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32. For behold, O Lord our God, our Creator, when our
affections have been restrained from the love of the world, by which we
died by living ill, and began to be a "living soul" by living well;
and Thy word which Thou spakest by Thy apostle is made good in us,
"Be not conformed to this world;" next also follows that which Thou
presently subjoinedst, saying, "But be ye transformed by the
renewing of your mind," not now after your kind, as if following
your neighbour who went before you, nor as if living after the example
of a better man (for Thou hast not said, "Let man be made after his
kind," but, "Let us make man in our image, after our
likeness"), that we may prove what Thy will is. For to this
purpose said that dispenser of Thine, begetting children by the
gospel, that he might not always have them "babes," whom he
would feed on milk, And cherish as a nurse; "be ye transformed,"
saith He, "by the renewing of your mind, that he may prove what is
that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God." Therefore
Thou sayest not, "Let man be made," but, "Let us make man."
Nor sayest Thou, "after his kind," but, after "our image" and
"likeness." Because, being renewed in his mind, and beholding and
apprehending Thy truth, man needeth not man as his director that he
may imitate his kind; but by Thy direction proveth what is that good,
and acceptable, and perfect will of Thine. And Thou teachest him,
now made capable, to perceive the Trinity of the Unity, and the
Unity of the Trinity. And therefore this being said in the plural,
"Let us make man," it is yet subjoined in the singular, "and God
made man;" and this being said in the plural, "after our
likeness," is subjoined in the singular, "after the image of
God." Thus is man renewed in the knowledge of God, after the image
of Him that created him; and being made spiritual, he judgeth all
things, all things that are to be judged, "yet he himself
is judged of no man."
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