(17) Why God says, "It is not good for man to be alone; let us make him a help meet for him?" [Gen 2:18] By these words God intimates that there is to be a communion, not with all men, but with those who are willing to be assisted and in their turn to assist others, even though they may scarcely have any power to do so; since love consists not more in utility than in the harmonious concord of trustworthy and steadfast manners; so that every one who joins in a communion of love may be entitled to utter the expression of Pythagoras, "A friend is another I."

(18) Why, when God had already said, "Let us make a help for man," he creates beasts and cattle? [Gen 2:19] Perhaps some gluttons and insatiably greedy persons may say that God did this because beasts and flying things were, as it were, necessary food for man, and his meetest helper; for that the eating of meat assists the belly so as to conduce to the health and vigour of the body. But I should think that by reason of the evil implanted in them by nature animals of all kinds, whether terrestrial or flying in the air, were in this age hostile to and contrary to man; but that in the case of the first man, as one adorned with every imaginable virtue, they were, as it were, allies, and a reinforcement in war, and familiar friends, as being tame and domestic by nature, and this was the sole principle of their familiarity with man, for this it was fit that servants should dwell with their lord.

I. "And the Lord God said, It is not good for man to be alone : let us make him a help meet for him." Why, 0 prophet, is it not good for man to be alone ? Because, says he, it is good, that he who is alone should be alone. But God is alone, and by himself, being one ; and there is nothing like unto God. So that, since it is good that he who only has a real existence should be alone (for that which is about itself alone is good), it cannot be good for man to be alone. But the fact of God being alone one may receive in this sense ; that neither before the creation was there anything with God, nor, since the world has been created, is anything placed in the same rank with him; for he is in need of absolutely nothing whatever. But the better way of understanding this passage is the following : God is alone : a single being : not a combination : a single nature : but each of us, and every other animal in the world, are compound beings: for instance, I myself am made ON TIIE ALLEGORIES OF THE SACRED LAWS. -81 up of many things, of soul and body. Again, the soul is made up of a rational part and an irrational part : also of the body, there is one part hot, another cold ; one heavy, another light ; one dry, another moist. But God is not a compound being, nor one which is made up of many parts, but one which has no mixture with anything else ; for whatever could be combined with God must be either superior to him, or inferior to him, or equal to him. But there is nothing equal to God, and nothing superior to him, and nothing is combined with him which is worse than himself; for if it were, he himself would be deteriorated ; and if he were to suffer deterioration, he would also become perishable, which it is impious even to imagine. Therefore God exists according to oneness and unity ; or we should rather say, that oneness exists according to the one God, for all number is more recent than the world, as is also time. But God is older than the world, and is its Creator.

IV. Now of assistants there are two kinds, the one consisting in the passions and the other in the sensations. ... A word or two are lost here. Pfeiffer thinks that several sentences are wanting; and there is a great want of connection between what follows and what has gone before. OX THE ALLEGORIES OF THE SACRED LAWS. 53 But the prior kind is that of generation, for Moses says, " And God proceeded and made all the beasts of the field out of the earth, and all the birds of heaven ; and he brought them to Adam to see what he would call them, and whatever Adam called any living soul that became its name." You see here who are our assistants, the beasts of the soul, the passions. For after God had said, " I will make him a helpmeet for him," Moses adds subsequently, " He made the beasts," as if the beasts also were assistants to us. But these are not, properly speaking, assistants, but are called so only in a catachrestic manner, by a kind of abuse of language, for they are found in reality to be enemies to man. As also in the case of cities, the allies turn out at times to be traitors and deserters ; and in the case of friendship, flatterers are found to be enemies instead of companions ; and Moses here speaks of the heaven and the field synonymously, describing the mind in this allegorical manner ; for the mind, like the field, has innumerable periods of rising and budding forth; and, like the heaven, has brilliant, and divine, and happy characteristics of nature. But the passions he compares to beasts and birds, because they injure the mind, being untamed and wild, and because, after the manner of birds, they descend upon the intellect ; for their onset is swift and difficult to withstand ; and the word " besides," as attached to 4i he made," is not superfluous. Why so? because he has previously said, that the beasts were formed before the creation of man, and he shows it in the following words, which are an account of what was done on the sixth day. "And God said, Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind, four-footed animals, and creeping things, and wild beasts." Why, then, is it that he makes other animals now, not being content with those already existing? now this must be stated according to the principles of moral philosophy. The species of evil are abundant in created man, so that the most evil things are continually produced in him ; and this other thing must be affirmed on principles of natural philosophy. First of all, in the six days he created the different kinds of passions, and the ideas, but now, in addition to them, he is creating the species. On which account Moses says, " And besides he made . . ." and that what had been G 2 ' previously created were genera is plain from what he says, " Let the earth bring forth living souls," not according to species but according to genus. And this is found to be the course taken by God in all cases ; for before making the species he completes the genera, as he did in the case of man : for having first modelled the generic man, in whom they say that the male and female sexes are contained, he afterwards created the specific man Adam.

VII. " And God cast a deep trance upon Adam, and sent him to sleep ; and he took one of his ribs," and so on. The literal statement conveyed in these words is a fabulous one ; for how can any one believe that a woman was made of a rib of a man, or, in short, that any human being was made out of another ? And what hindered God, as he had made man out of the earth, from making woman in the same manner ? For the Creator was the same, and the material was almost interminable, from which every distinctive quality whatever was made. And why, when there were so many parts of a man, did not God make the woman out of some other part rather than out of one of his ribs ? Again, of which rib did he make her ? And this question would hold even if we were to say, that he had only spoken of two ribs ; but in truth he has not specified their number. Was it then the right rib, or the left rib '? Again, if he filled up the place of the other with flesh, was not the one which he left also made of flesh ? and indeed, our ribs are like sisters, and akin in all their parts, and they consist of flesh. What then are we to say ? ordinary custom calls the ribs the strength of a man ; for we say that a man has ribs, which is equivalent to saying that he has vigour; and we say that a wrestler is a man with strong ribs, when we mean to express that he is strong : and we say that a harpplayer has ribs, instead of saying that he has energy and power in his singing. Now that this has been premised we must also say, that the mind, while naked and free from the entanglement of the body (for our present discussion is about the mind, while it is as yet entangled in nothing) has many powers, namely, the possessive power, the progenitive power, the power of the soul, the power of reason, the power of comprehension, and part of others innumerable both in their genus and species. Now the possessive power is common to it with other inanimate things, with stocks and stones, and it is shared by the things in us, which are like stones, namely, by our bones. And natural power extends also over plants : and there are parts in us which have some resemblance to plants, namely, our nails and our hair : and nature is a habit already put in motion, but the soul is a habit which has taken to itself, in addition, imagination and impetuosity ; and this power also is possessed by man in common with the irrational animals ; and our mind has something analogous to the soul of an irrational animal. • Again, the power of comprehension is a peculiar property of the mind ; and the reasoning power is perhaps common to the more divine natures, but is especially the property of the mortal nature of man : and this is a twofold power, one kind being that in accordance with which we are rational creatures, partaking of mind ; and the other kind being that faculty by which we converse. There is also another power in the soul akin to these, the power of sensation, of which we are now speaking ; for Moses is describing nothing else on this occasion except the formation of the external sense, according to energy and according to reason.

IX. After this preface w-e must now proceed to explain the words : " The Lord God," says Moses, " cast a deep trance upon Adam, and sent him to sleep." He speaks here with great correctness, for a trance and perversion of the mind is its sleep. And the mind is rendered beside itself when it ceases to be occupied about the things perceptible only by the intellect which present themselves to it. And when it is not energizing with respect to them it is asleep. And the expression, ,kit is in a trance," is very well employed, as it means that it is perverted and changed, not by itself, but by God, who presents to it, and brings before it, and sends upon it the change which occurs to it. For the case is this : — if it were in my own power to be changed, then whenever I chose I should exercise this power, and whenever I did not choose I should continue as I am, without any change. But now change attacks me from an opposite direction, and very often when I am desirous to turn my intellect to some fitting subject, I am swallowed up by an influx contrary to what is fitting ; and on the other hand, when I conceive an idea respecting something unseemly, I discard it by means of pleasant notions while God by his own grace pours into my soul a sweet stream instead of the salt flood. It is necessary therefore, that even' created thing should at times be changed. For this is a property of every created thing, just as it is an attribute of God to be unchangeable. But of these beings who have been changed, some remain in their altered state till their final and complete destruction, though others are only exposed to the ordinary vicissitudes of human nature ; and they are immediately preserved. On which account Moses says that " God will not suffer the destroyer to enter into your houses to smite them." For he does permit the destroyer (and change is the destruction of the soul) to enter into the soul, in order to exhibit the peculiar characteristic of the created being. But God will not permit the offspring of the seeing Israel to be changed in such a manner as to be stricken down by the change ; but he will compel it to emerge and rise up again like one who rises up from the deep, and so he will cause it to be saved.

(25) What the rib is which God took from the man whom he had formed out of the earth, and which he made into a woman? [Gen 2:21-22] The letter of this statement is plain enough; for it is expressed according to a symbol of the part, a half of the whole, each party, the man and the woman, being as sections of nature co-equal for the production of that genus which is called man. But with respect to the mind, man is understood in a symbolical manner, and his one rib is virtue, proceeding from the senses; but woman, who is the sensation of counsel, will be more variable. But some think that the rib means valour and vigour, on which account men call a boxer who as strong loins eminently strong. Therefore, the lawgiver relates that the woman was formed out of the rib of the man, indicating by that expression, that one half of the body of the man is woman. And this is testified to by the formation of the body, by the way in which it is put together, by its motions and vigour, by the force of the soul, and its strength; for all things are regarded as in a twofold light; since, as the formation of the man is more perfect, and, if one may so say, more double than the formation of the woman, so also it required half the time, that is to say forty days; when, for the imperfect, and, if I may so call it, half section of the man, that is to say the woman, there was need of a double allowance, that is to say, of eighty days, so that the doubling of the time required for the nature of the man might be changed, in order to the formation of the peculiar properties of the woman; for that body, and that soul, the nature of which is in a twofold ratio, the body and soul, that is, of the man, require but half of the delineation and formation: but that body of which the nature and construction is in the ratio of one half, namely, that of the woman, her formation and delineation is in a twofold ratio...

(27) Why, as other animals and as man also was made, the woman was not also made out of the earth, but out of the rib of the man? (#Ge 2:21). This was so ordained in the first place, in order that the woman might not be of equal dignity with the man. In the second place, that she might not be of equal age with him, but younger; since those who marry wives more advanced in years than themselves deserve blame, as having overturned the law of nature. Thirdly, the design of God was, that the husband should take care of his wife, as of a necessary part of himself; but that the woman should requite him in turn with service, as a portion of the universe. In the fourth place, he admonishes man by this enigmatical intimation, that he should take care of his wife as of his daughter; and he admonishes the woman that she should honour her husband as her father. And very rightly, since the woman changes her habitation, passing from her own offspring to her husband. On which account, it is altogether right and proper that he who has received should take upon himself the liability in respect of what has been given; and that she who has been removed should worthily give the same honour to her husband which she has previously given to her parents; for the husband receives his wife from her parents, as a deposit which is entrusted to him; and the woman receives her husband from the law.

XII. " And he brought her to Adam. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh." God leads the external sense, existing according to energy, to the mind ; knowing that its motion and apprehension must turnback to the mind. But the mind, perceiving the power which it previously had (and winch, while it was existing according to habit was in a state of tranquillity), now have to become a complete operation and energy, and to be in a state of motion, marvels at it, and utters an exclamation, saying that it is not unconnected with it, but very closely akin to it. For Adam says, " This now is bone of my bone ;" that is to say, This is power of my power ; for bone is here to be understood as a symbol of strength and power. And it is, he adds, suffering of my sufferings ; that is, it is flesh of my flesh. For every thing which the external sense suffers, it endures not without the support of the mind ; for the mind is its fountain, and the foundation on which it is supported. It is also worth while to consider why Adam added the word "now," for he says, "This now is bone of my hone."' The explanation is, external sensation exists now, having its existence solely with reference to the present moment. For the mind touches three separate points of time ; for it perceives present circumstances, and it remembers past events, and it anticipates the future. But the external sensations have neither any anticipation of future events, nor are they subject to any feeling resembling expectation or hope, nor have they any recollection of past circumstances ; but are by nature capable only of being affected by that which moves them at the moment, and is actually present. As, for example, the eye is made white by a white appearance presented to it at the moment, but it is not affected in any manner by that which is not present to it. But the mind is agitated also by that which is not actually present, but which may be past ; in which case it is affected by its recollection of it ; or it may be future, in which case it is, indeed, the influence of hope and expectation.

XIV. " On this account a man will leave his father and his mother and will cleave to his wife ; and they two shall become one flesh." On account of the external sensation, the mind, when it has become enslaved to it, shall leave both its father, the God of the universe, and the mother of all things, namely, the virtue and wisdom of God, and cleaves to and becomes united to the external sensations, and is dissolved into external sensation, so that the two become one flesh and one passion. And here you must observe that it is not the woman who cleaves to the man, but on the contrary, the man who cleaves to the woman ; that is to say, the mind cleaves to the external sensations. For when that which is the better, namely, the mind. is united to that which is the worse, namely, the external sensation, it is then dissolved into the nature of flesh, whicb • Gen. xxx. 1. + Gen. xxix. 31. % Deut. xxi. 15. is worse, and into outward sensation, which is the cause of the passions. But when that which is the inferior, namely, the outward sensation, follows the hetter part, that is the mind, then there will no longer be flesh, but both will become one, namely, mind. And this is a thing of such a nature that it prefers the affections to piety. There is also another being called by an opposite name, Levi ; he who says to his father and mother : " He saw you not, and he did not recognize his brethren, and repudiated his children."' This man leaves his father and mother ; that is to say, his mind and the material of his body, in order to have as his inheritance the one God ; " For the Lord himself is his inheritance. "f And, indeed, suffering is the inheritance of him who is fond of suffering ; but the inheritance of Levi is God. Do you not see that " he bids him on the tenth day of the month bring two goats as his share, one lot for the Lord and one lot for the scape-goat."^ For the sufferings inflicted on the scape goat are in real truth the lot of him who is fond of suffering.

"Blessed are all they that fear the Lord, and walk in His ways" [Psalm 128:1]. He speaketh to many; but since these many are one in Christ, in the next words he speaketh in the singular: "For thou shall eat the labours of thy fruits."...When I speak of Christians in the plural, I understand one in the One Christ. Ye are therefore many, and ye are one; we are many, and we are one. How are we many, and yet one? Because we cling unto Him whose members we are; and since our Head is in heaven, that His members may follow....Let us therefore so hear this Psalm, as considering it to be spoken of Christ: and all of us who cling unto the Body of Christ, and have been made members of Christ, walk in the ways of the Lord; and let us fear the Lord with a chaste fear, with a fear that abideth for ever....

"You shall eat the labours of your fruits" [Psalm 128:2]. And ye, O thou, you many who are One, "You shall eat of the labours of your fruits." He seems to speak perversely to those who understand not: for he should have said, you shall eat the fruit of your labours. For many eat the fruit of their labours. They labour in the vineyard; they eat not the toil itself; but what arises from their labour they eat. They labour about trees that bear fruit: who would eat labours? But the fruit of these labours, the produce of these trees; it is this that delights the husbandman. What means, "You shall eat the labours of your fruits"? At present we have toils: the fruits will come afterwards. But since their labours themselves are not without joy, on account of the hope whereof we have a little before spoken, "Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation;" [Romans 12:12] at present those very labours delight us, and make us joyful in hope. If therefore our toil has been what could be eaten, and could also delight us; what will be the fruit of our labour when eaten? "They who went weeping on their way, scattering their seed," did eat their labours; with how much greater pleasure will they eat the fruits of their labours, who "shall come again with joy, bearing their sheaves with them"?..."Blessed are you, and well shall it be with you." "Blessed are you," is of the present: "well shall it be with you," is of the future. When you eat the labours of your fruits, "blessed are you;" when you have reached the fruit of your labours, "well shall it be with you." What has he said? For if it be well with you, you will be happy: and if you will be happy, you will also have all well with you. But there is a difference between hope and attainment. If hope be so sweet, how much sweeter will reality be?

Let us now come to the words, "Thy wife" [Psalm 128:3]: it is said unto Christ. His wife, therefore, is the Church: His Church, His wife, we ourselves are. "As a fruitful vineyard." But in whom is the vineyard fruitful? For we see many barren ones entering those walls; we see that many intemperate, usurious persons, slave dealers, enter these walls, and such as resort to fortune-tellers, go to enchanters and enchantresses when they have a headache. Is this the fruitfulness of the vine? Is this the fecundity of the wife? It is not. These are thorns, but the vineyard is not everywhere thorny. It hath a certain fruitfulness, and is a fruitful vine; but in whom? "Upon the sides of thy house." Not all are called the sides of the house. For I ask what are the sides. What shall I say? Are they walls, strong stones, as it were? If he were speaking of this bodily tenement, we should perhaps understand this by sides. We mean by the sides of the house, those who cling unto Christ...."Thy children." The wife and the children are the same. In these carnal marriages and wedlocks, the wife is one, the children other: in the Church, she who is the wife, is the children also. For the Apostles belonged to the Church, and were among the members of the Church. They were therefore in His wife, and were His wife according to their own portion which they held in His members. Why then is it said concerning them, "When the Bridegroom shall be taken from them, then shall the children of the Bridegroom fast"? She who is the wife, then, is the children also....

"The Lord from out of Sion bless thee: and mayest thou see thee good things that are of Jerusalem" [Psalm 128:5]. Even to the birds was it said, "Be fruitful and multiply." [Genesis 1:22] Dost thou wish to hold as a great blessing what was given unto birds? Who can be ignorant, that it was given indeed by the voice of God? But use these goods, if thou receive them; and rather think how thou mayest nourish those who have been born, than that others may be born. For it is not happiness to have children, but to have good ones. Labour in the task of nourishing them, if they be born; but if they be not born, give thanks unto God. ...Thy children are infants: thou dost caress the infants: the infants caress thee: do they abide thus? But thou wishest they may grow, thou wishest that their age may increase. But consider that when one age cometh, another dieth. When boyhood cometh, infancy dieth; when youth cometh, boyhood dieth: when manhood cometh, youth dieth; when old age cometh, manhood dieth: when death cometh, all age dieth. As many successions of ages as thou wishest for, so many deaths of ages dost thou wish for. These things therefore "are" not. Finally, are children born unto thee to share life with thee on earth, or rather to shut thee out and to succeed thee? Rejoicest thou in those born to exclude thee? Boys when born speak somewhat like this to their parents: "Now then, begin to think of removing hence, let us too play our parts on the stage." For the whole life of temptation in the human race is a stage play; for it is said, "Every man living is altogether vanity." Nevertheless, if we rejoice in children who will succeed us; how much must we rejoice in children with whom we shall remain, and in that Father for whom we are born, who will not die, but that we may evermore live with Him? These are the good things of Jerusalem: for they "are." And how long shall I see the good things of Jerusalem? "All thy life long." If thy life be for ever, thou wilt see the good things of Jerusalem for evermore....

For, "if in this life only," saith the Apostle, "we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable." [1 Corinthians 15:19] For what reason were the Martyrs condemned to beasts? What is that good? Can it be declared? by what means, or what tongue can tell it? or what ears can hear it? That indeed, "Neither ear hath heard, nor hath it entered into man's heart:" [1 Corinthians 2:9] only let us love, only let us grow in grace: ye see, then, that battles are not wanting, and that we fight with our lusts. We fight outwardly with unbelieving and disobedient men; we fight inwardly with carnal suggestions and perturbations: we everywhere as yet fight. ...What sort of peace then is this? One from Jerusalem, for Jerusalem is interpreted, A vision of Peace. Thus then "mayest thou see the good things that are of Jerusalem," and that, "all thy life long-and mayest thou see," not only thy children, but, "thy children's children." What meaneth, Thy children? Thy works which thou here dost. Who are thy children's children? The fruits of thy works. Thou givest alms: these are thy children: for the sake of thine alms thou receivest everlasting life, these are thy children's children. "Mayest thou see thy children's children;" and there shall be "peace upon Israel" [Psalm 128:6], the last words of the Psalm....

(Matt. tom. xv. 7) If any of those who profess to hold the office of teaching1 in the Church should see a person bringing to them some of the foolish of this world, and low born, and weak, who for this reason are called children and infants, let him not forbid the man who offers such an one to the Saviour, as though he were acting without judgment. After this He exhorts those of His disciples who are already grown to full stature to condescend to be useful to children, that they may become to children as children, that they may gain children; for He Himself, when He was in the form of God, humbled Himself, and became a child. On which He adds: For of such is the kingdom of heaven. (1 Cor. 9:22)