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| That to Have Power Over All Things (Ver. 26) is to Judge Spiritually of All.
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Chapter XXIII.—That to Have Power
Over All Things (Ver. 26) is to Judge Spiritually of
All.
33. But that he judgeth all things answers to
his having dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowls of
the air, and over all cattle and wild beasts, and over all the
earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
For this he doth by the discernment of his mind, whereby he
perceiveth the things “of the Spirit of God;”1379
whereas,
otherwise, man being placed in honour, had no understanding, and is
compared unto the brute beasts, and is become like unto them.1380
In Thy
Church, therefore, O our God, according to Thy grace which Thou
hast accorded unto it, since we are Thy workmanship created in good
works,1381
there are
not only those who are spiritually set over, but those also who are
spiritually subjected to those placed over them; for in this manner
hast Thou made man, male and female,1382
in Thy grace spiritual, where,
according to the sex of body, there is not male and female, because
neither Jew nor Greek, nor bond nor free.1383
Spiritual persons, therefore,
whether those that are set over, or those who obey, judge
spiritually; not of that spiritual knowledge which shines in the
firmament, for they ought not to judge as to an authority so
sublime, nor doth it behove them to judge of Thy Book itself,
although there be something that is not clear therein; because we
submit our understanding unto it, and esteem as certain that even
that which is shut up from our sight is rightly and truly spoken.1384
| 1384 In his De Civ. Dei, xi. 3, he defines very
distinctly (as he does in other of his writings) the knowledge
received “by sight”—that is, by experience, as distinguished
from that which is received “by faith”—that is, by revelation
(2
Cor. v. 7). He, in common
with all the Fathers who had knowledge of the Pagan philosophy,
would feel how utterly that philosophy had failed to “find out”
(Job
xi. 7) with certitude
anything as to God and His character,—the Creation
of the world,—the Atonement wrought by Christ,—the
doctrine of the Resurrection, as distinguished from the
Immortality of the Soul,—our Immortal Destiny after death,
or “the Restitution of all things.” As to the knowledge
of God, see Justin Martyr’s experience in the schools of
philosophy, Dialogue with Trypho, ch. ii.; and on the
doctrine of Creation, see p. 165, note 4. On the “Restitution of
all things,” etc., reference may be made to Mansel’s
Gnostics, who points out (Introd. p. 3) that “in the Greek
philosophical systems the idea of evil holds a very subordinate and
insignificant place, and that the idea of redemption seems not to
be recognised at all.” He shows further (ibid. p. 4), that
“there is no idea of the delivery of the creature from the
bondage of corruption. The great year of the Stoics, the
commencement of the new cycle which takes its place after the
destruction of the old world, is but a repetition of the old
evil.” See also p. 164, note 2, above. | For thus
man, although now spiritual and renewed in the knowledge of God
after His image that created him, ought yet to be the “doer of
the law, not the judge.”1385
Neither doth he judge of that
distinction of spiritual and carnal men, who are known to Thine
eyes, O our God, and have not as yet made themselves manifest unto
us by works, that by their fruits we may know them;1386
but Thou,
O Lord, dost already know them, and Thou hast divided and hast
called them in secret, before the firmament was made. Nor doth that
man, though spiritual, judge the restless people of this world; for
what hath he to do to judge them that are without,1387
knowing
not which of them may afterwards come into the sweetness of Thy
grace, and which continue in the perpetual bitterness of
impiety?
34. Man, therefore, whom Thou hast made after Thine
own image, received not dominion over the lights of heaven, nor
over the hidden heaven itself, nor over the day and the night,
which Thou didst call before the foundation of the heaven, nor over
the gathering together of the waters, which is the sea; but he
received dominion over the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the
air, and over all cattle, and over all the earth, and over all
creeping things which creep upon the earth. For He judgeth and
approveth what He findeth right, but disapproveth what He findeth
amiss, whether in the celebration of those sacraments by which are
initiated those
whom Thy mercy searches out in many waters; or in that in which the
Fish1388
Itself is
exhibited, which, being raised from the deep, the devout earth
feedeth upon; or in the signs and expressions of words, subject to
the authority of Thy Book,—such signs as burst forth and sound
from the mouth, as it were flying under the firmament, by
interpreting, expounding, discoursing, disputing, blessing, calling
upon Thee, so that the people may answer, Amen. The vocal
pronunciation of all which words is caused by the deep of this
world, and the blindness of the flesh, by which thoughts cannot be
seen, so that it is necessary to speak aloud in the ears; thus,
although flying fowls be multiplied upon the earth, yet they derive
their beginning from the waters. The spiritual man judgeth also by
approving what is right and reproving what he finds amiss in the
works and morals of the faithful, in their alms, as if in “the
earth bringing forth fruit;” and he judgeth of the “living
soul,” rendered living by softened affections, in chastity, in
fastings, in pious thoughts; and of those things which are
perceived through the senses of the body. For it is now said, that
he should judge concerning those things in which he has also the
power of correction.
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