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Confessiones

Caput 20

Concipiat et mare et pariat opera vestra, et producant aquae reptilia animarum vivarum. separantes enim pretiosum a vili facti estis os dei, per quod diceret: producant aquae; non animam vivam, quam terra producet, sed reptilia animarum vivarum et volatilia volantia super terram. repserunt enim sacramenta tua, deus, per opera sanctorum tuorum inter medios fluctus temptationum saeculi, ad imbuendas gentes nomine tuo in baptismo tuo. et inter haec facta sunt magnalia mirabilia tamquam coeti grandes; et voces nuntiorum tuorum volantes super terram iuxta firmamentum libri tui, praeposito illo sibi ad auctoritatem, sub quo volitarent, quocumque irent. neque enim sunt loquellae neque sermones, quorum non audiantur voces eorum, quando in omnem terram exiit sonus eorum, et in fines orbis terrae verba eorum, quoniam tu, domine, benedicendo multiplicasti haec. Numquid mentior, aut mixtione misceo, neque distinguo lucidas cognitiones harum rerum in firmamento caeli et opera corporalia in undoso mari et sub firmamento caeli? quarum enim rerum notitiae sunt solidae et terminatae sine incrementis generationum tamquam lumina sapientiae et scientiae, earundem rerum sunt operationes corporales multae ac variae; et aliud ex alio crescendo multiplicantur in benedictione tua, deus, qui consolatus es fastidia sensum mortalium; ut in cognitione animi res una multis modis per corporis motiones figuretur atque dicatur. aquae produxerunt haec, sed in verbo tuo: necessitates alienatorum ab aeternitate veritatis tuae populorum produxerunt haec, sed in evangelio tuo, quoniam ipsae aquae ista eiecerunt, quarum amarus languor fuit causa, ut in tuo verbo ista procederent. Et pulchra sunt omnia faciente te, et ecce tu inenarrabiliter pulchrior, qui fecisti omnia. a quo si non esset lapsus Adam, non diffunderetur ex utero eius salsugo maris, genus humanum profunde curiosum et procellose tumidum et instabiliter fluvidum, atque ita non opus esset, ut in aquis multis corporaliter et sensibiliter operarentur dispensatores tui mystica facta et dicta. sic enim mihi nunc occurrerunt reptilia et volatilia, quibus imbuti et initiati homines corporalibus sacramentis subditi non ultra proficerent, nisi spiritaliter vivesceret anima gradu alio et post initii verbum in consummationem respiceret.

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The Confessions of St. Augustin In Thirteen Books

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. ¹ For ye, who "take forth the precious from the vile," ² 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 ³ "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. ⁴

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 ⁵ set out and expressed. These sacraments have the waters brought forth; ⁶ 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, ⁷ 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. ⁸