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| That man is a likeness of the Divine sovereignty.
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V. That man is
a likeness of the Divine sovereignty1599
| 1599 In
the Bodleian Latin ms. the title
is:—“How the human soul is made in the image of
God.” | .
1. It is true, indeed, that the
Divine beauty is not adorned with any shape or endowment of form, by
any beauty of colour, but is contemplated as excellence in unspeakable
bliss. As then painters transfer human forms to their pictures by the
means of certain colours, laying on their copy the proper and
corresponding tints, so that the beauty of the original may be
accurately transferred to the likeness, so I would have you understand
that our Maker also, painting the portrait to resemble His own beauty,
by the addition of virtues, as it were with colours, shows in us His
own sovereignty: and manifold and varied are the tints, so to say, by
which His true form is portrayed: not red, or white1600
| 1600 λαμπρότης. The old Latin version translates this by
“purpurissus.” | , or the blending of these, whatever it may
be called, nor a touch of black that paints the eyebrow and the eye,
and shades, by some combination, the depressions in the figure, and all
such arts which the hands of painters contrive, but instead of these,
purity, freedom from passion, blessedness, alienation from all evil,
and all those attributes of the like kind which help to form in men the
likeness of God: with such hues as these did the Maker of His own image
mark our nature.
2. And if you were to examine
the other points also by which the Divine beauty is expressed, you will
find that to them too the likeness in the image which we present is
perfectly preserved. The Godhead is mind and word: for “in the
beginning was the Word1601
” and the
followers of Paul “have the mind of Christ” which
“speaks” in them1602
: humanity too is
not far removed from these: you see in yourself word and understanding,
an imitation of the very Mind and Word. Again, God is love, and the
fount of love: for this the great John declares, that “love is of
God,” and “God is love1603
”: the
Fashioner of our nature has made this to be our feature too: for
“hereby,” He says, “shall all men know that ye are my
disciples, if ye love one another1604
”:—thus, if this be absent, the
whole stamp of the likeness is transformed. The Deity beholds and hears
all things, and searches all things out: you too have the power of
apprehension of things by means of sight and hearing, and the
understanding that inquires into things and searches them
out.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|
