mentioned that male and female were created, although the manner of the same creation is not yet referred to, so that the discourse of divine blessing may have a fitting place, about which it follows:

The rational soul is a form having being, living, understanding, and exercising freedom. It has in the mind the image of the Trinity according to memory, intelligence, and will. A form that is understanding not only created essence, but also the creative essence, to whose image it was made through memory, understanding, and will. Because the form capable of beatitude is capable of God through memory, understanding, and will: and this is to be in the image of the Trinity on account of unity in essence and trinity in powers: therefore it was necessary that the soul be understanding God and all things, and through this be marked with the image of God.

The creation of the world is as it were a certain book, in which the fabricating Trinity shines forth, is represented, and is read according to a threefold degree of expression, namely by way of vestige, image, and similitude, such that the character of vestige is found in all creatures, the character of image in intellectual beings alone or rational spirits, the character of similitude in deiform beings alone: from which, as though by certain stairlike degrees, the human intellect is naturally suited to ascend step by step to the supreme principle, which is God. Every creature is compared to Him in a threefold way: either as to a creative principle, or as to a motive object, or as to an indwelling gift. And since a creature cannot have God as its principle without being configured to Him according to unity, truth, and goodness; nor God as its object without apprehending Him through memory, intelligence, and will; nor God as an infused gift without being configured to Him through faith, hope, and charity: hence it is that the first is called a vestige of the Trinity, the second an image, and the third a similitude.

The sixth age, in which Christ was born in human form, who is truly the image of God, corresponds to the sixth day, on which the first man was formed. The sixth age is called decrepitude, because, just as that is the age which is joined with death, yet possessing a great light of wisdom; so the sixth age of the world is terminated with the day of judgment, and in it wisdom flourishes through the teaching of Christ.

In the work of virtue, six things are required corresponding to the works of the six days. Charitable formation is required, so that the works may be complete, clothed over with all circumstances, according to what the law of divine charity demands. For charity is the perfective form of all things; and he who has charity has all these six. The sixth work of virtue, therefore, is the formation of charity: which is signified when it says: God made man in his image and likeness.

In this consideration, moreover, lies the perfection of the mind's illumination, when, as on the sixth day, it sees man made in the image of God. For if an image is an expressive likeness, when our mind contemplates in Christ the Son of God, who is the image of the invisible God by nature, our humanity so wonderfully exalted, so ineffably united, seeing at once in one the first and the last, the highest and the lowest, the circumference and the center, the Alpha and the Omega, the caused and the cause, the Creator and the creature, the book, that is, written within and without: it has now arrived at a certain perfect reality, so that with God it may reach the perfection of its illuminations in the sixth stage, as on the sixth day; nor does anything further remain except the day of rest, in which through the ecstasy of the mind the keenness of the human mind may rest from every work which it had accomplished.

Conjugal chastity is consonant with the law of nature by reason of created nature itself. It accords with the law of nature by reason of created nature, which was formed in the distinction of the sexes, according to that passage of Genesis 1: God created man in His image and likeness; male and female He created them. From this the union of man and woman is natural; and all of this belongs to it according to the state of the law of nature, from which the act and exercise of conjugal chastity itself first draws its origin.

Then Moses said, "male and female He created them," (Gen1:27) to make known that Eve was inside Adam, in the rib that was drawn out from him. Although she was not in his mind she was in his flesh, she was in his flesh with him, and she was also in soul and spirit with him, for God added nothing to that rib that He took out except the structure and the adornment. If everything that was suitable for Eve, who came to be from the rib, was complete from the rib alone, it is well said that "male and female He created them."

Then Moses said, "Male and female he created them," to make known that Eve was already inside Adam, in the rib that was drawn out from him. Although she was not in his mind she was in his body, and she was not only in his body with him but also in soul and spirit with him, for God added nothing to that rib that he took out except the structure and the adornment. If everything that was suitable for Eve, who came to be from the rib, was complete in and from that rib, it is rightly said that "male and female he created them."

Quite equally subtle and spiritual is the idea at the back of laughing at foreigners. It concerns the almost torturing truth of a thing being like oneself and yet not like oneself. Nobody laughs at what is entirely foreign; nobody laughs at a palm tree. But it is funny to see the familiar image of God disguised behind the black beard of a Frenchman or the black face of a Negro. There is nothing funny in the sounds that are wholly inhuman, the howling of wild beasts or of the wind. But if a man begins to talk like oneself, but all the syllables come out different, then if one is a man one feels inclined to laugh, though if one is a gentleman one resists the inclination.

Why is it funny that a man should sit down suddenly in the street? There is only one possible or intelligent reason: that man is the image of God. It is not funny that anything else should fall down; only that a man should fall down. No one sees anything funny in a tree falling down. No one sees a delicate absurdity in a stone falling down. No man stops in the road and roars with laughter at the sight of the snow coming down. The fall of thunderbolts is treated with some gravity. The fall of roofs and high buildings is taken seriously. It is only when a man tumbles down that we laugh. Why do we laugh? Because it is a grave religious matter: it is the Fall of Man. Only man can be absurd: for only man can be dignified.

Man is an exception, whatever else he is. If he is not the image of God, then he is a disease of the dust. If it is not true that a divine being fell, then we can only say that one of the animals went entirely off its head. In neither case can we really argue very much from the body of man simply considered as the body of an innocent and healthy animal. His body has got too much mixed up with his soul, as we see in the supreme instance of sex.

This creature was truly different from all other creatures; because he was a creator as well as a creature. Nothing in that sense could be made in any other image but the image of man. But the truth is so true that, even in the absence of any religious belief, it must be assumed in the form of some moral or metaphysical principle.

Somehow or other a new thing had appeared in the cavernous night of nature; a mind that is like a mirror. It is like a mirror because it is truly a thing of reflection. It is like a mirror because in it alone all the other shapes can be seen like shining shadows in a vision. Above all, it is like a mirror because it is the only thing of its kind. Other things may resemble it or resemble each other in various ways; other things may excel it or excel each other in various ways; just as in the furniture of a room a table may be round like a mirror or a cupboard may be larger than a mirror. But the mirror is the only thing that can contain them all. Man is the microcosm; man is the measure of all things; man is the image of God.

This world and all our powers in it are far more awful and beautiful than even we know until some accident reminds us. If you wish to perceive that limitless felicity, limit yourself if only for a moment. If you wish to realise how fearfully and wonderfully God's image is made, stand on one leg.

I wanted men--any men; and I felt our awful alliance over all the globe. And at last, when I had walked for what seemed a long time, I saw a light too near the earth to mean anything except the image of God.

In short, it is the purpose of this introduction to maintain this thesis: that it is exactly when we do regard man as an animal that we know he is not an animal. It is precisely when we do try to picture him as a sort of horse on its hind legs that we suddenly realise that he must be something as miraculous as the winged horse that towered up into the clouds of heaven. All roads lead to Rome, all ways lead round again to the central and civilised philosophy, including this road through elfland and topsyturvydom. But it may be that it is better never to have left the land of a reasonable tradition, where men ride lightly upon horses and are mighty hunters before the Lord.

And there remains with them, as already suggested, the testimony to something that is absolute and unique; that belongs to man and to nothing else except man; that is a difference of kind and not a difference of degree. A monkey does not draw clumsily and a man cleverly; a monkey does not begin the art of representation and a man carry it to perfection. A monkey does not do it at all; he does not begin to do it at all; he does not begin to begin to do it at all. A line of some kind is crossed before the first faint line can begin.

No human being was ever really so unnatural as to worship Nature. No man, however indulgent (as I am) to corpulency, ever worshipped a man as round as the sun or a woman as round as the moon. No man, however attracted to an artistic attenuation, ever really believed that the Dryad was as lean and stiff as the tree. We human beings have never worshipped Nature; and indeed, the reason is very simple. It is that all human beings are superhuman beings. We have printed our own image upon Nature, as God has printed His image upon us. We have told the enormous sun to stand still; we have fixed him on our shields, caring no more for a star than for a starfish. And when there were powers of Nature we could not for the time control, we have conceived great beings in human shape controlling them. Jupiter does not mean thunder. Thunder means the march and victory of Jupiter. Neptune does not mean the sea; the sea is his, and he made it. In other words, what the savage really said about the sea was, "Only my fetish Mumbo could raise such mountains out of mere water." What the savage really said about the sun was, "Only my great great-grandfather Jumbo could deserve such a blazing crown."

For the first injustice, of which we have spoken, still recurs; and if we grant that the East has a right to its difference, it is not realised in what we differ. That nursery tale from nowhere about St. George and the Dragon really expresses best the relation between the West and the East. There were many other differences, calculated to arrest even the superficial eye, between a saint and a dragon. But the essential difference was simply this: that the Dragon did want to eat St. George; whereas St. George would have felt a strong distaste for eating the Dragon. In most of the stories he killed the Dragon. In many of the stories he not only spared, but baptised it. But in neither case did the Christian have any appetite for cold dragon. The Dragon, however, really has an appetite for cold Christian--and especially for cold Christianity. This blind intention to absorb, to change the shape of everything and digest it in the darkness of a dragon's stomach; this is what is really meant by the Pantheism and Cosmic Unity of the East. The Cosmos as such is cannibal; as old Time ate his children. The Eastern saints were saints because they wanted to be swallowed up. The Western saint, like St. George, was sainted by the Western Church precisely because he refused to be swallowed. The same process of thought that has prevented nationalities disappearing in Christendom has prevented the complete appearance of Pantheism. All Christian men instinctively resist the idea of being absorbed into an Empire; an Austrian, a Spanish, a British, or a Turkish Empire. But there is one empire, much larger and much more tyrannical, which free men will resist with even stronger passion. The free man violently resists being absorbed into the empire which is called the Universe. He demands Home Rule for his nationality, but still more Home Rule for his home. Most of all he demands Home Rule for himself. He claims the right to be saved, in spite of Moslem fatalism. He claims the right to be damned in spite of theosophical optimism. He refuses to be the Cosmos; because he refuses to forget it.

It is not only nonsense, but blasphemy, to say that man has spoilt the country. Man has created the country; it was his business, as the image of God. No hill, covered with common scrub or patches of purple heath, could have been so sublimely hilly as that ridge up to which the ranked furrows rose like aspiring angels. No valley, confused with needless cottages and towns, can have been so utterly valleyish as that abyss into which the down-rushing furrows raged like demons into the swirling pit.

Readers of Mr. Bernard Shaw and other modern writers may be interested to know that the Superman has been found. I found him; he lives in South Croydon. My success will be a great blow to Mr. Shaw, who has been following quite a false scent, and is now looking for the creature in Blackpool; and as for Mr. Wells's notion of generating him out of gases in a private laboratory, I always thought it doomed to failure. I assure Mr. Wells that the Superman at Croydon was born in the ordinary way, though he himself, of course, is anything but ordinary.

Nor are his parents unworthy of the wonderful being whom they have given to the world. The name of Lady Hypatia Smythe-Browne (now Lady Hypatia Hagg) will never be forgotten in the East End, where she did such splendid social work. Her constant cry of "Save the children!" referred to the cruel neglect of children's eyesight involved in allowing them to play with crudely painted toys. She quoted unanswerable statistics to prove that children allowed to look at violet and vermilion often suffered from failing eyesight in their extreme old age; and it was owing to her ceaseless crusade that the pestilence of the Monkey-on-the-Stick was almost swept from Hoxton. The devoted worker would tramp the streets untiringly, taking away the toys from all the poor children, who were often moved to tears by her kindness. Her good work was interrupted, partly by a new interest in the creed of Zoroaster, and partly by a savage blow from an umbrella. It was inflicted by a dissolute Irish apple-woman, who, on returning from some orgy to her ill-kept apartment, found Lady Hypatia in the bedroom taking down an oleograph, which, to say the least of it, could not really elevate the mind. At this the ignorant and partly intoxicated Celt dealt the social reformer a severe blow, adding to it an absurd accusation of theft. The lady's exquisitely balanced mind received a shock, and it was during a short mental illness that she married Dr. Hagg.

Of Dr. Hagg himself I hope there is no need to speak. Any one even slightly acquainted with those daring experiments in Neo-Individualist Eugenics, which are now the one absorbing interest of the English democracy, must know his name and often commend it to the personal protection of an impersonal power. Early in life he brought to bear that ruthless insight into the history of religions which he had gained in boyhood as an electrical engineer. Later he became one of our greatest geologists; and achieved that bold and bright outlook upon the future of Socialism which only geology can give. At first there seemed something like a rift, a faint, but perceptible, fissure, between his views and those of his aristocratic wife. For she was in favour (to use her own powerful epigram) of protecting the poor against themselves; while he declared pitilessly, in a new and striking metaphor, that the weakest must go to the wall. Eventually, however, the married pair perceived an essential union in the unmistakably modern character of both their views, and in this enlightening and intelligible formula their souls found peace. The result is that this union of the two highest types of our civilization, the fashionable lady and the all but vulgar medical man, has been blessed by the birth of the Superman, that being whom all the labourers in Battersea are so eagerly expecting night and day.

I found the house of Dr. and Lady Hypatia Hagg without much difficulty; it is situated in one of the last straggling streets of Croydon, and overlooked by a line of poplars. I reached the door towards the twilight, and it was natural that I should fancifully see something dark and monstrous in the dim bulk of that house which contained the creature who was more marvellous than the children of men. When I entered the house I was received with exquisite courtesy by Lady Hypatia and her husband; but I found much greater difficulty in actually seeing the Superman, who is now about fifteen years old, and is kept by himself in a quiet room. Even my conversation with the father and mother did not quite clear up the character of this mysterious being. Lady Hypatia, who has a pale and poignant face, and is clad in those impalpable and pathetic greys and greens with which she has brightened so many homes in Hoxton, did not appear to talk of her offspring with any of the vulgar vanity of an ordinary human mother. I took a bold step and asked if the Superman was nice looking.

"He creates his own standard, you see," she replied, with a slight sigh. "Upon that plane he is more than Apollo. Seen from our lower plane, of course--" And she sighed again.

I had a horrible impulse, and said suddenly, "Has he got any hair?"

There was a long and painful silence, and then Dr. Hagg said smoothly: "Everything upon that plane is different; what he has got is not... well, not, of course, what we call hair... but--"

"Don't you think," said his wife, very softly, "don't you think that really, for the sake of argument, when talking to the mere public, one might call it hair?"

"Perhaps you are right," said the doctor after a few moments' reflection. "In connexion with hair like that one must speak in parables."

"Well, what on earth is it," I asked in some irritation, "if it isn't hair? Is it feathers?"

"Not feathers, as we understand feathers," answered Hagg in an awful voice.

I got up in some irritation. "Can I see him, at any rate?" I asked. "I am a journalist, and have no earthly motives except curiosity and personal vanity. I should like to say that I had shaken hands with the Superman."

The husband and wife had both got heavily to their feet, and stood, embarrassed. "Well, of course, you know," said Lady Hypatia, with the really charming smile of the aristocratic hostess. "You know he can't exactly shake hands... not hands, you know.... The structure, of course--"

I broke out of all social bounds, and rushed at the door of the room which I thought to contain the incredible creature. I burst it open; the room was pitch dark. But from in front of me came a small sad yelp, and from behind me a double shriek.

"You have done it, now!" cried Dr. Hagg, burying his bald brow in his hands. "You have let in a draught on him; and he is dead."

As I walked away from Croydon that night I saw men in black carrying out a coffin that was not of any human shape. The wind wailed above me, whirling the poplars, so that they drooped and nodded like the plumes of some cosmic funeral. "It is, indeed," said Dr. Hagg, "the whole universe weeping over the frustration of its most magnificent birth." But I thought that there was a hoot of laughter in the high wail of the wind.

We must, then, examine the words carefully: for we find, if we do so, that that which was made "in the image" is one thing, and that which is now manifested in wretchedness is another. "God created man," it says; "in the image of God created He him." There is an end of the creation of that which was made "in the image": then it makes a resumption of the account of creation, and says, "male and female created He them." I presume that every one knows that this is a departure from the Prototype: for "in Christ Jesus," as the apostle says, "there is neither male nor female." Yet the phrase declares that man is thus divided. Thus the creation of our nature is in a sense twofold: one made like to God, one divided according to this distinction: for something like this the passage darkly conveys by its arrangement, where it first says, "God created man, in the image of God created He him," and then, adding to what has been said, "male and female created He them,"—a thing which is alien from our conceptions of God.

I think that by these words Holy Scripture conveys to us a great and lofty doctrine; and the doctrine is this. While two natures—the Divine and incorporeal nature, and the irrational life of brutes—are separated from each other as extremes, human nature is the mean between them: for in the compound nature of man we may behold a part of each of the natures I have mentioned,—of the Divine, the rational and intelligent element, which does not admit the distinction of male and female; of the irrational, our bodily form and structure, divided into male and female: for each of these elements is certainly to be found in all that partakes of human life. That the intellectual element, however, precedes the other, we learn as from one who gives in order an account of the making of man; and we learn also that his community and kindred with the irrational is for man a provision for reproduction. For he says first that "God created man in the image of God" (showing by these words, as the Apostle says, that in such a being there is no male or female): then he adds the peculiar attributes of human nature, "male and female created He them."… For this reason, I say, He formed for our nature that contrivance for increase which befits those who had fallen into sin, implanting in mankind, instead of the angelic majesty of nature, that animal and irrational mode by which they now succeed one another.

Consider when this happened. After their disobedience, after their loss of the garden, then it was that the practice of intercourse had its beginning. You see, before their disobedience they followed a life like that of the angels, and there was no mention of intercourse. How could there be when they were not subject to the needs of the body? So at the outset and from the beginning the practice of virginity was in force, but when through their indifference disobedience came on the scene and the ways of sin were opened, virginity took its leave for the reason that they had proved unworthy of such a degree of good things, and in its place the practice of intercourse took over for the future.

And the Pharisees came to him, and asked him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife? tempting him. And he answered and said unto them, What did Moses command you? And they said, Moses suffered to write a bill of divorcement, and to put her away. And Jesus answered and said unto them, For the hardness of your heart he wrote you this precept. But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female. [Genesis 1:27] For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife; And they twain shall be one flesh: so then they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. And in the house his disciples asked him again of the same matter. And he saith unto them, Whosoever shall put away his wife, and marry another, committeth adultery against her. And if a woman shall put away her husband, and be married to another, she committeth adultery.

This indeed I see as even more eminent in the condition of man, which I do not find said elsewhere: "And God made man, according to the image of God he made him." Which we find ascribed neither to heaven nor to earth nor to the sun or moon. This man, surely, whom he says was made "according to the image of God," we do not understand to be corporeal. For the fashioning of the body does not contain the image of God, nor is the corporeal man said to have been made, but formed, as is written in what follows. For it says: "And God formed man," that is, molded him "from the mud of the earth." But he who was made "according to the image of God" is our interior man, invisible and incorporeal and incorrupt and immortal. For in such things as these the image of God is more rightly understood. But if anyone thinks that he who was made "according to the image and likeness of God" is corporeal, he seems to introduce God himself as corporeal and of human form; which to think concerning God is most manifestly impious. Indeed these carnal men, who are ignorant of the understanding of divinity, if anywhere in the Scriptures they read concerning God that "heaven is my seat, but the earth is the footstool of my feet," suspect that God is of so huge a body that they think he, sitting in heaven, stretches out his feet all the way to the earth. But they think this because they do not have those ears which can worthily hear the words of God concerning God which are reported through Scripture. For that which says: "Heaven is my seat," is thus worthily understood concerning God, so that we may know that in those whose "citizenship is in heaven" God rests and resides. But in those who still bear an earthly purpose, the last part of his providence is found, which is figuratively indicated in the appellation of feet. If any of these perhaps take up zeal and desire to be made heavenly by the perfection of life and the height of understanding, they too are made seats of God, having first become heavenly through their warfare and manner of life; who also say: "He raised us up with Christ, and made us sit together in the heavenly places." But those too whose "treasure is in heaven" can be called heavenly and seats of God, since "there is their heart, where their treasure is." And God not only rests upon them, but also dwells in them. But if anyone can become so great that he can say: "Or do you seek a proof of him who speaks in me, Christ?", in this one God not only dwells, but also walks about. And therefore all the perfect, having become heavenly or made heavens, "declare the glory of God," as it says in the Psalm. Indeed for this reason the Apostles too, who were heavens, are sent to declare the glory of God, and receive the name "Boanerges," "which is sons of thunder," so that through the power of thunder we may believe that they are truly heavens. "God made," then, "man, according to the image of God he made him." It behooves us to see what this image of God is, and to inquire to the likeness of whose image man was made. For he did not say: God made man according to his own image or likeness: but: "according to the image of God he made him." What, then, is that other image of God, to the likeness of whose image man was made, except our Savior? who is "the firstborn of all creation"; concerning whom it is written that he is "the splendor of eternal light, and the express figure of the substance of God"; who also himself says concerning himself: "I in the Father, and the Father in me," and "He who has seen me has seen the Father also." For just as he who has seen someone's image sees him whose image it is, so also through "the Word of God," which is the image of God, one sees God. And thus it will be true, which he said: "He who has seen me has seen the Father also." To the likeness of this image, then, man was made, and therefore our Savior, who is the image of God, moved with mercy for man, who had been made to his likeness, seeing him, his own image having been laid aside, to have put on the image of the evil one, himself moved with mercy, having assumed the image of man, came to him, as the Apostle also testifies, saying: "Though he was in the form of God, he did not consider it robbery to be equal to God, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, and being found in habit as a man, he humbled himself even unto death." Whoever, therefore, come to him and strive to be made partakers of the rational image, through their progress "are renewed daily according to the interior man" to the image of him who made them; so that they can be made "conformed to the body of his brightness," but each one according to his powers. The Apostles reshaped themselves to his likeness so much that he himself said of them: "I go to my Father and your Father, to my God and to your God." For he had already asked the Father for his disciples, that the former likeness might be restored to them, when he says: "Father, grant that, as I and you are one, so these too may be one in us." Let us therefore always gaze upon this image of God, so that we may be able to be reshaped to his likeness. For if man, made according to the image of God, contrary to nature, gazing upon the image of the devil, was made like him through sin, much more, gazing upon the image of God, to whose likeness he was made by God, he will receive through the Word and through his power that form which had been given him by nature. And let no one, seeing his likeness to be more with the devil than with God, despair that he can again recover the form of the image of God, because the Savior did not come "to call the just, but sinners to repentance." Matthew was a tax collector, and surely his image was like the devil, but coming to the image of God, our Lord and Savior, and following it, he was transformed to the likeness of the image of God. "James, the son of Zebedee, and John, his brother," "were fishermen" and "men without letters," who surely then bore a likeness rather to the image of the devil, but these too, following the image of God, were made like him, as also the other Apostles. Paul was a persecutor of that very image of God; but as soon as he was able to behold its beauty and comeliness, having seen it he was so far reshaped to its likeness that he said: "Or do you seek a proof of him who speaks in me, Christ?"

"Male and female he made them, and God blessed them, saying: Increase and multiply, and fill the earth, and have dominion over it." It seems worthy in this place to inquire according to the letter how, the woman not yet having been made, Scripture says: "Male and female he made them." Perhaps, as I think, on account of the blessing with which he blessed them, saying: "Increase and multiply, and fill the earth," anticipating what was going to be, he says: "Male and female he made them," since indeed man could not otherwise increase and multiply except with the woman. Therefore, so that his blessing might without doubt be believed to be about to be, he says: "Male and female he made them." For in this way man, seeing that the consequence of increasing and multiplying was from the fact that a woman was joined to him, could bear a more certain hope in the divine blessing. For if Scripture had said: "Increase and multiply, and fill the earth, and have dominion over it," without adding this, that "male and female he made them," surely he would have proved incredulous of the divine blessing, just as Mary too, at that blessing with which she was blessed by the angel, said: "How shall I know this? since I do not know a man." Or perhaps because all things that were made by God are said to be joined and fitted together, as heaven and earth, as sun and moon: so, then, that it might be shown that man too is the work of God and was not brought forth without harmony or fitting conjunction, therefore anticipating he says: "Male and female he made them." These things indeed have been said to that question which can be raised according to the letter.

But let us also see through allegory how man, made according to the image of God, is male and female. Our interior man consists of spirit and soul. The spirit is called male, the soul can be named female. If these have concord and agreement between themselves, being in harmony with each other, they increase and multiply and beget sons, good senses and useful understandings or thoughts, through which they fill the earth and have dominion over it; that is, they convert the sense of the flesh, subjected to them, to better instituted ways and rule over it, namely when the flesh in no way grows insolent against the will of the spirit. But now if the soul, joined to the spirit and coupled, so to speak, in its marriage, sometimes turns aside to bodily pleasures and inclines its sense to the delight of the flesh, and sometimes indeed seems to obey the salutary admonitions of the spirit, but sometimes yields to carnal vices, such a soul, as though stained by the adultery of the body, is said neither to increase nor to multiply lawfully, since indeed Scripture designates the sons of adulterers as imperfect. For such a soul, which, having deserted the conjunction of the spirit, prostrates itself wholly to the sense of the flesh and to bodily desires, as though turned away from God will impudently hear that "you have made yourself the face of a harlot, you have become without shame toward all." Therefore as a harlot she will be punished, and her sons are commanded to be prepared for slaughter.

For with whom did He make man? and to whom did He make him like? (The answer must be), the Son on the one hand, who was one day to put on human nature; and the Spirit on the other, who was to sanctify man. With these did He then speak, in the Unity of the Trinity, as with His ministers and witnesses. In the following text also He distinguishes among the Persons: "So God created man in His own image; in the image of God created He him." Genesis 1:27 Why say "image of God?" Why not "His own image" merely, if He was only one who was the Maker, and if there was not also One in whose image He made man? But there was One in whose image God was making man, that is to say, Christ's image, who, being one day about to become Man (more surely and more truly so), had already caused the man to be called His image, who was then going to be formed of clay—the image and similitude of the true and perfect Man.

God created man to His own image: But man is like to God in his soul. Therefore the soul was created. The image of God, in its principal signification, namely the intellectual nature, is found both in man and in woman. Hence after the words, "To the image of God He created him," it is added, "Male and female He created them" (Genesis 1:27). Moreover it is said "them" in the plural, as Augustine (Gen. ad lit. iii, 22) remarks, lest it should be thought that both sexes were united in one individual. But in a secondary sense the image of God is found in man, and not in woman: for man is the beginning and end of woman; as God is the beginning and end of every creature. So when the Apostle had said that "man is the image and glory of God, but woman is the glory of man"(1 Corinthians 11:7) he adds his reason for saying this: "For man is not of woman, but woman of man; and man was not created for woman, but woman for man."

I consider it beyond doubt that this world was fashioned for the sake of man: which, although composed of diverse substances, is yet one body fitted with many members, so that from these, through their mutual workings, those things might arise which were to be necessary for man. For a dwelling was made for man together with necessities, in such a way that each of these, according to its kind, should be produced upon the earth; that is, that once made, they should possess an inherent power of propagation in each several kind of the things that were created upon the earth. For origins were established, whose seed should advance to the procreation of multiplying kinds upon the earth. Where Scripture bears witness: And God blessed them, saying, Increase and multiply upon the earth (Gen. 1:22, 28). In like manner also the human race was blessed: which meaning we behold in the Law. For we see it written: The people grew and was multiplied in Egypt (Acts 7:17). With the same blessing, therefore, with which the things created for man's use were blessed, man himself was blessed, that likewise from male and female the stock of the human race should increase and be multiplied upon the earth; and that just as seeds were to be improved by cultivation, so also the human race, by applying care, should endeavor that, once they had attained the knowledge of the Creator, they would restrain their way of life so as to win His favor, that all things together might advance to the praise and glory of the Creator. And since these words signify nothing else, the facts themselves bear witness. For all things that have been made have, by God's will, been multiplied and improved upon the earth. Nor indeed could it happen otherwise than as God's will and blessing have decreed for the seeds. How then can it be said that what increases by God's blessing and with His favor is done evil or is not permitted? The tradition of this matter has remained in the Synagogue and is now celebrated in the Church, namely that God's creature be joined under God's blessing. Not at all by presumption, since the pattern has been given by the very Author. But if it is thought that it ought to cease, then it must cease when those things also cease which likewise were blessed that they might multiply: for if the generation of men ceases, to what purpose do those things come into being which were blessed upon the earth? For the world cannot act in part and in part cease. Either it all works, or it all rests in idleness. Is a body useful whose some members are vigorous, others are numb? Why then is that which has been blessed by the Lord asserted by some to be a filthy and contaminated work, unless because a kind of violence is done to the hands of God Himself? For they would not condemn this deed unless they thought ill of God, the Author of this work. Because they fear to detract openly from God, nevertheless they accuse Him through the work He has devised. For when the work displeases, the author is criticized. If men of this sort would read, or rather receive, the Scriptures, they would remember Balaam saying: How shall I curse him whom God has blessed? (Num. 23:8). For it is in vain that he is accused who is praised by the judge; rather, he himself is his own accuser who declares guilty him whom the laws defend. Who then are you who think that that which you read has been blessed by God should be condemned, unless either you deny that this is God, or accuse the Scripture of falsehood? There are those who, as if receiving new things, think that the old must be rejected. But the new precepts, proclaimed to the peoples through Christ, do not differ from these. For He Himself, when invited, did not disdain to go to a wedding; and not only did He honor it with His presence, but also supplied what was lacking for joy (Jn. 2:1–11). For it is written that wine makes glad the heart of man (Ps. 104:15 and Sirach 40:20). And to show that He did this in accordance with the will of God His Father, when the Jews asked whether it is lawful for a man to put away his wife, He answered among other things, saying: For from the beginning God made them male and female, and said: For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and the two shall be one flesh. Therefore now they are no more two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate (Matt. 19:4–6). Therefore it is that He went willingly when invited to the wedding, lest He should seem to weaken the work of God and of His Father. Rather, showing that the teaching of the old and new Law agrees, He not only did not forbid marriage, but consented to be present at it, bearing witness that God is its Author; and by a saving precept He showed that what has been joined by God ought neither to be forbidden nor separated. And because birth is beneficial, when He was already leaving the world He entrusted His mother to John His disciple (Jn. 19:26–27). Wherefore we also, in all things observing the commands of the old and new Law, are taught to honor our parents (Deut. 5:16 and Matt. 15:4): and it is laid down in the Law that unless we do so, we shall suffer a curse. What then is this presumption, or from what law does it arise, to close off the entrance to marriage, when both the new and the old Law in all respects seem to favor these things? But it is that which we read, that whatever is beyond is from evil (Matt. 5:37). Where the Apostle says that men of this sort have their conscience seared, who forbid to marry and teach abstinence from foods which God created to be received (1 Tim. 4:2–3). For they are shown to do this in hypocrisy, for the sake of hostility, so that they may charge the Law delivered by God. Others, therefore, by striving to resist saving precepts, stretch out opposing hands, that they may praise the orders of crooked doctrine: and therefore they are said to have their conscience seared. For with a corrupt mind, knowing one thing, they profess another. So also the Jews, who, not ignorant that the works done by the Savior were works of the Holy Spirit, out of envy said that He casts out demons by Beelzebub (Matt. 12:24), in order to turn the people away from faith in Him. Such also is the cunning of the above-mentioned people, for in order to pretend that they are lovers of holiness and chastity, they say that marriage must be condemned, so that by this they may win commendation and turn the people away from the truth. And that they may pretend that they study abstinence, they teach that one must refrain from certain foods, so that by this they may show themselves as strangers to the world hastening to the heavenly kingdoms; and by this, after ensnaring the minds of people, they then teach that what is unlawful is permitted, and condemn what is lawful as though it were forbidden. These are the tricks of Satan, that he may invert causes and, as if insinuating something new, shut out the truth, in which there is nothing new, because all is eternal. Who does not see that this way of thinking has been manufactured by adversaries? For who would dare to reject what God has established, and what has never harmed anyone except the enemy of truth? He, in order to cover his own uncleanness, proclaims a holiness which he does not love, so that while he presents himself as if of good will on its account, he may persuade people to unlawful things as if they were lawful. For he recommends himself in order that he may deceive more easily, and by this, when the unwary are taken captive, he suggests things through which he makes them greater sinners: for so that he may apply some supposed remedy to his own cause, he strongly urges people to sin, seeking great comfort from this, in that he shows he has many partners in his crime, reckoning the punishment light, as though it were less grievous if he sees many with him in Gehenna. Blind men, while they are overcome by vices, defend themselves either by weakness or by ignorance, instead of taking vengeance on those things by which a deceiving desire leads them astray. Or what hindering darkness is there, that what is true is not seen? For letters are often thought to signify something else, when either they are not pronounced correctly, or are improperly divided. But when it is read, "God made," and, "He blessed what He had made," who can from this argument? who can doubt? who can think that what has been blessed is accursed, unless he is animated by another spirit? If this were said to be the voice of a man, perhaps some deceit might be believed: it is said that God is speaking, and do you doubt? God has blessed, and you reject it? But perhaps, under the name of God, Moses introduced an error? Let the signs and wonders done through Moses in Egypt satisfy you; let the marvels done in the Red Sea for the deliverance of the children of Israel persuade you. Hear the magicians confessing, "This is the finger of God" (Exod. 8:19). Agree with the Apostle when he says, "I would not have you ignorant, brothers, that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ" (1 Cor. 10:1–4). And from where did the Apostle say this? Scripture is at hand, in which we read our Lord Christ saying to the Jews, "If you believed Moses, you would perhaps believe also in me, for Moses wrote about me" (Jn. 5:46). Who will deny faith to this harmony? Who will dare to say that what is one is at variance? Who is of such a wicked mind as to strive to make undivided love appear as hate? Behold, you have both the testimony of words and examples of virtues, which may subject your mind to the truth, so that you may not think anything else true than what the books of the Catholic Church contain. Since therefore it has been proved that the same God was in the Old Testament who is now ours, and that he is true, as shown by many evidences of his power, his authority must be preferred to such a degree that even what seems harsh and perhaps absurd to us must be accepted and allowed, and thought of otherwise than we imagine, if it is praised by the judgment of God; because we must believe God more than ourselves. For our weakness and lack of skill usually judge as useful what is harmful, and reckon false things as true: which it is wicked even to suspect concerning God. For he is not a nature that can be deceived: how much less, then, should there be doubt concerning marriages, when God says, "What God has joined together, let no man separate"? (Matt. 19:6) For this is a matter clear and simple. Surely every person rejoices when he has been found worthy of God's favor, and believes himself made better when he learns the mystery of his Creator, which he certainly would not have attained if he had not been born. Why then does he lament what he rejoices in, and condemn that which he boasts of having learned? For if he rejoices because he has learned, but would not have learned unless he had been born, without doubt it is good to be born, because the fruit of birth is the knowledge of the truth. But if it is evil to be born, then knowledge will not be good. For to what purpose will knowledge profit, if birth is condemned? For if it is not useful to be born and it ought not to be, it is useless that one who is to be condemned should learn. But since no one is so dull as to deny that the knowledge of God benefits people, and that it is good and useful, for through it birth itself is made better, so that, when birth is improved, it may merit more than what had been granted to Adam, for believers will reign in heaven, not on earth, in the paradise of God the Father, not in that in which Adam had been commanded bodily to work. For if the feast of the dedication was celebrated at Jerusalem, that is, the festival of the dedication of the temple of God was kept, how much more should the birthday of the human person be celebrated, who is more truly the temple of God; for whose sake also the temple was built by hands, that thanks might be given to God. For our body is a better temple: because it is the work of God, whereas that other was built by human labor; and this is under the hope of eternity, that for destruction. Therefore whoever knows that he was born by God's appointment, in order that he may give him thanks, having understood his mystery, ought to rejoice on his birthday, seeing that his birth has made progress. Truly, however, those ought not to have been born who, abandoning their Creator, assign his glory to others: for their birth leads on to punishment; but it is not birth that suffers guilt, but the will. But who are you who forbid marriage? Perhaps you are Marcion, because you think the body was not made by God, but by the Devil; while you insist that the soul fell by some error, so that it came to the regions of darkness in which the world now is. How then could he be freed from here, if he were prevented from being generated? For once born you came to know your condition, and with deliberate effort you acted so as to return to your native home, restored to your rightful lot. Indeed, you say you give thanks to Christ, through whom you rejoice that you have attained this understanding. Now consider: if you had not been born, this knowledge would cease, and liberation would not follow. Therefore, if you rejoice that the soul is freed, favor birth; for if you oppose birth, you are an enemy of souls. Or if you are a Manichaean, who reject marriage as though it were something contrary, I ask you: if bodies were not generated at all, how would the soul, which you claim to have been poured into the region of darkness and to be clinging to material things, be rescued from here? For in your books you have written that it is freed by being born, so that souls received from the moon and departing from bodies are handed over to the sun, whom you assert to be the god of your souls. For you are glad to be called Manichaeans. By this very name you demand your liberation: which you certainly would not know of, if you had not been born. Therefore it is very clear that you condemn marriage hypocritically. For while professing holiness, you secretly strive after impurity, something that has been made known not only privately, but also through imperial edicts. Now listen, Catholic, and learn from the Gospel that man's birth is beneficial. When Simeon, a righteous man, wished to depart from this world, thinking that the knowledge of the Creator without understanding His mystery was sufficient for him, he was not allowed to die unless he advanced further in his perception of God, so that he might have the full reward of his faith. Accordingly, receiving the newborn Savior in his arms, he blessed God and said: "Lord, now you are letting your servant depart, according to your word, in peace; for my eyes have seen your salvation" (Luke 2:29–30). It has been clearly shown that man's birth is a blessing from God, since to a righteous man thinking of death the answer was given that he would not die before he had seen the Lord's Christ: for he advanced so far in life that he became worthy, even in the present, to see the One whom he hoped would be his deliverer after death. He, then, who was preserved in life and not allowed to die until he had seen the fruit of his hope, so that he might be assured that he would pass from life to life, how can it be said that birth was of no benefit to him? If it were an evil that we are born, paradise would not be promised, nor eternal life, nor the kingdom of heaven, but punishment and the destruction of hell; so that someone who knew himself to be born for perdition would fear to beget another, and he who knew himself to be unlawfully born would not desire to beget. But perhaps it will be said: The kingdom of heaven is indeed promised, but to the faithful and those who do good. Correct. You see, then, that men do not become guilty because they are born, but because they have lived badly. Nor is the kingdom of heaven promised to those who are not born, so that it might be charged against birth in the case of those to whom it will not be given; rather, it is promised to those who are born and act well, so that birth may neither benefit one who acts badly nor be able to harm one who acts well. For by the faithful and those who act well, birth is improved; but by the faithless and those who act badly, it is made worse. For birth is like a tree that is grafted: if it is grafted with a good shoot, it will become better and be called good; but if it is grafted with a bad shoot, it will become worse and be called not good but evil. So also, if good teaching is joined to birth, it will produce good fruits; but if bad teaching is joined to it, it will produce bad fruits. Therefore, just as a tree is necessary in order that something may be grafted onto it, so birth is necessary in order that there may be something that can make progress. But an objection is raised on the other side: If birth is useful, why are we reborn? We would not be reborn unless birth were useful. To be reborn is to be renewed, and those who are renewed are restored. Therefore rebirth does not accuse birth, but reshapes it; and what is reshaped is thereby shown to have been well established from the beginning. Therefore, in being reborn we are changed in our nature, through the purification of the body, so that we may be restored to Adam's original condition. It is by the soul's sin that the body has been stained; when it is repaired and improved through faith, the disposition is washed clean: so that just as it had been defiled through contempt of God, so through obedience it may be cleansed, in order to escape the sentence passed on Adam and be able to rise again. If, then, sin began from the soul, why is the nature of the body blamed, since in Adam's sin the cause was not bodily desire, but the soul, enticed by hope of divinity, transgressed God's command so as to subject his body to sin, and men might be born under sin? Yet this in no way harms a man, if he obeys the law of God, except that he dies; and for this very thing God's goodwill has promised a reward, so that, since in devotion to the Creator they are found faithful, yet through Adam's transgression they have been subjected to corruption and death, for this reason they may receive from God the Judge more than was granted to Adam: that in the future they may be both glorious and possess eternal life, and be called adopted sons of God; so that it is a gain that they have been born.

Let us now see whether the following things in the Law agree with its beginnings. When Abraham had pleased God, among the other things that pertain to the reward of his faith, although he was old, he was judged worthy to beget one son (Gen. 18:10). How then can it be blamed as though it were a reward granted, that God should fulfill the will of one who had done God's own will? That will would not have been fulfilled unless it were harmless; nor would God fulfill what He saw was asked badly or ignorantly, especially by one who was pleasing to Him; for even a man should not do that. And Anna, though she was barren and loved God, asked to have a son and received one (1 Sam. 1); and if this had been something contrary, she could have been warned by Him whom she loved not to ask for a harmful thing. And Samuel, most holy, who was born from her, begot sons, yet did not lessen the merits of his righteousness. From his earliest years he was always advancing, so that in old age he might be praised by a fuller testimony of God. And Zacharias the priest, a just man, in his old age begot a son by God's command; and before that son was born, he merited to prophesy (Luke 1:5). On what grounds, then, is that accused which is clearly shown not to be harmful? And who will deny that what harms no one ought to be called good? And to say something here about the Apostles, which pertains to strengthening the case: certainly Saint John was the guardian of chastity; but his fellow disciple, that is, Saint Peter, is known to have had a wife; and to receive the primacy among the Apostles, the begetting of children was no obstacle to him. How then can that be thought worthy of condemnation which does not hinder merit? Therefore the Apostle shows that one who has a wife, if he keeps the commandments in other respects, can and ought to be made a priest. For if it were unlawful, he certainly could not say that a sinner ought to be made a priest. And what is clearer? It is the voice of the same Apostle who says: "Concerning virgins I have no commandment of the Lord" (1 Cor. 7:25). For when the Corinthians were harassed by heretics who, in hypocrisy, taught that marriages must be condemned, they consulted the Apostle by letter whether it was permitted to marry or to dismiss a wife. Then the Apostle commanded that a wife ought not to depart from her husband; and when he had the occasion to say, if he had known that it should be taught so, that it is not permitted to marry, he showed that he could not teach what had not been handed down to him. But which of the disciples would teach what was not handed down by the Master? Or who would not listen to him preaching: "I want younger women to marry, to bear children" (1 Tim. 5:14)? But perhaps it may be said: If it is permitted and good to marry, why is it not permitted for priests to have wives? that is, that once ordained, they may no longer have marital relations? Who does not know that each state has its own law? For there are things which absolutely and generally are not permitted to all; there are also things which are permitted to some and not permitted to others; and there are things which are sometimes permitted and sometimes not permitted. Fornication is never permitted to anyone; trade, however, is sometimes permitted and sometimes not permitted. For before a man enters church office, he is permitted to trade; once he has become a cleric, it is no longer permitted. And for a Christian to have relations with his wife is sometimes permitted and sometimes not permitted. Because on days of solemn procession it is sometimes not permitted to have relations; since even lawful things must be abstained from, that what is asked may be more easily obtained. Therefore the Apostle says it is necessary to abstain for a time by mutual consent, that one may devote oneself to prayer (1 Cor. 7:5). For according to the Law, on a fast day it is not permitted to strike or to quarrel, afterwards it is permitted; because greater reverence is owed to the things of God. Is everything that is permitted before others permitted also before the emperor? How much more in the things of God? And therefore His bishop must be purer than others: for he seems to bear His person, being His vicar; so that what is permitted to others is not permitted to him, because he must of necessity daily act in the place of Christ, either to pray for the people, or to offer, or to baptize. And not only is intercourse forbidden to this man, but also to his minister: because he ought to be cleaner, since the things he ministers are holy. For just as, in comparison with a lamp, darkness is not only dim but also filthy, whereas in comparison with the stars a lamp is gloom, and in comparison with the sun the stars are murky, and in comparison with the brightness of God the sun is night; so also the things that are lawful and pure for us, in comparison with God's dignity are as though unlawful and impure; for though they are good, they do not befit the person of God. Is not the tunic of a man of moderate station, though clean, yet filthy and unsuitable for an emperor? Likewise a Saxon cloak for a senator? And therefore the bishops of God must be purer than others, because they bear the person of Christ, and the ministers of God must be cleaner. For no one serves the emperor without carefulness; therefore they serve clothed in bright and clean garments. But because God by nature is most radiant, it is necessary that His ministers be clean by nature rather than by garments; to whom be praise and glory for ever and ever. Amen.

One is completely right to ask in what sense we should understand the union of male and female before sin, as well as the blessing that said "Increase and multiply, and generate and fill the earth." Should we understand it in a physical manner or spiritually? For we are permitted to understand it spiritually and to believe that it was changed into sexual fecundity after sin. For there was first the chaste union of male and female, of the former to rule, of the latter to obey, and there was the spiritual offspring of intelligible and immortal joys filling the earth, that is, giving life to the body and ruling it. That is, man so held [the body] subject that he experienced from it no opposition or trouble. We should believe that it was this way, since they were not yet children of this world before they sinned. For the children of this world generate and are generated, as the Lord says, when he shows that we should relatively disregard this carnal generation in comparison with the future life that is promised to us.

If one should ask why it was necessary that a helper be made for man, the answer that seems most probable is that it was for the procreation of children, just as the earth is a helper for the seed in the production of a plant from the union of the two. This purpose was declared in the original creation of the world: "Male and female he made them. And God blessed them and said, 'Increase and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it.' " This reason for creation and union of male and female, as well as this blessing, was not abrogated after the sin and punishment of man. It is by virtue of this blessing that the earth is now filled with human beings who subdue it. Although it was after the expulsion of the man and woman from paradise that they came together in sexual intercourse and begot children, according to Scripture, nevertheless I do not see what could have prohibited them from honorable nuptial union and "the bed undefiled" even in paradise. God could have granted them this if they had lived in a faithful and just manner in obedient and holy service to him, so that without the tumultuous ardor of passion and without any labor and pain of childbirth, offspring would be born from their seed. In this case, the purpose would not be to have children succeeding parents who die. Rather those who had begotten children would remain in the prime of life and would maintain their physical strength from the tree of life that had been planted in paradise. Those who would be born would develop to the same state and eventually, when the determined number would be complete, if all live just and obedient lives, there would be a transformation. Thus without any death their natural bodies would receive a new quality since they obeyed every command of the spirit that ruled them. With the spirit alone vivifying them, without any help from corporeal nourishment, they would be called spiritual bodies. This could have been if the transgression of God's command had not merited the punishment of death.

Far be it then from us to believe that the couple that were placed in paradise would have fulfilled through this lust, which shamed them into covering those organs, the words pronounced by God in his blessing: "Increase and multiply and fill the earth." For it was only after man sinned that his lust arose; it was after man sinned that his natural being, retaining the sense of shame but losing that dominance to which the body was subject in every part, felt and noticed, then blushed at and concealed that lust. The nuptial blessing, however, whereby the pair, joined in marriage, were to increase and multiply and fill the earth, remained in force even when they sinned. Yet it was given before they sinned, for its purpose was to make it clear that the procreation of children is a part of the glory of marriage and not of the punishment of sin.

At times the Manichaeans also ask, "In what sense did man receive power over the fish of the sea and the birds of heaven and all the cattle and wild animals? For we see that men are killed by many wild animals and that many birds harm us when we want to avoid them or to capture them, though we often cannot. In what sense then did we receive power over these?" On this point they should first be told that they make a big mistake when they consider man after sin, when he has been condemned to the mortality of this life and has lost that perfection by which he was made in the image of the God. But even man's state of condemnation involves such power that he rules many animals. For though he can be killed by many wild animals on account of the fragility of his body, he can be tamed by none, although he tames very many and nearly all of them.

And He blessed them and said: Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it. For indeed, this multiplication of humans and filling of the earth could only be accomplished through the union of man and woman. Yet, if the human race grows and multiplies by the blessing of God, how much more worthy of a curse are those who forbid marriage and condemn the arrangement of the heavenly decree as if it were devised by the devil? Therefore, marriages should not be condemned, which were established by the grace of the heavenly blessing for the propagation of the human race and the filling of the earth; but rather, virginity is more to be honored and is worthy of greater blessing, which, after the earth has been filled with people, desires in chastity of mind and body to follow the Lamb wherever He goes—that is, the Lord Jesus in heaven—and to sing a new song, which no one else can sing. For God and our Lord, who in the beginning of the nascent world formed the woman from the side of the man to teach that the earth was to be filled by their mutual union, Himself in the end of the age took a man from the flesh of a Virgin, free from all contamination, filled with the fullness of all divinity, to prove that He valued the glory of virginity more than marriage.

And rule over the fish of the sea, and the birds of the air, and all the living creatures that move upon the earth. It is rightly asked for what use man received dominion over the fish, birds, and all the animals of the earth, or to what uses and comforts these were created for man, if he had never sinned: to whom, as the following scripture declares, these were not given for food but only the herbs and fruits of trees were granted in the first condition, unless it is to be said that God foresaw that man would sin and become mortal by sinning, whom He created immortal, and therefore originally provided those comforts for him by which mortal fragility could be sustained, namely either food from them, or clothing, or aids for work or travel. And it is not worth asking why man also does not now rule over all animals; for after man did not want to be subject to his Creator, he lost dominion over those which his Creator had subjected to his authority. Finally, we read as a testimony of the first creation that the birds provided service to the holy and humbly serving men of God, the jaws of beasts withdrew and the venom of serpents was not able to harm.

A twofold precept was given to man, namely of nature and of discipline; the precept of nature: "Increase and multiply"; the precept of discipline: "Of the tree of knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat." A twofold good was prepared for man: one visible, the other invisible; one temporal, the other eternal; one for the flesh, the other for the spirit. Of these goods, God gave one and promised the other, so that one might be possessed freely, and the other sought through merit. And because a good is given in vain unless it is preserved, and is promised in vain unless one attains to it, therefore a twofold precept was given to man: one of nature for preserving the good given, the other of discipline for meriting the good promised.

That which accords with divine precepts is a work of virtue and consonant with the law of God: but the conjugal act is of this kind: therefore it is a work of virtue. The minor is proved: Genesis 1: Increase and multiply, etc.: but this is accomplished through the conjugal act: therefore the conjugal act is a work of virtue.

Conjugal chastity accords with the law of nature by reason of the superadded precept, while the law of nature still remained, according to that passage of Genesis 1: God blessed them and said: Increase and multiply and fill the earth: which indeed is not done legitimately except through the exercise of conjugal chastity. From this it is moral; and all of this belongs to it according to the state of the law of nature, from which the act and exercise of conjugal chastity itself first draws its origin.

Against the vowing of widowed continence it is objected: everything that is repugnant to a divine precept is to be condemned; but to vow continence is repugnant to a divine precept, namely Genesis 1: Increase and multiply: therefore continence is not to be vowed.

To this it must be said that the precept of nature is twofold: one which regards the common state; another which regards the state of a singular person. The first does not bind anyone per se and determinately, so long as there is another who fulfills or can fulfill that command. And since there are many who devote themselves to carnal generation, as much as suffices for nature, the observance of continence in a singular person is not repugnant to that precept. For that precept does not descend to any determinate person, except in a case in which nature could not subsist unless that person devoted himself to generation, as was the case with Adam, or with the sons of Noah, to whom it was expressly said: Increase and multiply and fill the earth.

Man was appointed by God to have dominion over the beasts, and everything a man does to an animal is either a lawful exercise, or a sacrilegious abuse, of an authority by divine right. The tame animal is therefore, in the deepest sense, the only "natural" animal--the only one we see occupying the place it was made to occupy, and it is on the tame animal that we must base all our doctrine of beasts. Now it will be seen that, in so far as the tame animal has a real self or personality, it owes this almost entirely to its master. If a good sheepdog seems "almost human" that is because a good shepherd has made it so.

"And God blessed them and said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds and over every animal that crawls upon the earth.'" [ Gen1:28 ] Because they were blessed on this earth, it is as if this dwelling spot had been prepared for them prior to their sin. For although they had not yet sinned God knew that they were about to sin.

"Be fruitful and multiply and fill," not Paradise but "the earth," [ Gen1:28 ] and "have dominion over the fish of the sea and the birds and over all the beasts." [ Gen1:28 ] But how was Adam to rule over the fish of the sea unless he were in proximity to the sea? And how was he to rule over the birds that fly throughout every region unless his descendants were to dwell in every region? And how was Adam to rule over every beast of the earth unless his offspring inhabited the entire earth?

Although Adam was created and was blessed to rule over the earth and over everything that was created and blessed in [ the earth ], God had indeed made him to dwell within Paradise. God truly manifested His fore-knowledge in His blessings and manifested His grace in the place in which He caused Adam to dwell. Lest it be said that Paradise was not created for [ Adam's ] sake, God made him dwell there in Paradise. And lest it be said that God did not know that Adam would sin, He blessed him on this earth. And everything with which God blessed Adam preceded the transgression of the commandment, lest by the transgression of him who had been blessed, the blessings of Him who gives blessing be withheld and the world be turned back into nothing on account of the folly of that one for whose sake everything had been created.

Within Paradise, therefore, God did not bless Adam because that place and all that was in it is blessed. But God blessed him on the earth first so that by the blessing with which [ His ] grace blessed beforehand, the curse of the earth, which was about to be cursed by [ His ] justice, might [ thus ] be diminished. But even though it was a blessing of promise, in that it was fulfilled after his expulsion from Paradise, it was, nevertheless, His grace that was effected, for on that same day, God made Adam dwell in the garden, clothed him with glory and made him ruler over all the trees of Paradise.

A really human human being would always put the spiritual things first. A walking and speaking statue of God finds himself at one particular moment employed as a shop assistant. He has in himself a power of terrible love, a promise of paternity, a thirst for some loyalty that shall unify life, and in the ordinary course of things he asks himself, "How far do the existing conditions of those assisting in shops fit in with my evident and epic destiny in the matter of love and marriage?"

In so far as I am Man I am the chief of creatures. In so far as I am a man I am the chief of sinners. All humility that had meant pessimism, that had meant man taking a vague or mean view of his whole destiny--all that was to go. We were to hear no more the wail of Ecclesiastes that humanity had no pre-eminence over the brute, or the awful cry of Homer that man was only the saddest of all the beasts of the field. Man was a statue of God walking about the garden. Man had pre-eminence over all the brutes; man was only sad because he was not a beast, but a broken god. The Greek had spoken of men creeping on the earth, as if clinging to it. Now Man was to tread on the earth as if to subdue it. Christianity thus held a thought of the dignity of man that could only be expressed in crowns rayed like the sun and fans of peacock plumage. Yet at the same time it could hold a thought about the abject smallness of man that could only be expressed in fasting and fantastic submission, in the grey ashes of St. Dominic and the white snows of St. Bernard.

It is not only nonsense, but blasphemy, to say that man has spoilt the country. Man has created the country; it was his business, as the image of God. No hill, covered with common scrub or patches of purple heath, could have been so sublimely hilly as that ridge up to which the ranked furrows rose like aspiring angels. No valley, confused with needless cottages and towns, can have been so utterly valleyish as that abyss into which the down-rushing furrows raged like demons into the swirling pit.

There are two ways to "increase": in the body and in the soul. The soul increases by education, progressing toward completion; the body increases (by growing) from small to large. He told, therefore, the senseless animals to increase by the development of the body. But to us he said "increase" in the inner person along ways which lead toward God. This was what Paul did, in his stretching out toward what lay ahead and forgetting what lie behind. This is godly increase.

Let no one think however that herein we depreciate marriage as an institution. We are well aware that it is not a stranger to God's blessing.… But our view of marriage is this; that, while the pursuit of heavenly things should be a man's first care, yet if he can use the advantages of marriage with sobriety and moderation, he need not despise this way of serving the state.

"You will rule over savage beasts." How though, you may ask, since I have a beast within? Actually, there are a myriad, a countless number of beasts within you. You should not take offense in these words. Rage is a small beast, yet when it growls in the heart is any dog more savage? Is not the treacherous soul like fresh bait staked in front of a bear's den? Is not the hypocrite a beast?… [Rule] then over the beasts inside you. Rule your thoughts so that you will become a ruler over all things. So the same one who provides the power to rule over all living things provides power for us to rule over ourselves.

For I think that from this beginning all our passions issue as from a spring, and pour their flood over man's life; and an evidence of my words is the kinship of passions which appears alike in ourselves and in the brutes; for it is not allowable to ascribe the first beginnings of our constitutional liability to passion to that human nature which was fashioned in the Divine likeness; but as brute life first entered into the world, and man, for the reason already mentioned, took something of their nature (I mean the mode of generation), he accordingly took at the same time a share of the other attributes contemplated in that nature; for the likeness of man to God is not found in anger, nor is pleasure a mark of the superior nature; cowardice also, and boldness, and the desire of gain, and the dislike of loss, and all the like, are far removed from that stamp which indicates Divinity. These attributes, then, human nature took to itself from the side of the brutes; for those qualities with which brute life was armed for self-preservation, when transferred to human life, became passions; for the carnivorous animals are preserved by their anger, and those which breed largely by their love of pleasure; cowardice preserves the weak, fear that which is easily taken by more powerful animals, and greediness those of great bulk; and to miss anything that tends to pleasure is for the brutes a matter of pain. All these and the like affections entered man's composition by reason of the animal mode of generation.

So, after saying "male and female he made them" as though to bestow a blessing on each of them, he goes on, "God blessed them in the words, 'Increase and multiply, fill the earth and gain dominion over it, and have control of the fish of the sea.' " Behold the remarkable character of the blessing! I mean, those words, "increase and multiply and fill the earth," anyone could see are said of the brute beasts and the reptiles alike, whereas "gain dominion and have control" are directed to the man and woman. See the Lord's loving kindness: even before creating them, he makes them share in this control and bestows on them the blessing. "Have control" the text says, "of the fish of the sea, the birds of heaven and all the cattle, the whole earth and all the reptiles creeping on the earth." Did you notice the definitive character of this authority? Did you notice all created things placed under the control of this particular being? So no longer entertain casual impressions of this rational being but rather realize the extent of the esteem and the Lord's magnanimity toward it and be amazed at his love beyond all telling.

After the transgression, … to prevent the wearing out and destruction of the race by death, marriage was devised that the race of men may be preserved through the procreation of children.But they will perhaps ask, What then is the meaning of "male and female" and "Be fruitful and multiply"? In answer we shall say that "Be fruitful and multiply" does not altogether refer to the multiplying by the marriage connection. For God had power to multiply the race also in different ways, if they kept the precept unbroken to the end. But God, who knows all things before they have existence, knowing in his foreknowledge that they would fall into transgression in the future and be condemned to death, anticipated this and made "male and female," and bade them "be fruitful and multiply."

Indeed being in himself the universal union of all, [Christ] has started with our [sexual] division and become the perfect human being, having from us, on our account and in accordance with our nature, everything that we are and lacking nothing, "apart from sin," and having no need of the natural intercourse of marriage. In this way he showed, I think, that there was perhaps another way, foreknown to God, for human beings to increase, if the first human being had kept the commandment and not cast himself down to an animal state by abusing his own proper powers. Thus God-made-man has done away with the difference and division of nature into male and female, which human nature in no way needed for generation, as some hold, and without which it would perhaps have been possible.

"And have dominion over the fish of the sea and the birds of heaven and the beasts of burden and all the things that are upon the earth, and the creeping things which creep upon the earth." These things have already been interpreted according to the letter, when we spoke of what God said: "Let us make man," and the rest, where he says: "And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and the birds of heaven," and so on. Yet according to allegory, in the fish and the flying things or the animals and the creeping things of the earth there seem to me to be indicated those things concerning which we spoke nonetheless above, that is, either those which proceed from the sense of the soul and the thought of the heart, or those which are brought forth from bodily desires and the movements of the flesh; of which all the saints, keeping also the blessing of God in themselves, exercise dominion, driving the whole man according to the will of the spirit; but over sinners those things rather have dominion which are brought forth from the vices of the flesh and the pleasures of the body.

That which God commands: "increase and multiply" — those who take it simply and according to the letter, I do not know how they can explain it. For granted that "multiply" refers to number, so that, while they become more than they were before, the multiplication has its place: yet what follows, "increase", is not in our power. For what person would not wish "to add to his stature", so as to become taller? If therefore something is commanded for this purpose, that it may come to pass — since it is foolish to command what he to whom you give the command cannot do — and it is commanded us that we should increase, then surely that is commanded which we are able to do. Do you wish to know how "increase" is to be understood? Hear what Isaac did, of whom it is said: "Isaac went forward and became greater, until he became great, or exceedingly great indeed". For his will, ever stretching itself toward better things, had its advances, his mind contemplated something more divine, and he exercised himself in memory, so as to store up more things in his treasury and retain them more firmly. And in this manner it comes about that whoever has cultivated all his virtues in the field of his soul fulfills the commandment enjoining: "increase".

And from that time, ever since the blessing which was pronounced upon man's generation, Genesis 1:28 the flesh and the soul have had a simultaneous birth, without any calculable difference in time; so that the two have been even generated together in the womb, as we have shown in our Treatise on the Soul. Contemporaneous in the womb, they are also temporally identical in their birth. The two are no doubt produced by human parents of two substances, but not at two different periods; rather they are so entirely one, that neither is before the other in point of time.

Tertullian says this concerning polygamy of the Patriarchs and the command to be fruitful and multiply: Shall that, then, make it lawful for us also to marry without limit? I grant that it will, if there still remain types—sacraments of something future—for your nuptials to figure; or if even now there is room for that command, "Grow and multiply;" that is, if no other command has yet supervened: "The time is already wound up; it remains that both they who have wives act as if they had not:" for, of course, by enjoining continence, and restraining concubitance, the seminary of our race, (this latter command) has abolished that "Grow and multiply." As I think, moreover, each pronouncement and arrangement is (the act) of one and the same God; who did then indeed, in the beginning, send forth a sowing of the race by an indulgent laxity granted to the reins of connubial alliances, until the world should be replenished, until the material of the new discipline should attain to forwardness: now, however, at the extreme boundaries of the times, has checked (the command) which He had sent out, and recalled the indulgence which He had granted; not without a reasonable ground for the extension (of that indulgence) in the beginning, and the limitation of it in the end. Laxity is always allowed to the beginning (of things). The reason why any one plants a wood and lets it grow, is that at his own time he may cut it. The wood was the old order, which is being pruned down by the new Gospel, in which withal "the axe has been laid at the roots."

I myself hold with those who, considering the words, "Male and female he created them, saying, 'Increase and multiply and fill the earth,' " interpret them as referring to visible and bodily sex. This is clear, in view of what follows: "And God said, 'Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.' " Note that both male and female used the food for the body that the other animals used. They received fitting sustenance from it. This was necessary for the animal body lest it suffer from hunger. But it was received in a certain immortal way and from the tree of life, lest they die of old age. I would never believe that, in a place of such great happiness, either the flesh lusted against the spirit or the spirit against the flesh, and there was no internal peace.… We conclude, therefore, that there was no carnal concupiscence in that place. Such was the manner of life that all necessities were taken care of by the proper functions of the members, without arousing lust.

And God said: Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed upon the earth, and all the trees which have in themselves the seed of their own kind, to be your food, and to all the beasts of the earth and every bird, and to all that move upon the earth, and in which there is a living soul, that you may have them to eat: It is now clear that before man's guilt the earth produced nothing harmful, no poisonous herb, no sterile tree, since it was clearly said that every herb and all trees were given to men and the birds, and to all the beasts of the earth for food, it is evident that even the birds did not live by snatching weak wings, nor did the wolf plot ambushes around the folds, nor was dust the snake's bread, but all ate in concord the green herbs and the fruits of the trees. Certainly among these must arise the question of how man was made immortal above other creatures, and nevertheless received common earthly nourishment with them. In which we must see that there is one kind of immortality of the flesh which we received in Adam's first state, and another which we hope to receive in the resurrection through Christ. Thus, he was made immortal in such a way that he could not die if he did not sin; but if he did sin, he would die. Thus the children of the resurrection will be immortal, when they will be equal to the angels of God, so that they will neither die anymore, nor be able to sin. Therefore our flesh after the resurrection will need no nourishment of food, as it will not be subject to deficiency from hunger, or weariness, or any other kind of weakness. But Adam's flesh before sin was created immortal in such a way that, helped by the supports of temporal nourishment, it existed free from death and pain, until, having been brought to that age which pleased the Creator through bodily growths; then having created much progeny of this kind, by the command of God, it would also partake of the tree of life, from which becoming perfectly immortal, it would no longer need the sustenance of bodily food. Thus, therefore, the flesh of the first humans is created immortal and incorruptible, so that they might retain the same immortality and incorruptibility through obedience to God's commandments; among which commandments was also this, that they should eat of the allowed trees of paradise, but refrain from the consumption of the forbidden one, preserving the gifts of immortality granted to them by the consumption of these, and in the touch of that find the ruin of death. Thus indeed our flesh will be incorruptible and immortal at the end; so that, like angelic splendour, it may remain always in the same state, unable to need bodily foods, since in the spiritual life there will be no need of them. For the fact that angels are read to have eaten with the patriarchs was done not out of need but out of kindness, so that by doing these things they might more sweetly adapt to the men to whom they appeared. The Lord also after the resurrection ate with the disciples, not because he needed nourishment but to show that he had indeed received true flesh after death.

[On the suggestion that the animals may originally all have been herbivorous, and became carnivorous — that is, began to prey upon, to tear, and to eat one another — because of prior corruption:] Some mighty created power had already been at work for ill on the material universe, or the solar system, or, at least, the planet Earth, before ever man came on the scene... If there is such a power... it may well have corrupted the animal creation before man appeared.

We note, however, many wild beasts do not eat fruit. What fruit does the panther eat? What fruit makes the lion strong? But nevertheless these creatures, when submitting to the laws of nature, ate fruits. And likewise when the [first] man changed his way of life and voided the limits set upon him, the Lord, after the flood, knowing humans were wasteful, allowed them to use all foods: "Eat every food as if it were edible plants." Since [humans] were allowed this [concession], the other animals [also] received the liberty to eat. So the lion is [now] a meat-eater, and the vulture looks for carrion.But vultures were not yet circling above the earth to find carrion when the animals originated; nothing created nor imagined had yet died in order to be food for the vultures. Nature had not yet been divided; everything was completely fresh. Hunters did not capture prey, since people did not yet practice this. The beasts did not yet tear apart prey, since they were not meat eaters yet.… So was the first creation, and to this creation will be restored after this [age]. Humans will return to their original creation, rejecting hostility, a life encumbered with care, the slavery of the world to daily worries. Once they have renounced all this, they will return to that utopian life which is not enslaved to the passions of the flesh, which is freedom, the closeness to God, a partaker of the life of the angels.

Man's first food was solely fruit and produce from trees. Man's guilt subsequently introduced the use of bread. The posture of his body shows forth the state of his conscience. As long as man's conscience did not reproach him, innocence raised him up toward the heavens to pluck his food from the trees. Once sin had been committed, it bowed man down to the soil of the earth to get grain. Still later the use of meat was added.

"And God said: Behold, I have given you all the seed-bearing hay which sows seed, which is over all the earth, and every tree which has in itself the fruit of seed-bearing seed, it shall be to you for food, and to all the beasts of the earth and to all the birds of heaven, and to all the creeping things which creep upon the earth, which have in themselves the soul of life." The history of this passage plainly indicates that the use of foods was first permitted by God from herbs, that is, vegetables and the fruits of trees. But afterward, when the testament was made to Noah after the flood, the faculty of eating flesh is given to men. For which reasons indeed it will be more rightly explained in their proper places. Yet according to allegory the herb of the earth and its fruit, which is granted to men for food, can be understood of the bodily affections; for example, anger and concupiscence are a shoot of the body. The fruit of this shoot, that is, the work, is common to us rational beings and to the beasts of the earth. For when we are angry toward justice, that is, toward the correction of the offender and the amendment of his salvation, we feed on this fruit of the earth, and our food becomes bodily anger, through which we repress sin, we restore justice. And lest we seem to you to bring these things forth rather from our own understanding than from the authority of divine Scripture, return to the book of Numbers and recall what Phinehas the priest did, who, when he had seen a harlot of the Midianite nation clinging in impure embraces with an Israelite man before the eyes of all, filled with the anger of divine zeal, seized a sword and drove it through the breast of both. Which work was reckoned to him by God unto justice, the Lord saying: "Phinehas has assuaged my fury, and it shall be reckoned to him unto justice." This earthly food of anger, then, becomes our food, when we use it rationally unto justice. But if anger is exercised irrationally, so as to punish the innocent, so as to boil over against those who commit no offense, this will be the food of the beasts of the field and of the serpents of the earth and of the birds of heaven. For with these foods the demons too are nourished, who are both fed by our evil acts and favor them. For the token of this work is Cain, who deceived his innocent brother through the anger of envy. Similarly also concerning concupiscence and concerning each of the affections of this kind one must judge. For when "our soul concupisces and faints for the living God," concupiscence is our food. But when we either look upon another's wife to lust after her or covet some of the things of our "neighbor," concupiscence is made a bestial food; as concupiscence can be exemplified by Ahab and the deed of Jezebel concerning the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite. Surely the caution of Holy Scripture must be observed also in the reasoning of its words, which, when it had said concerning men that God said: "Behold, I have given you all the seed-bearing seed which is upon the earth, and every tree which is upon the earth, it shall be to you for food," concerning the beasts did not say: that I have given them all these things for food, but: "it shall be to them for food," so that, according to the spiritual reasoning which we have explained, these affections may be understood to have been given by God to man indeed, yet foretold by God that they will also be for food to the beasts of the earth. Therefore, then, divine Scripture used most cautious language, which to men indeed says that God says: "I have given you these things for food," but where it comes to the beasts, it speaks not with the signification of one commanding, but as of one foretelling, that these things will also be for food to the beasts and the birds and the serpents. But let us, according to the sentence of the Apostle Paul, attend to the reading, so that we may be able, as he himself says, to receive "the mind of Christ" and to know "the things that have been given us by God," and that the things which have been given us for food we may not make the foods of swine or dogs, but may prepare them in ourselves as such things by which it may be worthy for the Word and Son of God to be received in the lodging of our heart, coming with his Father and willing to make a dwelling with us in the Holy Spirit, whose temple through holiness we ought first to be. To him be glory unto the eternal ages of ages. Amen.

And it came to be so, that is, that man might rule over all that were created on land or in the waters, and that he might receive the faculty and power to eat from the fruits of the earth along with the birds of the sky and the creatures of the land.

From the goods that inhere in the nature of creation—they are indeed very good, even as the Lord said—one can apprehend the supreme and everlasting good. The order of the universe, its arrangement and its beauty—is not a man moved by this to love his Creator, even if he is slow in ability? For if we love our parents because they have produced us, how much more ought we to love the Creator of our parents and our own Creator! Therefore the power of God is a creating power. Even if God is not seen, he is judged from his works, and his works betray the workman, so that he who is not comprehended may be perceived.

IF ALL THE CREATURES THAT GOD MADE WERE GOOD AND VERY GOOD, WHY DID HE SAY TO NOAH, "BRING WITH YOU INTO THE ARK OF PURE AND UNCLEAN ANIMALS, SINCE NO ONE CAN CALL GOOD WHAT IS UNCLEAN?” (GEN. 1:31; 7:2) — It is because words have many different senses that they give rise to questions. For if they are referred to the specific issue being discussed, there will be no question, since things themselves unfold in due order. Sometimes we call “common” what is undivided; sometimes what is unclean. For “common” is used in two ways. Therefore the Apostle Peter says, “Nothing common or unclean has ever entered my mouth” (Acts 10:14). And the Apostle Paul says, “Everything that does not proceed from faith is sin” (Rom. 14:23); and elsewhere, “The law is not of faith” (Gal. 3:12), and yet it is not sin. You see, then, that one and the same word does not always signify the same thing. So also when something is called “unclean,” we must consider for what reason it is so called: sometimes it is called unclean in comparison with something better; sometimes it is referred to dishonorable deeds, so that it is understood as evil. No substance, therefore, is evil; for those things which are called unclean by reason of their substance are unclean only in comparison with things of surpassing beauty. For a dog is called unclean compared with a sheep; lead is unclean compared with gold; a raven compared with a peacock. And though they are all members of one body, some are called honorable and others dishonorable, even though they are known not to be evil. Therefore all things are good in their own nature, because they are useful.

Certainly we should not carelessly pass over the words of Scripture that say, "And God saw that all the things that he had made were very good." For when dealing with individual things, it only says, "God saw that it is good," but in speaking of all things, it was not enough to say "good" without adding "very" as well. For if prudent observers consider the single works of God, they find that individually in their own species, they have praiseworthy measures, numbers and orders. How much more then will this be true of all of them together, that is, of the universe that is filled with these individual things gathered into unity? For every beauty that is composed of parts is much more praiseworthy in the whole than in a part.

No one doubts that God himself is the primal good. Indeed things can be said to be similar to God in many ways. Some, created in accordance with power and wisdom, are similar to God because uncreated power and wisdom are in him. Other created things are similar to God in the simple fact that they are alive, and God is incomparably alive and the source of life. Other created things are similar to God in that they have being, for God is the highest being and the source of being. And even those things that merely exist and yet do not live or know are in his likeness, not completely but in a slight degree, because even they are good in their own order, while God is incomparably good in a way transcending all other goods and from whom everything good proceeds.

And this number is on that account called perfect, because it is completed in its own parts: for it has these three, sixth, third, and half; nor is there any other part found in it, which we can call an aliquot part. The sixth part of it, then, is one; the third part, two; the half, three. But one and two and three complete the same six. And Holy Scripture commends to us the perfection of this number, especially in this, that God finished His works in six days, and on the sixth day man was made in the image of God. And the Son of God came and was made the Son of man, that He might re-create us after the image of God, in the sixth age of the human race. For that is now the present age, whether a thousand years apiece are assigned to each age, or whether we trace out memorable and remarkable epochs or turning-points of time in the divine Scriptures, so that the first age is to be found from Adam until Noah, and the second thence onwards to Abraham, and then next, after the division of Matthew the evangelist, from Abraham to David, from David to the carrying away to Babylon, and from thence to the travail of the Virgin, which three ages joined to those other two make five. Accordingly, the nativity of the Lord began the sixth, which is now going onwards until the hidden end of time.

And God saw all that he had made, and behold, it was very good. Because it was said of each of God's works individually that he saw that they were good, rightly in conclusion, with all things completed, it was stated with an added emphasis that he saw all that he had made, and it was very good. But the question rightly arises, why of man, when he was made, was it not additionally stated individually: And God saw that it was good, but rather that his creation was more generally praised among the others? Or did God, foreseeing that man would sin and not remain in the perfection of his image, wish to state that he was good not individually but along with the others, as if indicating what was to come? Therefore, man before sin and undoubtedly in his own kind was good, but Scripture omitted saying this, rather to state more what would announce something to come. For God is the best creator of natures, but indeed the most just regulator of sinners, so that even if certain things become deformed through individual sins, yet the entirety always remains beautiful with them.

And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. Thus the heavens and the earth and all their array were completed. The number six is considered to be perfect because it is completed by its parts: namely the sixth which is one, the third which is two, and the half which is three. Indeed, one and two and three make up six, which in the units of numbers you will nowhere else find except here, nor in the tens except for the number twenty-eight. Therefore, in six days God completed all the array of the heaven and the earth, so that He who established all things in measure and number and weight, might also teach that His works are perfect in this very number in which He worked. And God completed on the seventh day His work which He had made. In another translation, it is said that God completed His works which He had made on the sixth day. This brings up no question at all because it is declared plainly in the description of what was done in it. But it is rightly questioned how our version, which descends from the Hebrew truth, says that God completed His work which He had made on the seventh day, in which nothing new is mentioned as having been created, unless perhaps we say that He made the seventh day itself then, and in its making completed His work, by which creation of it He finished the measure and number of the days by whose cycle all ages henceforth would proceed to their end. For in the revolution of times, the eighth day is counted the same as the first day.

There are only two views that face all the facts. One is the Christian view that this is a good world that has gone wrong, but still retains the memory of what it ought to have been. The other is the view called Dualism. Dualism means the belief that there are two equal and independent powers at the back of everything, one of them good and the other bad, and that this universe is the battlefield in which they fight out an endless war. I personally think that next to Christianity Dualism is the manliest and most sensible creed on the market. But it has a catch in it.

Goodness is, so to speak, itself: badness is only spoiled goodness. And there must be something good first before it can be spoiled. We called sadism a sexual perversion; but you must first have the idea of a normal sexuality before you can talk of its being perverted; and you can see which is the perversion, because you can explain the perverted from the normal, and cannot explain the normal from the perverted.

Superficially, one would imagine that the railer would be the reformer; that the man who thought that everything was wrong would be the man to put everything right. In historical practice the thing is quite the other way; curiously enough, it is the man who likes things as they are who really makes them better. The optimist Dickens has achieved more reforms than the pessimist Gissing. A man like Rousseau has far too rosy a theory of human nature; but he produces a revolution. A man like David Hume thinks that almost all things are depressing; but he is a Conservative, and wishes to keep them as they are. A man like Godwin believes existence to be kindly; but he is a rebel. A man like Carlyle believes existence to be cruel; but he is a Tory. Everywhere the man who alters things begins by liking things. And the real explanation of this success of the optimistic reformer, of this failure of the pessimistic reformer, is, after all, an explanation of sufficient simplicity. It is because the optimist can look at wrong not only with indignation, but with a startled indignation. When the pessimist looks at any infamy, it is to him, after all, only a repetition of the infamy of existence. The Court of Chancery is indefensible—like mankind. The Inquisition is abominable—like the universe. But the optimist sees injustice as something discordant and unexpected, and it stings him into action. The pessimist can be enraged at wrong; but only the optimist can be surprised at it.

The creed declared that man was sinful, but it did not declare that life was evil, and it proved it by damning those who did. The condemnation of the early heretics is itself condemned as something crabbed and narrow; but it was in truth the very proof that the Church meant to be brotherly and broad. It proved that the primitive Catholics were specially eager to explain that they did not think man utterly vile; that they did not think life incurably miserable; that they did not think marriage a sin or procreation a tragedy. They were ascetic because asceticism was the only possible purge of the sins of the world; but in the very thunder of their anathemas they affirmed for ever that their asceticism was not to be anti-human or anti-natural; that they did wish to purge the world and not destroy it.

Something tells him that the ultimate idea of a world is not bad or even neutral; staring at the sky or the grass or the truths of mathematics or even a new-laid egg, he has a vague feeling like the shadow of that saying of the great Christian philosopher, St. Thomas Aquinas, 'Every existence, as such, is good.' On the other hand, something else tells him that it is unmanly and debased and even diseased to minimise evil to a dot or even a blot. He realises that optimism is morbid. It is if possible even more morbid than pessimism. These vague but healthy feelings, if he followed them out, would result in the idea that evil is in some way an exception but an enormous exception; and ultimately that evil is an invasion or yet more truly a rebellion.

He made a first day, a second, a third, and so forth until the seventh day which was a rest from work. According to these days, everything created was subdivided, brought into an order by inexpressible laws. So creation was not an instantaneous act by the all-powerful Word; for him to think or to speak is to accomplish a task. If humans were last to enter the world—and in such a way as to honor God's handiwork with God's image—is this not marvelous? It is like saying that as a king he prepared the palace and then, as king, when everything was already prepared, led in the procession.

I mean, his all-powerful hand and boundless wisdom were not at a loss even to create everything in one day. Why say "one day"? Even in a brief moment. Yet it was not because of its utility to him that he produced anything that exists, since being self-sufficient he is in need of nothing. It was rather out of his loving kindness and goodness that he created everything; accordingly he created things in sequence and provided us with a clear instruction about created things through the tongue of the blessed author, so that we might learn about them precisely and not fall into the error of those led by purely human reasoning.

God saw all the things that He had made, and they were very good: But among them were also the demons. Therefore the demons were at some time good. Corporeal creatures according to their nature are good, though this good is not universal, but partial and limited, the consequence of which is a certain opposition of contrary qualities, though each quality is good in itself. To those, however, who estimate things, not by the nature thereof, but by the good they themselves can derive therefrom, everything which is harmful to themselves seems simply evil. For they do not reflect that what is in some way injurious to one person, to another is beneficial, and that even to themselves the same thing may be evil in some respects, but good in others. And this could not be, if bodies were essentially evil and harmful.

Under the law the people were ordered to work for six days and to rest on the seventh … because the Lord completed the creation of the world in six days and desisted from his work on the seventh. Mystically speaking, we are counseled by all this that those who in life devote themselves to good works for the Lord's sake are in the future led by the Lord to sabbath, that is, to eternal rest.

From what toil did God rest? For the creatures that came to be on the first day came to be by implication, except for the light, which came through his word. And the rest of the works that came to be afterward came to be through his word. What toil is there for us when we speak one word? So what toil could there have been for God to speak one word a day? Moses, who divided the sea by his word and his rod, did not tire. Joshua, son of Nun, who restrained the luminaries by his word, did not tire. So what toil could there have been for God when he created the sea and the luminaries by his word? It was not because he rested on that day that God, who does not weary, blessed and sanctified the seventh day. Nor was it because he was to give it to that people, who did not understand that since they were freed from their servitude, they were to give rest to their servants and maidservants. He gave it to them so that, even if they had to be put under requirement, they would rest. It was given to them in order to depict by a temporal rest, which he gave to a temporal people, the mystery of the true rest, which will be given to the eternal people in the eternal world.

Further, He says to them, "Your new moons and your Sabbath I cannot endure." Ye perceive how He speaks: Your present Sabbaths are not acceptable to Me, but that is which I have made, [namely this,] when, giving rest to all things, I shall make a beginning of the eighth day, that is, a beginning of another world. Wherefore, also, we keep the eighth day with joyfulness, the day also on which Jesus rose again from the dead. And when He had manifested Himself, He ascended into the heavens.

You see, in saying at this point that God rested from his works, Scripture teaches us that he ceased creating and bringing from nonbeing into being on the seventh day, whereas Christ, in saying that "my father is at work up until now and I am at work," reveals his unceasing care for us: he calls "work" the maintenance of created things, bestowal of permanence on them and governance of them through all time. If this wasn't so, after all, how would everything have subsisted, without the guiding hand above directing all visible things and the human race as well?

In recapitulating the Divine works, Scripture says (Genesis 2:1): "So the heavens and the earth were finished and all the furniture of them"

So God completed His work on the seventh day, which He had made. Because He ended the sum of the days He had made in it, adding the seventh itself, which He wanted to be called and to be the Sabbath, because he endows it with mystical blessing and sanctification above the others, as the following teaches. Hence also the day of judgment and consummation of the world, because it is to come after the seventh Sabbath, is called the eighth in the Scriptures, namely because only seven precede it. For it is said in the title of the psalms: To the end, in hymns, for the eighth, a psalm of David, which the entire text of the following psalm teaches is written about the day of judgment, in which the prophet, fearing the wrath of the coming judge, exclaims: Lord, do not rebuke me in Your anger, nor chasten me in Your wrath (Psalm VI, 1), etc. But also the day of the Lord's Resurrection, although it was to come after so many thousands of days, is also called the eighth in the title of another psalm, because naturally it follows the seventh, so that it exists as the first of the following week, that is, the same one in which God said in the beginning: Let there be light and there was light. The psalm written about the Lord's Resurrection indeed proves it by the one speaking in it, saying: For the misery of the needy and the groaning of the poor, now I will arise, says the Lord (Psalm XI, 6). Moreover, it can rightly be accepted that God completed His work on the seventh day, which He had made, even in that He blessed and sanctified that day itself. For blessing and sanctification are not no work. Neither could Solomon be said to have done no work when he dedicated the temple he had made; rather, it is an eminent work of God, when He glorified with eternal blessing and sanctification those things He had made. Finally, about this work which He does in the eternal day of the Sabbath, He says Himself in the parable of the faithful servants: Amen, I say to you that He will gird Himself, and make them sit down to eat, and passing, will serve them (Luke XII, 37). For he who girds himself, who prepares a meal, who passes by, who serves, surely works. But by all these words, nothing else is intimated than that the Lord blesses and sanctifies His saints forever, that is, He rewards them with the vision of His glory after their good works which He gave.

And he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done. Not as if God rested like a weary man from excessive labor through human frailty after completing the world's creation; but He is said to have rested from all His work, because He ceased to create any new creature thereafter. For Scripture often uses the term "rest" to indicate the cessation of work or speech, as in the Apocalypse about the holy animals: And they have no rest day and night saying: Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty (Apoc. IV, 8). Instead of saying they did not cease to always chant this. For the greatest and only rest for the saints in heaven is to declare the praise of the highest Trinity, which is God, with an unfailing voice. It can indeed be understood more profoundly that the Lord rested from all His works, not having any need for those works in which He might rest, since His rest in Himself is always true without beginning and end, but He made His works solely for the sake of His goodness, so that they might rest in Him: which, conversely, is easier to understand when we remember that human necessity particularly insists on daily labors for the purpose of finding rest in its works, as the Lord tells him: By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread (Gen. III, 19). But God, who before the creation of the world had perfect rest in Himself eternally, even after creating the world, did not rest in the works He made, but from all the works He made, as He had no necessity to rest in His creatures, but rather, offering rest to rational creatures, while perfectly always resting in Himself, and being blessed in that good which He alone is to Himself.

On the seventh day God rested, not from labor nor from work, since He works even until now, but from the establishment of new species: because He had made all things either in likeness, as those things which are propagated, or in seminal reason, as those things which are brought into being by other modes. To the six days of works there is added a seventh of rest, which day is not written as having an evening — not because that day did not have a succeeding night, but to prefigure the rest of souls, which shall never have an end.

The seventh age, which is the rest of souls having no end, corresponds to the seventh day, on which God rested from all the work that He had done. And thus these seven ages are distinguished on account of the notable events that occurred at their beginnings, by reason of which they correspond to the days of the formation of the world.

Since, moreover, each of the aforesaid modes is doubled, inasmuch as it happens that one considers God as the Alpha and the Omega, or inasmuch as it happens that one sees God in each of the aforesaid modes as through a mirror and as in a mirror, or because each of these considerations must be mingled with the other conjoined to it and must be considered in its purity: hence it is necessary that these three principal stages ascend to the number six, so that, just as God completed the whole world in six days and rested on the seventh, so the lesser world may be led in most orderly fashion through six stages of successive illuminations to the repose of contemplation.

In this consideration, moreover, lies the perfection of the mind's illumination, when, as on the sixth day, it sees man made in the image of God. For if an image is an expressive likeness, when our mind contemplates in Christ the Son of God, who is the image of the invisible God by nature, our humanity so wonderfully exalted, so ineffably united, seeing at once in one the first and the last, the highest and the lowest, the circumference and the center, the Alpha and the Omega, the caused and the cause, the Creator and the creature, the book, that is, written within and without: it has now arrived at a certain perfect reality, so that with God it may reach the perfection of its illuminations in the sixth stage, as on the sixth day; nor does anything further remain except the day of rest, in which through the ecstasy of the mind the keenness of the human mind may rest from every work which it had accomplished.

These six considerations having therefore been traversed, as if they were the six steps of the throne of the true Solomon, by which one arrives at peace, where the true peaceful one rests in a peaceful mind as in an interior Jerusalem; and as if also the six wings of the Cherub, by which the mind of the true contemplative, filled with the illumination of supernal wisdom, may be borne upward; and as if also the first six days, in which the mind must be exercised, so that it may at last arrive at the sabbath of rest; after our mind has contemplated God outside itself through vestiges and in the vestiges, within itself through the image and in the image, above itself through the similitude of the divine light shining upon us and in that light itself, insofar as is possible according to the state of wayfaring and the exercise of our mind; when at last in the sixth step it has arrived at this point, that it contemplates in the first and highest principle and the mediator of God and men, Jesus Christ, those things whose likenesses can in no way be found in creatures, and which exceed all keenness of the human intellect: it remains that, in contemplating these things, it should transcend and pass beyond not only this sensible world, but also itself; in which passing over, Christ is the way and the door, Christ is the ladder and the vehicle, as it were the mercy seat placed upon the ark of God and the mystery hidden from the ages.

After Moses spoke about the reptiles, the cattle, and the beasts, about mankind and about their blessing on the sixth day, he turned to write about God's rest that took place on the seventh day saying, "Thus heaven and earth were finished, and all their host. And God rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done." [ Gen2:1-2 ]

From what toil did God rest? For the creatures that came to be on the first day came to be by a gesture, except for the light which came to be through His word. And the rest of the works which came to be afterwards came to be through His word. What toil is there for us when we speak one word, that there should be toil for God because of the one word a day that He spoke? If Moses, who divided the sea by his word and his rod, did not tire and Joshua, son of Nun, who restrained the luminaries by his word, did not tire, then what toil could there have been for God when He created the sea and the luminaries by [ His ] word?

Indeed, it was not because He rested on [ that day ] that God who does not weary, blessed and sanctified the seventh day, nor was it so that He might grant that people, who did not set aside a day when they were freed from their servitude, to give rest to their servants and maid-servants. He gave it to them so that, even if they had to be coerced, they would rest. For it was given to them in order to depict by a temporal rest, which He gave to a temporal people, the mystery of the true rest which will be given to the eternal people in the eternal world.

Also because a full week was required, God exalted with a word that seventh day which His works did not exalt so that, because of the honor set apart for it, it might be united to its companions, and so that the numbering of the week, which is required for the service of the world, might be completed.

Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works. [Genesis 2:2] And in this place again, If they shall enter into my rest. Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief: Again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, To day, after so long a time; as it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day. There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his. Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.

(Chapter 2, Verse 2) And on the sixth day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. Therefore, we will refute the Jews, who boast of the rest of the Sabbath, because even then, at the beginning, the Sabbath was dissolved, since God works on the Sabbath, completing his work in it, and blessing the day itself: because in it he has completed everything.

Rest is taken in two senses, in one sense meaning a cessation from work, in the other, the satisfying of desire. Now, in either sense God is said to have rested on the seventh day. First, because He ceased from creating new creatures on that day, for, as said above (1, ad 3), He made nothing afterwards that had not existed previously, in some degree, in the first works; secondly, because He Himself had no need of the things that He had made, but was happy in the fruition of Himself. Hence, when all things were made He is not said to have rested "in" His works, as though needing them for His own happiness, but to have rested "from" them, as in fact resting in Himself, as He suffices for Himself and fulfils His own desire. And even though from all eternity He rested in Himself, yet the rest in Himself, which He took after He had finished His works, is that rest which belongs to the seventh day. And this, says Augustine, is the meaning of God's resting from His works on that day (Gen. ad lit. iv). God ended: So that, according to our version of the Scripture, the completion of the works is attributed to the seventh day, though according to another (Septuagint) it is assigned to the sixth. Either version, however, may stand, since the completion of the universe as to the completeness of its parts belongs to the sixth day, but its completion as regards their operation, to the seventh. It would seem that God did not rest on the seventh day from all His work. For it is said (John 5:17), "My Father worketh until now, and I work." God indeed "worketh until now" by preserving and providing for the creatures He has made, but not by the making of new ones.

To me, as I meditate and consider in my mind concerning the creation of this world in which we are kept enclosed, even such is the rapidity of that creation; as is contained in the book of Moses, which he wrote about its creation, and which is called Genesis. God produced that entire mass for the adornment of His majesty in six days; on the seventh to which He consecrated it ... with a blessing. For this reason, therefore, because in the septenary number of days both heavenly and earthly things are ordered, in place of the beginning I will consider of this seventh day after the principle of all matters pertaining to the number of seven; and as far as I shall be able, I will endeavour to portray the day of the divine power to that consummation.

He created heaven and earth at the time when the months began, from which time it is fitting that the world took its rise. Then there was the mild temperature of spring, a season suitable for all things. Consequently the year too has the stamp of a world coming to birth.… In order to show that the creation of the world took place in the spring, Scripture says: "This month shall be to you the beginning of months, it is for you the first in the months of the year," calling the first month the springtime. It was fitting that the beginning of the year be the beginning of generation.

Heaven, too, will be the fulfillment of that sabbath rest foretold in the command: "Be still and see that I am God." This, indeed, will be that ultimate sabbath that has no evening and that the Lord foreshadowed in the account of his creation: "And God rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. And he blessed the seventh day and sanctified it: because in it he had rested from all his work that God created and made." And we ourselves will be a "seventh day" when we shall be filled with his blessing and remade by his sanctification. In the stillness of that rest we shall see that he is the God whose divinity we desired for ourselves when we listened to the seducer's words, "You shall be as gods," and so fell away from him, the true God who would have given us a divinity by participation that could never be gained by desertion. For where did the doing without God end but in the undoing of man through the anger of God? Only when we are remade by God and perfected by a greater grace shall we have the eternal stillness of that rest in which we shall see that he is God.

And He blessed the seventh day and sanctified it. That is to say, with the blessing and sanctification which He more fully intimates to His people in the law, saying: Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work: but the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord your God, in it you shall not do any work (Exod. XX, 8). And a little further on: For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day (Exod. XX, 11). Therefore, the Lord blessed the seventh day and sanctified it. Indeed, the blessing and sanctification of the seventh day were made as a type of greater blessing and sanctification. For just as by the frequent, or rather daily, sacrifices in the law the blood of the Lord's passion, which was to be poured out once for the salvation of the world, was signified; so also by the rest of the seventh day, which was always celebrated after the works of six days, that great day of the Sabbath, in which the Lord was once to rest in the tomb, was prefigured, having completed and perfected on the sixth day all His works, by which He was restoring the world, which He had perfect in the sixth day, now lost. On which also, as if recalling His original work, with an open word He declared that He had now completed the salvation of the world. For when He had taken the vinegar, He said: It is finished, and He bowed His head, and gave up His spirit (John XIX, 30). But this sanctification and blessing of the seventh day, and God's rest in it after His very good works, signified that we individually tend to the rest of heavenly life after the good works He works in us both to will and to do, in which we may enjoy His eternal sanctification and blessing. Hence, it is well written that the seventh day did not have an evening, because evidently it signifies our perpetual rest in it.

And He blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because on it He had rested from all His work which God had created and made. That is, having completed the adornment of the world, He had ceased from instituting new kinds of things. Nor should this be considered contrary to the saying in the Gospel: My Father works until now, and I work (John 5:17). Clearly responding to those who complained that the Sabbath was not observed by Him, invoking the authority of this ancient Scriptural rest of God. For He had ceased on the seventh day from creating kinds of creatures, because He no longer created any new kinds; thereafter, however, He works the administration of these same kinds which He had instituted even to this very day, so that not even on that seventh day would His power cease to govern heaven and earth, and all things which He had made, otherwise they would immediately fall apart.

Just as the trees, the vegetation, the animals, the birds and even humankind were old, so also were they young. They were old according to the appearance of their limbs and their substances, yet they were young because of the hour and moment of their creation. Likewise, the moon was both old and young. It was young, for it was but a moment old, but was also old, for it was full as it is on the fifteenth day.

The strange truth about the matter is told in the very word "holiday." A bank holiday means presumably a day which bankers regard as holy. A half-holiday means, I suppose, a day on which a schoolboy is only partially holy. It is hard to see at first sight why so human a thing as leisure and larkiness should always have a religious origin. Rationally there appears no reason why we should not sing and give each other presents in honour of anything—the birth of Michael Angelo or the opening of Euston Station. But it does not work. As a fact, men only become greedily and gloriously material about something spiritualistic. Take away the Nicene Creed and similar things, and you do some strange wrong to the sellers of sausages. Take away the strange beauty of the saints, and what has remained to us is the far stranger ugliness of Wandsworth. Take away the supernatural, and what remains is the unnatural.

He blessed: The blessing referred to the increase by multiplication; for which reason God said to the creatures which He blessed: "Increase and multiply." Now, this increase is effected through God's Providence over His creatures, securing the generation of like from like. And sanctified it: It is right that the seventh day should have been sanctified, since the special sanctification of every creature consists in resting in God. For this reason things dedicated to God are said to be sanctified. The seventh day is said to be sanctified not because anything can accrue to God, or be taken from Him, but because something is added to creatures by their multiplying, and by their resting in God.