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- confessions
- text
- over our inner darksome and floating deep: from Whom we have in this
pilgrimage received an earnest, that we should now be light: whilst we
are saved by hope, and are the children of light, and the children of
the day, not the children of the night, nor of the darkness, which yet
sometimes we were. Betwixt whom and us, in this uncertainty of human
knowledge, Thou only dividest; Thou, who provest our hearts, and callest
the light, day, and the darkness, night. For who discerneth us, but
Thou? And what have we, that we have not received of Thee? out of the
same lump vessels are made unto honour, whereof others also are made
unto dishonour.
Or who, except Thou, our God, made for us that firmament of authority
over us in Thy Divine Scripture? as it is said, For heaven shall be
folded up like a scroll; and now is it stretched over us like a skin.
For Thy Divine Scripture is of more eminent authority, since those
mortals by whom Thou dispensest it unto us, underwent mortality. And
Thou knowest, Lord, Thou knowest, how Thou with skins didst clothe men,
when they by sin became mortal. Whence Thou hast like a skin stretched
out the firmament of Thy book, that is, Thy harmonizing words, which
by the ministry of mortal men Thou spreadest over us. For by their very
death was that solid firmament of authority, in Thy discourses set forth
by them, more eminently extended over all that be under it; which whilst
they lived here, was not so eminently extended. Thou hadst not as yet
spread abroad the heaven like a skin; Thou hadst not as yet enlarged in
all directions the glory of their deaths.
Let us look, O Lord, upon the heavens, the work of Thy fingers; clear
from our eyes that cloud, which Thou hast spread under them. There is
Thy testimony, which giveth wisdom unto the little ones: perfect, O my
God, Thy praise out of the mouth of babes and sucklings. For we know no
other books, which so destroy pride, which so destroy the enemy and the
defender, who resisteth Thy reconciliation by defending his own sins. I
know not, Lord, I know not any other such pure words, which so persuade
me to confess, and make my neck pliant to Thy yoke, and invite me to
serve Thee for nought. Let me understand them, good Father: grant this
to me, who am placed under them: because for those placed under them,
hast Thou established them.
Other waters there be above this firmament, I believe immortal, and
separated from earthly corruption. Let them praise Thy Name, let them
praise Thee, the supercelestial people, Thine angels, who have no need
to gaze up at this firmament, or by reading to know of Thy Word. For
they always behold Thy face, and there read without any syllables in
time, what willeth Thy eternal will; they read, they choose, they love.
They are ever reading; and that never passes away which they read; for
by choosing, and by loving, they read the very unchangeableness of Thy
counsel. Their book is never closed, nor their scroll folded up; seeing
Thou Thyself art this to them, and art eternally; because Thou hast
ordained them above this firmament, which Thou hast firmly settled over
the infirmity of the lower people, where they might gaze up and learn
Thy mercy, announcing in time Thee Who madest times. For Thy mercy, O
Lord, is in the heavens, and Thy truth reacheth unto the clouds. The
clouds pass away, but the heaven abideth. The preachers of Thy word pass
out of this life into another; but Thy Scripture is spread abroad over
the people, even unto the end of the world. Yet heaven and earth also
shall pass away, but Thy words shall not pass away. Because the scroll
shall be rolled together: and the grass over which it was spread, shall
with the goodliness of it pass away; but Thy Word remaineth for ever,
which now appeareth unto us under the dark image of the clouds, and
through the glass of the heavens, not as it is: because we also, though
the well-beloved of Thy Son, yet it hath not yet appeared what we
shall be. He looketh through the lattice of our flesh, and He spake us
tenderly, and kindled us, and we ran after His odours. But when He shall
appear, then shall we be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. As He
is, Lord, will our sight be.
For altogether, as Thou art, Thou only knowest; Who art unchangeably,
and knowest unchangeably, and willest unchangeably. And Thy Essence
Knoweth, and Willeth unchangeably; and Thy Knowledge Is, and Willeth
unchangeably; and Thy Will Is, and Knoweth unchangeably. Nor seemeth it
right in Thine eyes, that as the Unchangeable Light knoweth Itself, so
should it be known by the thing enlightened, and changeable. Therefore
is my soul like a land where no water is, because as it cannot of itself
enlighten itself, so can it not of itself satisfy itself. For so is the
fountain of life with Thee, like as in Thy light we shall see light.
Who gathered the embittered together into one society? For they have all
one end, a temporal and earthly felicity, for attaining whereof they do
all things, though they waver up and down with an innumerable variety of
cares. Who, Lord, but Thou, saidst, Let the waters be gathered together
into one place, and let the dry land appear, which thirsteth after Thee?
For the sea also is Thine, and Thou hast made it, and Thy hands prepared
the dry land. Nor is the bitterness of men's wills, but the gathering
together of the waters, called sea; for Thou restrainest the wicked
desires of men's souls, and settest them their bounds, how far they may
be allowed to pass, that their waves may break one against another: and
thus makest Thou it a sea, by the order of Thy dominion over all things.
But the souls that thirst after Thee, and that appear before Thee (being
by other bounds divided from the society of the sea), Thou waterest by
a sweet spring, that the earth may bring forth her fruit, and Thou, Lord
God, so commanding, our soul may bud forth works of mercy according
to their kind, loving our neighbour in the relief of his bodily
necessities, having seed in itself according to its likeness, when from
feeling of our infirmity, we compassionate so as to relieve the needy;
helping them, as we would be helped; if we were in like need; not only
in things easy, as in herb yielding seed, but also in the protection of
our assistance, with our best strength, like the tree yielding fruit:
that is, well-doing in rescuing him that suffers wrong, from the hand
of the powerful, and giving him the shelter of protection, by the mighty
strength of just judgment.
So, Lord, so, I beseech Thee, let there spring up, as Thou doest, as
Thou givest cheerfulness and ability, let truth spring out of the earth,
and righteousness look down from heaven, and let there be lights in the
firmament. Let us break our bread to the hungry, and bring the houseless
poor to our house. Let us clothe the naked, and despise not those of our
own flesh. Which fruits having sprung out of the earth, see it is good:
and let our temporary light break forth; and ourselves, from this lower
fruitfulness of action, arriving at the delightfulness of contemplation,
obtaining the Word of Life above, appear like lights in the world,
cleaving to the firmament of Thy Scripture. For there Thou instructest
us, to divide between the things intellectual, and things of sense, as
betwixt the day and the night; or between souls, given either to things
intellectual, or things of sense, so that now not Thou only in the
secret of Thy judgment, as before the firmament was made, dividest
between the light and the darkness, but Thy spiritual children also
set and ranked in the same firmament (now that Thy grace is laid open
throughout the world), may give light upon the earth, and divide betwixt
the day and the night, and be for signs of times, that old things
are passed away, and, behold, all things are become new; and that our
salvation is nearer than when