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| Chapter XVI.—Since our bodies return to the earth, it follows that they have their substance from it; also, by the advent of the Word, the image of God in us appeared in a clearer light.
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Chapter XVI.—Since our bodies return
to the earth, it follows that they have their substance from it; also, by the
advent of the Word, the image of God in us appeared in a clearer light.
1. And since Adam was moulded from this earth to
which we belong, the Scripture tells us that God said to him, “In
the sweat of thy face shall thou eat thy bread, until thou turnest again
to the dust from whence thou wert taken.”4588
If then, after death, our bodies return to any other substance,
it follows that from it also they have their substance. But if it be into
this very [earth], it is manifest that it was also from it that
man’s frame was created; as also the Lord clearly showed, when from
this very substance He formed eyes for the man [to whom He gave sight].
And thus was the hand of God plainly shown forth, by which Adam was
fashioned, and we too have been formed; and since there is one and the
same Father, whose voice from the beginning even to the end is present
with His handiwork, and the substance from which we were formed is
plainly declared through the Gospel, we should therefore not seek after
another Father besides Him, nor [look for] another substance from which
we have been formed, besides what was mentioned beforehand, and shown
forth by the Lord; nor another hand of God besides that which, from the
beginning even to the end, forms us and prepares us for life, and is
present with His handiwork, and perfects it after the image and likeness
of God.
2. 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.
3. And not by the aforesaid things alone has the Lord
manifested Himself, but [He has done this] also by means of His passion.
For doing away with [the effects of] that disobedience of man which had
taken place at the beginning by the occasion of a tree, “He became
obedient unto death, even the death of the cross;”4589
rectifying that disobedience which had occurred by reason of a
tree, through that obedience which was [wrought out] upon the tree [of
the cross]. Now He would not have come to do away, by means of that same
[image], the disobedience which had been incurred towards our Maker if He
proclaimed another Father. But inasmuch as it was by these things that we
disobeyed God, and did not give credit to His word, so was it also by
these same that He brought in obedience and consent as respects His Word;
by which things He clearly shows forth God Himself, whom indeed we had
offended in the first Adam, when he did not perform His commandment. In
the second Adam, however, we are reconciled, being made obedient even
unto death. For we were debtors to none other but to Him whose
commandment we had transgressed at the beginning.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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