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26. Let the sea also conceive and bring forth your works, and let
the waters bring forth the moving creatures that have life. For ye,
who "take forth the precious from the vile," 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 "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.
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
set out and expressed. These sacraments have the waters brought
forth; 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, 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.
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