That the Renewal of Man is Not Completed in This World.

Chapter XIII.—That the Renewal of Man is Not Completed in This World.

14. But as yet “by faith, not by sight,”¹²¹⁸ for “we are saved by hope; but hope that is seen is not hope.”¹²¹⁹ As yet deep calleth unto deep¹²²⁰ but in “the noise of Thy waterspouts.”¹²²¹ And as yet doth he that saith, I “could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal,”¹²²² even he, as yet, doth not count himself to have apprehended, and forgetteth those things which are behind, and reacheth forth to those things which are before,¹²²³ and groaneth being burdened;¹²²⁴ and his soul thirsteth after the living God, as the hart after the water-brooks, and saith, “When shall I come?”¹²²⁵ “desiring to be clothed upon with his house which is from heaven;”¹²²⁶ and calleth upon this lower deep, saying, “Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.”¹²²⁷ And, “Be not children in understanding, howbeit in malice be ye children,” that in “understanding ye may be perfect;”¹²²⁸ and “O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you?”¹²²⁹ But now not in his own voice, but in Thine who sentest Thy Spirit from above;¹²³⁰ through Him who “ascended up on high,”¹²³¹ and set open the flood-gates of His gifts,¹²³² that the force of His streams might make glad the city of God.¹²³³ For, for Him doth “the friend of the bridegroom”¹²³⁴ sigh, having now the first-fruits of the Spirit laid up with Him, yet still groaning within himself, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of his body;¹²³⁵ to Him he sighs, for he is a member of the Bride; for Him is he jealous, for he is the friend of the Bridegroom;¹²³⁶ for Him is he jealous, not for himself; because in the voice of Thy “waterspouts,”¹²³⁷ not in his own voice, doth he call on that other deep, for whom being jealous he feareth, lest that, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so their minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in our Bridegroom, Thine only Son.¹²³⁸ What a light of beauty will that be when “we shall see Him as He is,”¹²³⁹ and those tears be passed away which “have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God?”¹²⁴⁰