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| A Trace of the Trinity Also In the Outer Man.
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Chapter 1.—A Trace of the
Trinity Also In the Outer Man.
1.
No one doubts that, as the inner man is
endued with understanding, so is the outer with bodily sense. Let
us try, then, if we can, to discover in this outer man also, some
trace, however slight, of the Trinity, not that itself also is in
the same manner the image of God. For the opinion of the apostle is
evident, which declares the inner man to be renewed in the
knowledge of God after the image of Him that created him:729
whereas he
says also in another place, “But though our outer man
perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.”730
Let us seek,
then, so far as we can, in that which perishes, some image of the
Trinity, if not so express, yet perhaps more easy to be discerned.
For that outer man also is not called man to no purpose, but
because there is in it some likeness of the inner man. And owing to
that very order of our condition whereby we are made mortal and
fleshly, we handle things visible more easily and more familiarly
than things intelligible; since the former are outward, the latter
inward; and the former are perceived by the bodily sense, the
latter are understood by the mind; and we ourselves, i.e.
our minds, are not sensible things, that is, bodies, but
intelligible things, since we are life. And yet, as I said, we are
so familiarly occupied with bodies, and our thought has projected
itself outwardly with so wonderful a proclivity towards bodies,
that, when it has been withdrawn from the uncertainty of things
corporeal, that it may be fixed with a much more certain and stable
knowledge in that which is spirit, it flies back to those bodies,
and seeks rest there whence it has drawn weakness. And to this its
feebleness we must suit our argument; so that, if we would endeavor
at any time to distinguish more aptly, and intimate more readily,
the inward spiritual thing, we must take examples of likenesses
from outward things pertaining to the body. The outer man, then,
endued as he is with the bodily sense, is conversant with bodies.
And this bodily sense, as is easily observed, is fivefold; seeing,
hearing, smelling, tasting, touching. But it is both a good deal of
trouble, and is not necessary, that we should inquire of all these
five senses about that which we seek. For that which one of them
declares to us, holds also good in the rest. Let us use, then,
principally the testimony of the eyes. For this bodily sense far
surpasses the rest; and in proportion to its difference of kind, is
nearer to the sight of the mind.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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