Chapter XII.—Allegorical Explanation of Genesis, Chap. I., Concerning the Origin of the Church and Its Worship.

13. Proceed in thy confession, say to the Lord thy God, O my faith, Holy, Holy, Holy, O Lord my God, in Thy name have we been baptized, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, in Thy name do we baptize, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,^12061206    Matt. xxviii. 19. because among us also in His Christ did God make heaven and earth, namely, the spiritual and carnal people of His Church.^12071207    He similarly interprets “heaven and earth” in his De Gen. ad Lit. ii. 4. With this compare Chrysostom’s illustration in his De Pænit. hom. 8. The Church is like the ark of Noah, yet different from it. Into that ark as the animals entered, so they came forth. The fox remained a fox, the hawk a hawk, and the serpent a serpent. But with the spiritual ark it is not so, for in it evil dispositions are changed. This illustration of Chrysostom is used with an effective but rough eloquence by the Italian preacher Segneri, in his Quaresimale, serm. iv. sec. Yea, and our earth, before it received the “form of doctrine,”^12081208    Rom. vi. 17. was invisible and formless, and we were covered with the darkness of ignorance. For Thou correctest man for iniquity,^12091209    Ps. xxxix. 11. and “Thy judgments are a great deep.”^12101210    Ps. xxxvi. 6. But because Thy Spirit was “borne over the waters,”^12111211    Gen. i. 3. Thy mercy forsook not our misery,^12121212    See p. 47, note 10, above. and Thou saidst, “Let there be light,” “Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”^12131213    Matt. iii. 2. Repent ye, let there be light.^12141214    “His putting repentance and light together is, for that baptism was anciently called illumination, as Heb. vi. 4, Ps. xlii. 2.”—W. W. See also p. 118, note 4, part 1, above, for the meaning of “illumination.” And because our soul was troubled within us,^12151215    Ps. xlii. 6. we remembered Thee, O Lord, from the land of Jordan, and that mountain^12161216    That is, Christ. See p. 130, note 8, part 2, above; and compare the De Div. Quæst., lxxxiii. 6. equal unto Thyself, but little for our sakes; and upon our being displeased with our darkness, we turned unto Thee, “and there was light.” And, behold, we were sometimes darkness, but now light in the Lord.^12171217    Eph. v. 8.