Verse 9. — 'Remember, I beseech Thee, that Thou hast made me as the clay.' 76. Why the angel sinned irremissibly, but not man. — The angelic spirits therefore sinned irremissibly, because they were able to stand the more strongly in that the admixture of the flesh did not hold them. But man deserved pardon after his fault, because through his fleshly body he received something whereby he might be less than himself. Whence, in the regard of the Judge, this same infirmity of the flesh is a plea for loving-kindness; as it is said through the Psalmist: 'But He is merciful, and will be propitious to their sins, and will not destroy them. And He multiplied to turn away His anger from them, and did not kindle all His wrath; and He remembered that they are flesh' (Psalm 77:38).
As clay, therefore, man was made, because he was taken from the mire for his creation. For clay comes to be when water bedews the earth. As clay, then, man was created, because it as it were pours water upon the dust, when the soul waters the flesh. Which the holy man well casts before the loving-kindness of the Judge, when, entreating, he says: 'Remember, I beseech Thee, that Thou hast made me as the clay.' As if he openly said: Consider the infirmity of the flesh, and loosen the guilt of iniquity. Whereupon the death also of that same flesh is joined, when straightway it is subjoined: