VISIO QUINTA, cap. XXXVIII
The Living Soul from the Waters
God's command that the waters bring forth creeping and flying creatures is unfolded as a contemplation on the origin of fish and birds, the unique place of the human walker, and the soul's image-bearing life in God.
"God also said: Let the waters bring forth a living soul that creeps, and a winged creature flying over the earth beneath the firmament of heaven."✦ This is to be understood as follows: through his living Word God commanded the waters to bring forth creeping things and winged creatures of a living soul, just like flowers that come forth from the branches of trees, because God first created creatures and then brought forth others from others, since he foresaw what would attend each constitution in the firmament and under the firmament, which is touched through it, just as a form is first established and afterward is moved toward each particular work of its own.✦ And those that swim in the waters came forth, and those that fly in the air, so that the water would not be empty of the work it was meant to fulfill through itself, and so that the air too would not be without the bodily and living winged creatures that are filled and given life from the air. Hence fish are called 'swimmers' from their swimming, and birds 'fliers' from their flight; but a human being can neither swim perfectly nor fly, but walks on his own feet over the earth from which he was created. But the birth of fish and birds is of a purer origin than that of the other animals, because the Holy Spirit sanctified the waters above the other elements; and just as water overcomes all things clean and unclean, so the soul penetrates all things and surpasses the flesh.✦ The human soul also is made in the image of God, and works together with all created things in the human being; but God is in all creatures and surpasses all creatures, since neither beginning nor end is found in him.✦ "And God created great sea creatures and every living, moving soul that the waters had brought forth according to their kinds, and every winged creature according to its kind."✦ God formed the kinds of fish in the waters, and from a windy, blazing heat he brought a living soul into them.
Water, Sin, and Spiritual Regeneration
The waters' priority in producing life is linked to the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit, the hidden virgin birth, and the devil's hatred of baptismal waters, culminating in God's blessing to increase and multiply.
And so those born alive from the waters live as movable creatures, and among all creeping things they appeared first. And because living breath surpasses bodily forms, water therefore brought forth living things first, since it is both sanctified and spiritual. The generation that takes shape in the waters is more wonderful than the one deceived by the ancient serpent's first deceit, because the taste of sin springs from love of the flesh; but since the devil cannot destroy regeneration in the waters, he hates the waters. But God washed away the stain of sin's conception in his Son through the washing by which the devil cannot strip humanity bare, because he does not know from where the virgin conceived the one who dissolves every taste of sin through water. And because the Virgin's birth was hidden from the devil, since she knew her womb to be not wounded but whole, for this reason he cannot scatter this generation of the Spirit and of water. Through fish God signified that humanity is mobile through a living soul, just as fish are swift in the waters; through flying things he showed that by reason it flies everywhere, just as birds are carried through the air. And so spiritual foods that are fitting for their kind must be applied to spiritual people, who flee the common crowd, just as fish and birds, separated from other animals, live in the waters and in the air. "And God saw that it was good, and he blessed them, saying: Increase and multiply, and fill the waters of the sea, and let the birds multiply over the earth."✦
The Fifth Day and the Soul's Senses
God's approval and blessing of the creatures is interpreted through the fifth day, which reveals the five senses and the soul's spiritual sight, angelic fellowship, and invisible life, before a transition to another reading.
God saw — that is, approved — that it was good, so that the kinds of fish and birds just mentioned might have the air within themselves as a source from which to live; and blessing them so that they would not fail, God commanded each one of them to grow in formation and multiply in number, just as the sprouts and fruits of the fields grow and thrive, so that the fish too might fill the waters, because they move about in them, and the birds might rise up in abundance, which linger on account of the suitable pastures of the earth.✦ "And there was evening and morning, the fifth day," which ending and rising of this work shows this same work: that God placed the five senses of man, which the soul surveys in the human being.✦ For what the soul sees is spiritual, since from a spiritual breath it has the sight of light, discerning what is visible and what is invisible, because it also understands that through rationality it has fellowship with angelic spirits. The soul herself also exists invisible as an angel does, and moves the form of her own body, which is like a garment of hers through which she is covered so that she may not be seen, even though every creature understands her, because she is living motion. In another way:
Leaving All Things for the Heavenly Life
God's sending of his Son and the Gospel's call to leave all things distinguishes spiritual people from carnal ones and instructs evangelical discipline.
Because God destined his only Son for the world, through whose preaching the lofty precepts of a heavenly way of life were given, by which spiritual people might be distinguished from carnal ones: and the words of the Gospel concerning the need to leave all things, with an elegant exposition, pertain to the instruction of evangelical discipline.
Read the original Latin
« Dixit etiam Deus: Producant aquae reptile animae viventis, et volatile super terram sub firmamento coeli . » Hoc considerandum sic est: Per vivens Verbum suum imperavit Deus ut producerent aquae reptilia et volatilia viventis animae, velut flores, qui de ramis arborum procedunt, quia Deus creaturas primitus creavit, deinde alias ex aliis produxit, quoniam praevidit, quid unicuique constitutioni in firmamento et sub firmamento quae per ipsum tangitur adesset, sicut etiam forma primum constituitur, et post ad unumquodque opus suum movetur. Et processerunt quae in aquis natant, et quae in aere volant, ne aqua vacua foret opus illud adimplere, quod per ipsam perficiendum erat, et ne etiam aer corporalibus et viventibus volatilibus careret, quae ex aere replentur et vivificantur. Unde et pisces ex natatu natabiles; volucres vero ex volatu volatiles dicuntur; homo autem nec natare ad perfectum, nec volare potest, sed pedibus suis super terram incedit, de qua creatus est. Sed pisces et volucres mundioris geniturae genitura caeterorum animalium sunt, quia Spiritus sanctus aquas prae caeteris elementis sanctificavit; et sicut aqua omnia munda et immunda superat, ita et anima omnia penetrat atque carnem superexcellit. Anima etiam humana ad imaginem Dei facta est, et cum omnibus creaturis in homine operatur; sed Deus in omnibus creaturis est, omnesque creaturas excedit, quoniam nec initium nec finis in eo reperitur. « Creavitque Deus cete grandia, et omnem animam viventem, atque motabilem, quam produxerant aquae in species suas, et omne volatile secundum genus suum . » Deus in aquis genera piscium formavit, ac de ventosa flagrantia viventem animam eis induxit.
Quapropter et ipsi motabiles vivunt de aquis generati, et inter omnia reptilia primi apparuerunt. Et quia vivens spiramen formas corporum excellit, ideo et aqua primum viventia produxit, quoniam aqua et sanctificata et spiritalis est. Genitura quippe in aquis quae fit genitura illa quae per primam fraudem antiqui serpentis decepta est mirabilior existit, quia in dilectione carnis gustus peccati exoritur; sed quoniam diabolus regenerationem in aquis destruere non potest, aquas odio habet. Deus autem squamam concepti peccati in Filio suo per lavacrum abluit, quo diabolus hominem denudare non potest, quoniam nescit unde virgo hominem illum conceperit, qui omnem gustum peccati per aquam diluit. Et quia diabolo partus Virginis occultus est, quae viscera sua non vulnerata, sed integra esse cognovit, idcirco et genituram hanc Spiritus et aquae dissipare non valet. Per pisces autem Deus designavit, quod homo per viventem animam mobilis est, quemadmodum et pisces in aquis agiles sunt; per volatilia vero ostendit quod per rationalitatem ubique volat, velut etiam volatilia in aere feruntur. Quapropter et spiritalibus hominibus, qui communem populum fugiunt, spiritales cibi secundum genus suum convenientes adhibendi sunt, sicut et pisces et volucres a caeteris animalibus segregati in aquis et in aere vivunt. « Et vidit Deus quod esset bonum, benedixitque eis dicens: Crescite et multiplicamini, et replete aquas maris, avesque multiplicentur super terram .
» Vidit Deus, id est approbavit, esse bonum, ut praedicta genera piscium et volatilium aerem in se haberent unde viverent; et benedicendo eis ne deficerent, jussit unamquamque earum secundum genus suum crescere in formatione, multiplicari in numero velut germina et fructus agrorum crescunt et proficiunt, quatenus et pisces replerent aquas, quia in ipsis versantur, et aves in multitudinem exsurgerent, quae propter pascua sibi convenientia terrae immorantur. « Et factum est vespere et mane dies quintus , » qui finis et ortus operis hujus hoc idem opus ostendit quod Deus ad quinque sensus hominis posuit, quos anima in homine perlustrat. Quod enim anima videt, hoc spiritale est, quoniam ex spiritali spiraculo visum lucis habet, discernens quid visibile et quid invisibile sit, quia et per rationalitatem societatem angelicorum spirituum se habere intelligit. Ipsa quoque invisibilis ut angelus existit, formamque corporis sui movet, quod quasi tunica ipsius est per quam obtegitur ne videatur, licet omnis creatura eam intelligat, quia vivens motus est. Alio modo:
Quia Deus unicum Filium suum mundo destinaverit, cujus praedicatione sublimia coelestis conversationis praecepta data sunt, quibus spiritales a carnalibus discernerentur: et verba Evangelii de relinquendis omnibus cum eleganti expositione ad instructionem evangelicae disciplinae pertinente.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Gen.1.20 — And God said, "Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens."
- ↩Gen.1.20-Gen.1.21 — And God said, "Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens." Gen.1.21 — And God created the great sea creatures and every living thing that moves, with which the waters swarmed, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
- ↩Gen.1.2 — And the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
- ↩Gen.1.27 — So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
- ↩Gen.1.21 — And God created the great sea creatures and every living thing that moves, with which the waters swarmed, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
- ↩Gen.1.22 — And God blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let the birds multiply on the earth."
- ↩Gen.1.20-Gen.1.22 — And God said, "Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens." Gen.1.21 — And God created the great sea creatures and every living thing that moves, with which the waters swarmed, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. Gen.1.22 — And God blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let the birds multiply on the earth."
- ↩Gen.1.23 — And there was evening, and there was morning — the fifth day.
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