60. But perhaps nature if more deeply
investigated will seem to give a deeper reason for our belief:
let our thoughts turn back to the origin and commencement of the
creation of man. You are men and women, you are not ignorant of
the things which have to do with human nature, and if any of you have
not this knowledge, you know that we are born of nothing. But how
small an origin for being so great as we are! And if I do not
speak more plainly, yet you understand what I mean, or rather what I
will not say. Whence, then, is this head, and that wonderful
countenance, whose maker we see not? We see the work, it is
fashioned for various purposes and uses. Whence is this upright
figure, this lofty stature, this power of action, this quickness of
perception, this capacity for walking upright? Doubtless the
organs of nature are not known to us, but that which they effect is
known. Thou too wast once seed, and thy body is the seed of that
which shall rise again. Listen to Paul and learn that thou art
this seed: “It is sown in corruption, it shall rise in
incorruption; it is sown in dishonour, it shall rise in glory; it is
sown in weakness, it shall rise in power; it is sown a natural body, it
shall rise a spiritual body.” 1 Cor. xv. 42 ff. Thou
also, then, art sown as are other things, why wonderest thou if thou
shalt rise again as shall others? But thou believest as to them,
because thou seest; thou believest not this, because thou seest it
not: “Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have
believed.” S. John xx. 29.