The City of God, Volume IIAugustine, of Hippo, Saint
ReligionChristian
The City of God, Volume II
Augustine, of Hippo, Saint
Apologetics -- Early works to 1800; Kingdom of God -- Early works to 1800
Moreover, inasmuch as God commanded Noah, a just man, and, as the
truthful Scripture says, a man perfect in his generation,--not indeed
with the perfection of the citizens of the city of God in that
immortal condition in which they equal the angels, but in so far as
they can be perfect in their sojourn in this world,--inasmuch as God
commanded him, I say, to make an ark, in which he might be rescued
from the destruction of the flood, along with his family, _i.e._ his
wife, sons, and daughters-in-law, and along with the animals who, in
obedience to God's command, came to him into the ark: is certainly
a figure of the city of God sojourning in this world; that is to
say, of the church, which is rescued by the wood on which hung the
Mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus.[217] For even its
very dimensions, in length, breadth, and height, represent the human
body in which He came, as it had been foretold. For the length of
the human body, from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot,
is six times its breadth from side to side, and ten times its depth
or thickness, measuring from back to front: that is to say, if you
measure a man as he lies on his back or on his face, he is six times
as long from head to foot as he is broad from side to side, and ten
times as long as he is high from the ground. And therefore the ark
was made 300 cubits in length, 50 in breadth, and 30 in height. And
its having a door made in the side of it certainly signified the
wound which was made when the side of the Crucified was pierced with
the spear: for by this those who come to Him enter; for thence flowed
the sacraments by which those who believe are initiated. And the fact
that it was ordered to be made of squared timbers, signifies the
immoveable steadiness of the life of the saints; for however you turn
a cube, it still stands. And the other peculiarities of the ark's
construction are signs of features of the church.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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