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Moreover, inasmuch as God commanded Noah, a just man, and, as the
truthful Scripture says, a man perfect in his generation, not indeed
with the perfection of the citizens of the city of God in that immortal
condition in which they equal the angels, but in so far as they can be
perfect in their sojourn in this world, inasmuch as God commanded
him, I say, to make an ark, in which he might be rescued from the
destruction of the flood, along with his family, i.e., his wife,
sons, and daughters-in-law, and along with the animals who, in
obedience to God's command, came to him into the ark: this is
certainly a figure of the city of God sojourning in this world; that
is to say, of the church, which is rescued by the wood on which hung
the Mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus. For even its
very dimensions, in length, breadth, and height, represent the human
body in which He came, as it had been foretold. For the length of
the human body, from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot, is
six times its breadth from side to side, and ten times its depth or
thickness, measuring from back to front: that is to say, if you
measure a man as he lies on his back or on his face, he is six times as
long from head to foot as he is broad from side to side, and ten
tittles as long as he is high from the ground. And therefore the ark
was made 300 cubits in length, 50 in breadth, and 30 in
height. And its having a door made in the side of it certainly
signified the wound which was made when the side of the Crucified was
pierced with the spear; for by this those who come to Him enter; for
thence flowed the sacraments by which those who believe are initiated.
And the fact that it was ordered to be made of squared timbers,
signifies the immoveable steadiness of the life of the saints; for
however you turn a cube, it still stands. And the other peculiarities
of the ark's construction are signs of features of the church.
But we have not now time to pursue this subject; and, indeed, we
have already dwelt upon it in the work we wrote against Faustus the
Manichean, who denies that there is anything prophesied of Christ in
the Hebrew books. It may be that one man's exposition excels
another's, and that ours is not the best; but all that is said must
be referred to this city of God we speak of, which sojourns in this
wicked world as in a deluge, at least if the expositor would not widely
miss the meaning of the author. For example, the interpretation I
have given in the work against Faustus, of the words, "with lower,
second, and third stories shalt thou make it," is, that because the
church is gathered out of all nations, it is said to have two stories,
to represent the two kinds of men, the circumcision, to wit, and the
uncircumcision, or, as the apostle otherwise calls them, Jews and
Gentiles; and to have three stories, because all the nations were
replenished from the three sons of Noah. Now any one may object to
this interpretation, and may give another which harmonizes with the
rule of faith. For as the ark was to have rooms not only on the
lower, but also on the upper stories, which were called "third
stories," that there might be a habitable space on the third floor
from the basement, some one may interpret these to mean the three
graces commended by the apostle, faith, hope, and charity. Or even
more suitably they may be supposed to represent those three harvests in
the gospel, thirty-fold, sixty-fold, an hundred-fold, chaste
marriage dwelling in the ground floor, chaste widowhood in the upper,
and chaste virginity in the top story. Or any better interpretation
may be given, so long as the reference to this city is maintained.
And the same statement I would make of all the remaining particulars
in this passage which require exposition, viz., that although
different explanations are given, yet they must all agree with the one
harmonious catholic faith.
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