Nor can any good come except from the real Fountain of good, which is One only, as He says in another place:—
None is good save One, God (Luke xviii. 19).
[2] Nevertheless when the Lord is resuscitating man, that is, regenerating him, to life, He permits him at first to suppose that he does what is good and speaks what is true from himself, for at that time he is incapable of conceiving otherwise, nor can he in any other way be led to believe, and afterwards to perceive, that all good and truth are from the Lord alone. While man is thinking in such a way his truths and goods are compared to the "tender grass," and also to the "herb yielding seed," and lastly to the "tree bearing fruit," all of which are inanimate; but now that he is vivified by love and faith, and believes that the Lord works all the good that he does and all the truth that he speaks, he is compared first to the "creeping things of the water," and to the "fowls which fly above the earth," and also to "beasts," which are all animate things, and are called "living souls."
40. By the "creeping things which the waters bring forth," are signified the memory-knowledges (scientifica) which belong to the external man; by "birds" in general, rational and intellectual things, of which the latter belong to the internal man. That the "creeping things of the waters," or "fishes," signify memory-knowledges, is plain from Isaiah:—
I came and there was no man; at My rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness; their fish shall stink because there is no water and shall die for thirst; I clothe the heavens with blackness (1. 2, 3).
[2] But it is still plainer from Ezekiel, where the Lord describes the new temple, or a new church in general, and the man of the church, or a regenerate person; for every one who is regenerate is a temple of the Lord:—
