8. And since the case stands thus, if we are to accept the same image of the Trinity, as not in one, but in three human beinss, father and mother and son, then the man was not made after the image of God before a wife was made for him, and before they procreated a son; because there was not yet a trinity. Will any one say there was already a trinity, be- cause, although not yet in their proper form, yet in their original nature, both the woman was already in the side of the man, and the son in the loins of his father? Why then, when Scripture had said, " God made man after the image of God/' did it go on to say, ''God created him; male and female created He them: and God blessed them"?^ (Or if it is to be so divided, "And God created man/' so that there- upon is to be added, "in the image of God created He him/* and then subjoined in the third place, " male and female created He them; " for some have feared to say, He made him male and female, lest something monstrous, as it were, should be understood, as are those whom they call herma- phrodites, although even so both might be understood not falsely in the singular number, on account of that which is said, " Two in one flesh.") Why then, as I began by saying, in the nature of man made after the image of God, does Scripture specify nothing except male and female? Certainly, in order to complete the image of the Trinity, it ought to have added also son, although still placed in the loins of his father, CHAP. VII.] HOW MAN THE IMAGE OF GOD. 291 as the woman was in his side. Or was it perhaps that the woman also had been already made, and that Scripture had combined in a short and comprehensive statement, that of which it was going to explain afterwards more carefully, how it was done; and that therefore a son could not be mentioned, because no son was yet born? As if the Holy Spirit could not have comprehended this, too, in that brief statement, while about to narrate the birth of the son afterwards in its own place; as it narrated afterwards in its own place, that the woman was taken from the side of the man,^ and yet has not omitted here to name her.
Chap. vii. — How man is the image of God. Whether the woman is not also the image of God. Hoio tlie saying of the apostle, that the man is the image of God, hut the woman is the glory of the man, is to he understood figura- tively and mystically, 9. We ought not therefore so to understand that man is made in the image of the supreme Trinity, that is, in the image of God, as that the same image should be understood to be in three human beings; especially when the apostle says that the man is the image of God, and on that account re- moves the covering from his head, which he warns the woman to use, speaking thus: " For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God; but the woman is the glory of the man." What then shall we say to this? If the woman fills up the image of the trinity after the measure of her own person, why is the man still called that image after she has been taken out of his side? Or if even one person of a human being out of three can be called the image of God, as each person also is God in the supreme Trinity itself, why is the woman also not the image of God? For she is instructed for this very reason to cover her head, which he is forbidden to do because he is the image of God.^ ' 10. But we must notice how that which the apostle says, that not the woman but the man is the image of God, is not contrary to that which is written in Genesis, ''God created man: in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them: and He blessed them." For this text says that human nature itself, which is complete in both sexes, 292 ON THE TRINITY. [bOOK XII.
was made in the image of God; and it does not separate the woman from the image of God which it signifies. For after saying that God made man in the image of God, " He created him," it says, " male and female," or at any rate, stopping the words otherwise, " male and female created He them." How then did the apostle tell us that the man is the image of God, and therefore he is forbidden to cover his head; but that the woman is not so, and therefore is commanded to cover hers? Unless, forsooth, according to that which I have said already, when I was treating of the nature of the human mind, that the woman together with her own hus- •band is the image of God, so that that whole substance may be one image; but when she is referred separately to her quality of help-meet, which regards the woman herself alone, then she is not the image of God; but as regards the man alone, he is the image of God as fully and completely as when the woman too is joined with him in one. As we said of the nature of the human mind, that both in the case when as a whole it contemplates the truth it is the image of God; and in the case when anything is divided from it, and diverted in purpose to the dealing with temporal things; nevertheless on that side on which it beholds and consults truth, here also it is the image of God, but on that side whereby it is directed t to the dealing with the lower things, it is not the image of } God. And since it is so much the more formed after the image of God, the more it has extended itself to that which is eternal, and is on that account not to be restrained, so as to withhold and refrain itself from thence; therefore the man ought not to cover his head. But because too great a progres- sion towards inferior things is dangerous to that rational deal- ing, that is conversant with things corporeal and temporal; this ought to have power on its head, which the covering in- dicates, by which it is signified that it ought to be restrained. For a holy and pious meaning is pleasing to the» holy angels. For God sees not after the way of time, neither does anything new take place in His vision and knowledge, when anything is done in time and transitorily, after the way in which such things affect the senses, whether the carnal senses of animals and men, or even the heavenly senses of the angels.
CHAP. VIL] mystical MEANING OF COVERING THE HEAD. 293 11. For that the Apostle Paul, when speaking outwardly of the sex of male and female, figured the mystery of some more hidden truth, may be understood from this, that when he says in another place that she is a widow indeed who is desolate, without children and nephews, and yet that she ought to trust in God, and to continue in prayers night and day,^ he here indicates, that the woman having been brought into the trans- gression by being deceived, is brought to salvation by child- bearing; and then he has added, " If they continue in faith, and charity, and holiness, with sobriety." ^ As if it could possibly hurt a good widow, if either she had not sons, or if those whom she had did not choose to continue in good works. But because those things which are called good works are, as it were, the sons of our life, according to that sense of life in which it answers to the question. What is a man's life? that is, How does he act in these temporal things? which life the Greeks do not call ^w?;, but /6?/o?; and because these good works are chiefly performed in the way of offices of mercy, while works of mercy are of no profit, either to Pagans, or to Jews who do not believe in Christ, or to any heretics or schismatics whatsoever in whom faith and charity and sober holiness are not found: what the apostle meant to signify is plain, and in so far figuratively and mystically, because he was speaking of covering the head of the woman, which will remain mere empty words, unless referred to some hidden sacrament.
12. Por, as not only most tme reason but also the autho- rity of the apostle himself declares, man was not made in the image of God according to the shape of his body, but according - to his rational mind. For the thought is a debased and empty one, which holds God to be circumscribed and limited by the lineaments of bodily members. But further, does not the same blessed apostle say, '' Be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new man, which is created after God; " ^ and in another place more clearly, " Putting off the old man," he says, " with his deeds; put on the new man, which is renewed to the knowledge of God after the image of Him that created him "? * If, then, we are renewed in the spirit of our mind, 294 ON THE TRINITY. [BOOK XII.
and he is the new man who is renewed to the knowledge of God after the image of Him that created him; no one can doubt, that man was made after the image of Him that created him, not according to the body, nor indiscriminately according to any part of the mind, but according to the rational mind, wherein the knowledge of God can exist. And it is according to this renewal, also, that we are made sons of God by the baptism of Christ; and putting on the new man, certainly put on Christ through faith. Who is there, then, who will hold women to be alien from this fellowship, whereas they are fellow-heirs of grace with us; and whereas in another place the same apostle says, " For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus; for as many as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ: there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female; for ye are all one in Christ Jesus"? ^ Pray, have faithful women then lost their bodily sex? But because they are there renewed after the image of God, where there is no sex; man is there made after the image of God, where there is no sex, that is, in the spirit of his mind. Why, then, is the man on that account not bound to cover his head, because he is the image and glory of God, while the woman is bound to do so, because she is the glory of the man; as though the woman were not renewed in the spirit of her mind, which spirit is renewed to the knowledge of God after the image of Him who created him? But because she differs from the man in bodily sex, it was possible rightly to figure under her bodily covering that part of the reason which is diverted to the government of temporal things; so that the image of God may not remain, except on that side of the mind of man on which it cleaves to the beholding or the consulting of the eternal reasons of things; and this, it is clear, not men only, but also women have.
Chap. VIII. — Turnmg aside from the image of God.
13. A common nature, therefore, is recognised in their minds, but in their bodies a division of that one mind itself is figured. As we ascend, then, by certain steps of thought within, along the succession of the parts of the mind, there CHAP. IX.] TURNING ASIDE FROM THE IMAGE OF GOD. 295 where something first meets "as, which is not common to our- selves with the beasts, reason begins, so that here the inner man can now be recognised. And if this inner man himself, through that reason to which the administering of things tem- poral has been delegated, slips on too far by over-much progress into outward things, that which is his head moreover consenting, that is, the (so to call it) masculine part which presides in the watch-tower of counsel not restraining or bridling it: then he waxeth old because of all his enemies,-^ viz. the demons with their prince the devil, who are envious of virtue; and that vision of eternal things is withdrawn also from the head himself, eating with his spouse that which was forbidden, so that the light of his eyes is gone from him; ^ and so both being naked from that enlightenment of truth, and with the eyes of their conscience opened to behold how they were left shameful and unseemly, like the leaves of sweet fruits, but without the fruits themselves, they so weave together good words without the fruit of good works, as while living wickedly to cover over their disgrace as it were loj speaking well.^ Chap. ix. — TJie same argument is continued.
14. For the soul loving its own power, slips onwards from the whole which is common, to a part, which belongs especially to itself And that apostatizing pride, which is called " the beginning of sin," * whereas it might have been most excel- lently governed by the laws of God, if it had followed Him as its ruler in the universal creature, by seeking something more than the whole, and struggling to govern this by a law of its own, is thrust on, since nothing is more than the whole, into caring for a part; and thus by lusting after something m.ore, is made less; whence also covetousness is called ''the root of all evil."^ And it administers that whole, wherein it strives to do something of its own against the laws by which the whole is governed, by its own body, which it possesses only in part; and so being delighted by corporeal forms and motions, because it has not the things themselves within itself, and because it is wrapped up in their Ps. vi. 7. ^ Ps. xxxviii. 10. ^ Gen, iii. 4.
296 ON THE TRINITY. [BOOK XII.
images, which it has fixed in the memory, and is foully pol- luted by fornication of the phantasy, while it refers all its functions to those ends, for which it curiously seeks corporeal and temporal things through the senses of the body, either it affects with swelling arrogance to be more excellent than other souls that are given up to the corporeal senses, or it is plunged into a foul whirlpool of carnal pleasure.
Chap. x. — The lowest degradation is reached hy degrees.
15. When the soul then consults either for itself or for others with a good will towards perceiving the inner and higher things, such as are possessed in a chaste embrace, without any narrowness or envy, not individually, but in common by all who love such things; then even if it be de- ceived in anything, through ignorance of things temporal (for its action in this case is a temporal one), and if it does not hold fast to that mode of acting which it ought, the tempta- tion is but one common to man. And it is a great thing so to pass through this life, on which we travel, as it were, like a road on our return home, that no temptation may take us, but what is common to man.^ Tor this is a sin without the body, and must not be reckoned fornication, and on that account is very easily pardoned. But when the soul does anything in order to attain those things which are perceived through the body, through lust of proving or of surpassing or of hand- ling them, in order that it may place in them its final good, then whatever it does, it does wickedly, and commits fornica- tion, sinning against its own body: ^ and while snatching from within the deceitful images of corporeal things, and combining them by vain thought, so that nothing seems to it to be divine, unless it be of such a kind as this; by selfish greediness it is made fruitful in errors, and by selfish prodigality it is emptied of strength. Yet it would not leap on at once from the com- mencement to such shameless and miserable fornication, but, as it is written, " He that contemneth small things, shall fall by little and little." ^ Chap. xr. — The image of the least in man.
16. For as a snake does not creep on with open steps, but CHAP. XIL] by what STEPS MAN GOES DOWNWAED. 297 by the very minutest efforts to advance of its several scales; so the slippery motion of falling away [from what is good] takes possession of the negligent only gradually, and beginning from a perverse desire for the likeness of God, arrives in the end at the likeness of beasts. Hence it is that being naked of their first garment, they earned by mortality coats of skins.-^ For the true honour of man is the image and likeness of God, which is not preserved except it be in relation to Him by whom it is impressed. The less therefore that one loves what is one's own, the more one cleaves to God. But through the desire of making trial of his own power, man by his own bid- ding falls down to himself as to a sort of intermediate grade. "^ And so, while he wishes to be as God is, under no one, he is thrust on, even from his own middle grade, by way of punish- ment, to that which is lowest, that is, to those things in which beasts delight: and thus, while his honour is the likeness of God, but his dishonour is the likeness of the beast, "Man being in honour abideth not: he is compared to the beasts that are foolish, and is made like to them.'* " By what path, then, could he pass so great a distance from the highest to the lowest, except through his own intermediate grade? For when he neglects the love of wisdom, which remains always after the same fashion, and lusts after knowledge by experi- ment upon things temporal and mutable, that knowledge puf- feth up, it does not edify: ^ so the mind is overweighed and thrust out, as it were, by its own weight from blessedness; and learns by its own punishment, through that trial of its own intermediateness, what the difference is between the good it has abandoned and the bad to which it has committed itself; and having thrown away and destroyed its strength, it cannot return, unless by the grace of its Maker calling it to repent- ance, and forgiving its sins. Tor who will deliver the un- happy soul from the body of this death, unless the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord? * Of which grace we will discourse in its place, so far as He Himself enables us.
Chap. xii. — There is a kind of hidden wedlock in the inner man. Unlawful pleasures of the thoughts.
17. Let us now complete, so far as the Lord helps us, the ^ 298 ON THE TRINITY. [BOOK XII.
discussion which we have -undertaken, respecting that part of reason to which knowledge belongs, that is, the cognizance of things temporal and changeable, which is necessary for manag- ing the affairs of this life. Eor as in the case of that visible wedlock of the two human beings who were made first, the serpent did not eat of the forbidden tree, but only persuaded them to eat of it; and the woman did not eat alone, but gave to her husband, and they eat together; although she alone spoke with the serpent, and she alone was led away by him } so also in. the case of that hidden and secret kind of wedlock, which is transacted and discerned in a single human being, the carnal, or as I may say, since it is directed to the senses of the body, the sensuous movement of the soul, which is common to us with beasts, is shut off from the reason of wis- dom. For certainly bodily things are perceived by the sense of the body; but spiritual things, which are eternal and un- changeable, are understood by the reason of wisdom. But the reason of knowledge has appetite very near to it: seeing that what is called the science or knowledge of actions, reasons of the bodily things themselves, which are perceived by the bodily sense; if well, in order that it may refer that knowledge to the end of the chief good; but if ill, in order that it may enjoy them as being such good things as those w^herein it reposes with a false blessedness. Whenever, then, that carnal or animal sense introduces into this purpose of the mind, which is conversant in things temporal and corporeal, with a view to the offices of a man's actions, by the living force of reason, some inducement to enjoy itself, that is, to enjoy itself as if it were some private good of its own, not as the public and common, which is the unchangeable, good; then, as it were, the serpent discourses with the woman. And to consent to this allurement, is to eat of the forbidden tree. But if that consent is satisfied by the pleasure of thought alone, but the members are so restrained by the authority of higher counsel that they are not yielded as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin;^ this, I think, is to be considered as if the woman alone should have eaten the forbidden food. But if, in this consent to use wickedly the things which are CHAP. XII.] OF UNLAWFUL THOUGHTS. 299 perceived through the senses of the body, any sin at all is so determined upon, that if there is the power, it is also fulfilled by the body; then that woman must be understood to have given the unlawful food to her husband with her, to be eaten together. For it is not possible for the mind to determine, that a sin is not only to be thought of with pleasure, but also effectually committed, unless also that intention of the mind yields, and serves the bad action, with which rests the chief power of applying the members to an outward act, or of restraining them from one.
18. And yet, certainly, when the mind is pleased in thought alone with unlawful things, while not indeed determining that they are to be done, but yet holding and pondering gladly things which ought to have been rejected the very moment they touched the mind, it cannot be denied to be a sin, but far less than if it were also determined to accomplish it in out- ward act. And therefore pardon must be sought for such thoughts too, and the breast must be smitten, and it must be said, "Forgive us our debts;" and what follows must be done, and must be joined in our prayer, '' As we also forgive our debtors." ^ For it is not as it was with those two first human beings, of which each one bare his own person; and so, if the woman alone had eaten the forbidden food, she certainly alone would have been smitten with the punishment of death: it cannot, I say, be so said also in the case of a single human being now, that if the thought, remaining alone, be gladly fed with unlawful pleasures, from which it ought to turn away directly, while yet there is no determination that the bad actions are to be done, but only that they are retained with pleasure in remembrance, the woman as it were can be con- demned without the man. Far be it from us to believe this.
For here is one person, one human being, and he as a whole will be condemned, unless those things which, as lacking the will to do, and yet having the will to please the mind with them, are perceived to be sins of thought alone, are pardoned through the grace of the Mediator.
19. This reasoning, then, whereby we have sought in the mind of each several human being a certain rational wedlock 300 ON THE TRINITY. [BOOK XII.
of contemplation and action, witli functions distributed through each severally, yet with the unity of the mind preserved in both; saving meanwhile the truth of that history, which divine testimony hands down respecting the first two human beings, that is, the man and his wife, from whom the human species is propagated; — this reasoning, I say, must be listened to only thus far, that the apostle may be understood to have intended to signify something to be sought in one individual man, by assigning the image of God to the man only, and not also to the woman, although in the merely different sex of two human beings.
Chap. xiii. — The opinion of tJiose who have thought that the mind was signified by the man, the bodily sense by the woman.