The transition from earthly to heavenly

Thus the phrase 'and God made' is brought in. Immediately, for since according to the succession of living things, the successors in this generation cast the seed, but God forms and fashions it, this is to say, it happens to be the first command, and then the bringing forth of the seed is the perfection of God.

Gaps in text... in the distinction of time according to the first creation... but I consider them as supporting the argument that the casting of the seed is by the power of God and the fashioning of it... God says concerning man, according to Jeremiah: 'Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you' (Jeremiah 1:5). The diversity of the existence of living things is varied; some having their generation from the beginning out of earth and waters, while the succession occurs differently. For some are oviparous, from which the eggs will be, and others are viviparous, God's will having provided a diverse manner for the existence of these. Concerning these, it is said, 'God saw that it was good' (Genesis 1:31), but it was not singularly good; for it was not one work, but diverse works. To the one who might object, saying that regarding the light and the firmament and the sun and the like, 'it was good' was said, but how 'it was good' is said regarding beasts and creeping reptiles, for clearly that which is in them is lowly. To which he replies first, that being God's work, it is good and praiseworthy, even if the precise reason concerning it exists hidden from us; later, if anyone were to search, finding the utility of their existence, if he were to understand the natural aspect in each living thing: the one contributing to men's daily needs and restraining the wild and angry, the other stimulating the negligent with the careful and attentive, just as the divine writing of Proverbs, rebuking the lazy regarding the undertaking of virtue, shows the exhortation from the irrational: 'Go to the ant, you sluggard, and become wiser than it' (Proverbs 6:6); one would also find irrational animals contributing to temperance and to the honor of parents and entirely to virtue, being corrected from the lesser one having become according to the image, by encountering those who write about their nature.

Therefore let the delivery of the literal sense be thus; but the spiritual vision must be spoken. The sinning soul, under the influence of earthly passions, happens to bear the image of the swine and, being entirely earthly in its thinking, is described as such; for it is said concerning the wicked, 'They shall enter into the lowest parts of the earth' (Psalm 16:10), not of this earth, but of that which is understood tropologically, according to which it is said concerning certain things, 'And you have sunk down into the seat' (Psalm 83:14), and, 'You stretched out your right hand and the earth devoured them' (Psalm 74:20), and not having been placed under the earth.

Therefore, these who are under the earth, the word of repentance leads out, becoming through the command of God and making them outside of sin, so that the one casting off the image of the swine may receive the image of the heavenly. Concerning those having this thus, the blessed Paul says, 'He raised us up and seated us with Him in the heavenly places' (Ephesians 2:6), so that those from thence, bearing the image of the heavenly and being made worthy by the training of these things, may be tested according to the manner of those living contrary, being suitable to the place.

Therefore he leads out every 'living soul according to its kind' (Genesis 1:24), of those hearing us 'according to order' (1 Corinthians 14:40). For no one simultaneously departs from wickedness and reaches the end, but it is necessary for each to progress according to his rank toward perfection, advancing from diverse wickedness toward virtue, so that those being horses in manner, concerning whom it was said, 'Male horses were made; each one mated with the wife of his neighbor' (Proverbs 30:31), casting off being such, might become noble horses, being deemed worthy to bear the word by the participation of virtue, so that it might be said in them and through them, 'And your horsemen are salvation' (Psalm 146:13).

And the oxen are those concerning whom it is said, 'Does God not care for the oxen? Or is He speaking through us that the plowman must plow in hope and the sower in hope of participating?' Psalm 50:9. As many therefore as have from that which is upon the earth the zeal toward the divine migration, these are the aforementioned oxen. Others, being dull and slow, are like donkeys and bearing the burden of wickedness, and because of this being dull, according to those saying, 'A lion in the roads, in the streets...'