Water and fire

Meaning

Part IV: the spiritual comparison · unit 19 places water and fire on both sides of an analogy without equating their referents. Universal sea-water draws out the material subject's hidden heart and soul; the Holy Spirit then cleanses human hearts like pure water and enlightens like divine fire, bringing gracious consolation. The English retains the comparative language. The preceding divine dissolution is explicitly 'in relation to us' and 'as it were', so the paired elements do not imply a chemically decomposable God. Their local function is to describe purification, illumination and access to Christ through the Spirit, not to prescribe a combination of ordinary water and flame.