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| That the Renewal of Man is Not Completed in This World. PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP
Chapter XIII.—That the Renewal of
Man is Not Completed in This World.
14. But as yet “by faith, not by sight,”1218 for “we
are saved by hope; but hope that is seen is not hope.”1219 As yet
deep calleth unto deep1220
1220 The “deep” Augustin interprets (as do the
majority of Patristic commentators), in Ps. xli. 8, sec. 13,
to be the heart of man; and the “deep” that calls unto it, is
the preacher who has his own “deep” of infirmity, even as Peter
had. | but in “the noise of Thy
waterspouts.”1221 And as yet
doth he that saith, I “could not speak unto you as unto
spiritual, but as unto carnal,”1222 even he, as yet, doth not count
himself to have apprehended, and forgetteth those things which are
behind, and reacheth forth to those things which are before,1223 and
groaneth being burdened;1224 and his soul thirsteth after the
living God, as the hart after the water-brooks, and saith, “When
shall I come?”1225 “desiring to be clothed upon
with his house which is from heaven;”1226 and calleth upon this lower deep,
saying, “Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by
the renewing of your mind.”1227 And, “Be not children in
understanding, howbeit in malice be ye children,” that in
“understanding ye may be perfect;”1228 and “O foolish Galatians, who
hath bewitched you?”1229 But now not in his own voice, but
in Thine who sentest Thy Spirit from above;1230 through Him who “ascended up on
high,”1231 and set
open the flood-gates of His gifts,1232 that the force of His streams
might make glad the city of God.1233 For, for Him doth “the friend of
the bridegroom”1234 sigh, having now the first-fruits
of the Spirit laid up with Him, yet still groaning within himself,
waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of his body;1235 to Him he
sighs, for he is a member of the Bride; for Him is he jealous, for
he is the friend of the Bridegroom;1236 for Him is he jealous, not for
himself; because in the voice of Thy “waterspouts,”1237 not in his
own voice, doth he call on that other deep, for whom being jealous
he feareth, lest that, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his
subtilty, so their minds should be corrupted from the simplicity
that is in our Bridegroom, Thine only Son.1238 What a light of beauty will that
be when “we shall see Him as He is,”1239 and those tears be passed
away which
“have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto
me, Where is thy God?”1240
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