into being good and "guard" them. We ought always to go on being made by
362 The Literal Meaning ofGenesis spoke above. So human beings ought not to turn to God in such a way that when they have been madejust by him they take their departure, but in such a way that they may always be made so by him. In the very fact of their not taking their leave of him they are beingjustified and enlightened and blessed by his presence with them, by God "working and guarding" them as the lord and master of obedient subordinates.
26. Nor, as we were saying, is it exactly like the man working the land to make it neatly cultivated and fertile, and going away once he has finished his work, leaving the land ploughed or sown or irrigated or whatever else; the work that has been done remains when the worker has departed. That is not how God works human beings to make them just, not how he justifies them, that is to say, so that if they withdraw, what he has done remains in them." Rather, just as we have to say that the sky is being made bright by the presence of light, not that it has been; because if it had been made so without still having to be made so, it would remain bright even when the light was withdrawn; in the same way human beings are being enlightened by the presence of God with them, but immediately relapse into darkness with the absence of him from whom one distances oneself not by local movement but by a turning away of the will.
27. And so may he who is himself unchangeably good "work" human beings into being good and "guard" them. We ought always to go on being made by him, always being perfected by him, sticking to him and persevering in that way of life which is directed towards him, about whom it is said, Butforme to stick to God is good (Ps 73:28), and to whom it is said, / will guard my strengthforyou (Ps 59:9). "For we are his fashioning, created" not only just to be human, but in addition for this, to be good. The apostle too, you see, when he was commending the grace by which we have been saved to the faithful who had been converted from ungodliness, had this to say: For by grace you have been saved; and this notfrom yourselves, but it is the gift of God, notfrom works, lest anyone should exalt himself. For we are hisfashioning, created in Christ Jesus in good works, which God hasprepared that we may walk in them (Eph 2:8-10). And elsewhere, after saying, Withfear and trembling work at your own salvation, in case they should think this should be attributed to themselves, as though they would make themselves just and good, he immediately added:/or it is God who is working in you (Phil 2:12-13). So then, the Lord God took the man whom he made, andput him in Paradise to work him, that is to work in him, and guard him.
37. Here he has rather carelessly returned to the comparison with the human physician, and the patient going away from him, rather than the one with the ploughman's work remaining after he has gone home.