|
22. But those who, by being reminded, are turned to the Lord from
that deformity whereby they were through worldly lusts conformed to this
world, are formed anew from the world, when they hearken to the
apostle, saying," Be not conformed to this world, but be ye formed
again in the renewing of your mind;" that that image may begin to be
formed again by Him by whom it had been formed at first. For that
image cannot form itself again, as it could deform itself. He says
again elsewhere: "Be ye renewed in the spirit of your mind; and put
ye on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and
true holiness." That which is meant by "created after God," is
expressed in another place by "after the image of God." But it lost
righteousness and true holiness by sinning, through which that image
became defaced and, tarnished; and this it recovers when it is formed
again and renewed. But when he says, "In the spirit of your
mind," he does not in: tend to be understood of two things, as
though mind were one, and the spirit of the mind another; but he
speaks thus, because all mind is spirit, but all spirit is not mind.
For there is a Spirit also that is God, which cannot be renewed,
because it cannot grow old. And we speak also of a spirit in man
distinct from the mind, to which spirit belong the images that are
formed after the likeness of bodies; and of this the apostle speaks to
the Corinthians, where he says, "But if I shall have prayed with a
tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful." For
he speaks thus, when that which is said is not understood; since it
cannot even be said, unless the images of the corporeal articulate
sounds anticipate the oral sound by the thought of the spirit. The
soul of man is also called spirit, whence are the words in the
Gospel, " And He bowed His head, and gave up His spirit;" by
which the death of the body, through the spirit's leaving it, is
signified. We speak also of the spirit of a beast, as it is expressly
written in the book of Solomon called Ecclesiastes; "Who knoweth
the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that
goeth downward to the earth?" It is written too in Genesis, where
it is said that by the deluge all flesh died which "had in it the
spirit of life." We speak also of the spirit, meaning the wind, a
thing most manifestly corporeal; whence is that in the Psalms,"
Fire and hail, snow and ice, the spirit of the I storm." Since
spirit, then, is a word of so many meanings, the apostle intended to
express by "the spirit of the mind" that spirit which is called the
mind. As the same apostle also, when he says, "In putting off the
body of the flesh," certainly did not intend two things, as though
flesh were one, and the body of the flesh another; but because body is
the name of many things that have no flesh (for besides the flesh,
there are many bodies celestial and bodies terrestrial), he expressed
by the body of the flesh that body which is flesh. In like manner,
therefore, by the spirit of the mind, that spirit which is mind.
Elsewhere,too,he has even more plainly called it an image, while
enforcing the same thing in other words. "Do you," he says,
"putting off the old man with his deeds, put on the new man, which is
renewed in the knowledge of God after the image of Him that created
him." Where the one passage reads, "Put ye on the new man, which
is created after God," the other has, "Put ye on the new man,
which is renewed after the image of Him that created him." In the
one place he says, "After God;" in the other, "After the image
of Him that created him." But instead of saying, as in the former
passages" In righteousness and true holiness," he has put in the
latter, "In the knowledge of God." This renewal, then, and
forming again of the mind, is wrought either after God, or after the
image of God. But it is said to be after God, in order that it may
not be supposed to be after another creature; and to be after the image
of God, in order that this renewing may be understood to take place in
that wherein is the image of God, i.e. in the mind. Just as we
say, that he who has departed from the body a faithful and righteous
man, is dead after the body, not after the spirit. For what do we
mean by dead after the body, unless as to the body or in the body, and
not dead as to the soul or in the soul? Or if we want to say he is
handsome after the body, or strong after the body, not after the
mind; what else is this, than that he is handsome or strong in body,
not in mind? And the same is the case with numberless other
instances. Let us not therefore so understand the words, "After the
image of Him that created him," as though it were a different image
after which he is renewed, and not the very same which is itself
renewed.
|
|