Chapter XX.—Concerning Reptiles
and Flying Creatures (Ver. 20),—The Sacrament of Baptism Being
Regarded.
26. Let the sea also conceive and bring forth
your works, and let the waters bring forth the moving creatures
that have life. For ye,
who “take forth the precious from the vile,” have been made the mouth of God,
through which He saith, “Let the waters bring forth,” not the
living creature which the earth bringeth forth, but the moving
creature having life, and the fowls that fly above the earth. For
Thy sacraments, O God, by the ministry of Thy holy ones, have made
their way amid the billows of the temptations of the world, to
instruct the Gentiles in Thy Name, in Thy Baptism. And amongst
these things, many great works of wonder have been wrought, like as
great whales; and the voices of Thy messengers flying above the
earth, near to the firmament of Thy Book; that being set over them
as an authority, under which they were to fly whithersoever they
were to go. For “there is no speech, nor language, where their
voice is not heard;” seeing their sound “hath gone through all the
earth, and their words to the end of the world,” because Thou, O
Lord, hast multiplied these things by blessing.
27. Whether do I lie, or do I mingle and
confound, and not distinguish between the clear knowledge of these
things that are in the firmament of heaven, and the corporeal works
in the undulating sea and under the firmament of heaven? For of
those things whereof the knowledge is solid and defined, without
increase by generation, as it were lights of wisdom and knowledge,
yet of these self-same things the material operations are many and
varied; and one thing in growing from another is multiplied by Thy
blessing, O God, who hast refreshed the fastidiousness of mortal
senses; so that in the knowledge of our mind, one thing may,
through the motions of the body, be in many ways set out and expressed. These
sacraments have the waters brought forth; but in Thy Word. The wants of the
people estranged from the eternity of Thy truth have produced them,
but in Thy Gospel; because the waters themselves have cast them
forth, the bitter weakness of which was the cause of these things
being sent forth in Thy Word.
28. Now all things are fair that Thou hast
made, but behold, Thou art inexpressibly fairer who hast made all
things; from whom had not Adam fallen, the saltness of the sea
would never have flowed from him,—the human race so profoundly
curious, and boisterously swelling, and restlessly moving; and thus
there would be no need that Thy dispensers should work in many
waters, in a
corporeal and sensible manner, mysterious doings and sayings. For
so these creeping and flying creatures now present themselves to my
mind, whereby men, instructed, initiated, and subjected by
corporeal sacraments, should not further profit, unless their soul
had a higher spiritual life, and unless, after the word of
admission, it looked forwards to perfection.
Footnotes