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| Concerning the Living Soul, Birds, and Fishes (Ver. 24)—The Sacrament of the Eucharist Being Regarded.
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Chapter XXI.—Concerning the
Living Soul, Birds, and Fishes (Ver. 24)—The Sacrament of the
Eucharist Being Regarded.
29. And hereby, in Thy Word, not the depth of
the sea, but the earth parted from the bitterness of the waters,1346
| 1346 See sec. 20, note, and sec. 21, note, above. | bringeth
forth not the creeping and flying creature that hath life,1347
but the
living soul itself.1348
For now hath it no longer need of
baptism, as the heathen have, and as itself had when it was covered
with the waters,—for no other entrance is there into the kingdom
of heaven,1349
since Thou
hast appointed that this should be the entrance,—nor does it seek
great works of miracles by which to cause faith; for it is not such
that, unless it shall have seen signs and wonders, it will not
believe,1350
when now
the faithful earth is separated from the waters of the sea,
rendered bitter by infidelity; and “tongues are for a sign, not
to those that believe, but to those that believe not.”1351
Nor then
doth the earth, which Thou hast founded above the waters,1352
| 1352 “Fundasti super aquas,” which is the Old
Ver. of Ps. cxxxvi. 6. Augustin sometimes uses a version with
“firmavit terram,” which corresponds to the LXX., but the
Authorized Version renders the Hebrew more accurately by
“stretched out.” In his comment on this place he applies this
text to baptism as being the entrance into the Church, and in this
he is followed by many mediæval writers. | stand in
need of that flying kind which at Thy word the waters brought
forth. Send Thy word forth into it by Thy messengers. For we relate
their works, but it is Thou who workest in them, that in it they
may work out a living soul. The earth bringeth it forth, because
the earth
is the cause that they work these things in the soul; as the sea
has been the cause that they wrought upon the moving creatures that
have life, and the fowls that fly under the firmament of heaven, of
which the earth hath now no need; although it feeds on the fish
which was taken out of the deep, upon that table which Thou hast
prepared in the presence of those that believe.1353
| 1353 Ps. xxiii. 5. Many of the Fathers interpret
this text of the Lord’s Supper, as Augustin does above. The fish
taken out of the deep, which is fed upon, means Christ, in
accordance with the well-known acrostic of ΙΧΘΥΣ.
“If,” he says in his De Civ. Dei, xviii. 23, “you join
the initial letters of these five Greek words, Ἰησοῦς Χριστὸς Θεοῦ Υἱὸς Σωτὴρ, which
mean, ‘Jesus Christ the Son of God, the Saviour,’ they will
make the word ἰχθύς,—that is, ‘fish,’ in which word Christ
is mystically understood, because He was able to live, that is, to
exist without sin in the abyss of this mortality as in the depth of
waters.” So likewise we find Tertullian saying in his De
Bapt. chap. I.: “Nos pisciculi, secundum ΙΧΘΥΝ nostrum Jesum Christum in aqua nascimur;
nec aliter quam in aqua permanendo salvi sumus.” See Bishop
Kaye’s Tertullian, pp. 43, 44; and sec. 34, below. | For therefore He was raised from
the deep, that He might feed the dry land; and the fowl, though
bred in the sea, is yet multiplied upon the earth. For of the first
preachings of the Evangelists, the infidelity of men was the
prominent cause; but the faithful also are exhorted, and are
manifoldly blessed by them day by day. But the living soul takes
its origin from the earth, for it is not profitable, unless to
those already among the faithful, to restrain themselves from the
love of this world, that so their soul may live unto Thee, which
was dead while living in pleasures,1354
—in death-bearing pleasures, O
Lord, for Thou art the vital delight of the pure heart.
30. Now, therefore, let Thy ministers work
upon the earth,—not as in the waters of infidelity, by announcing
and speaking by miracles, and sacraments, and mystic words; in
which ignorance, the mother of admiration, may be intent upon them,
in fear of those hidden signs. For such is the entrance unto the
faith for the sons of Adam forgetful of Thee, while they hide
themselves from Thy face,1355
and become a darksome deep. But
let Thy ministers work even as on the dry land, separated from the
whirlpools of the great deep; and let them be an example unto the
faithful, by living before them, and by stimulating them to
imitation. For thus do men hear not with an intent to hear merely,
but to act also. Seek the Lord, and your soul shall live,1356
that the
earth may bring forth the living soul. “Be not conformed to this
world.”1357
Restrain
yourselves from it; the soul lives by avoiding those things which
it dies by affecting. Restrain yourselves from the unbridled
wildness of pride, from the indolent voluptuousness of luxury, and
from the false name of knowledge;1358
so that wild beasts may be tamed,
the cattle subdued, and serpents harmless. For these are the
motions of the mind in allegory; that is to say, the haughtiness of
pride, the delight of lust, and the poison of curiosity are the
motions of the dead soul; for the soul dies not so as to lose all
motion, because it dies by forsaking the fountain of life,1359
| 1359 Jer. ii. 13. See p. 133, note 2, and p.
129, note 8, above. | and so is
received by this transitory world, and is conformed unto
it.
31. But Thy Word, O God, is the fountain of
eternal life, and passeth not away; therefore this departure is
kept in check by Thy word when it is said unto us, “Be not
conformed unto this world,”1360
so that the earth may bring forth
a living soul in the fountain of life,—a soul restrained in Thy
Word, by Thy Evangelists, by imitating the followers of Thy
Christ.1361
For this
is after his kind; because a man is stimulated to emulation by his
friend.1362
| 1362 See p. 71, note 3, above. | “Be
ye,” saith he, “as I am, for I am as you are.”1363
Thus in
the living soul shall there be good beasts, in gentleness of
action. For Thou hast commanded, saying, Go on with thy business in
meekness, and thou shalt be beloved by all men;1364
and good cattle, which neither if
they eat, shall they over-abound, nor if they do not eat, have they
any want;1365
and good
serpents, not destructive to do hurt, but “wise”1366
to take
heed; and exploring only so much of this temporal nature as is
sufficient that eternity may be “clearly seen, being understood
by the things that are.”1367
For these animals are subservient
to reason,1368
| 1368 In his De Gen. con. Manich. i. 20, he
interprets the dominion given to man over the beasts of his keeping
in subjection the passions of the soul, so as to attain true
happiness. | when,
being kept in check from a deadly advance, they live, and are
good.
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