Page:Anglo-Saxon version of the Hexameron of St. Basil.djvu/44

Rh be himself funder his own jurisdiction. Then he had not any foundation, but fell quickly down together with all the angels that were in his council, and they were turned into accursed devils. Concerning them the Saviour, whilst here in this life, said, "I saw the deceiver, as a shining light, falling down sorrowfully (drearily) from heaven," in that he fell down impetuously.

XI. Then God would, through His wondrous might, make man from earth, who with humility should deserve the same place, in the fellowship of the angels, that the devil had forfeited, through his presumption, and God Himself, as this book telleth us, then said, Faciamus hominem ad imaginem nostram, et similitudinem nostram et reliqua, &c.; that is, in the English language, "Let us make man after our similitude and likeness," that he may have power over all fishes, and over all kinds of birds, and over wild beasts, and over the whole creation. Here ye may hear the holy Trinity and the true unity in one Godhead. "Let us make man," there is the holy Trinity—"after our likeness," there is the unity—in one likeness, not in three likenesses. In the soul of the man is God's likeness, for the man is better than the soulless beasts, which have no understanding concerning their own Creator. God then formed from the loam of the earth with His holy hands, man after His likeness, and He blew into his face the breath of life, and he was made man, with a living soul. God then Himself