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11. Already hast Thou told me, 0 Lord, with a strong voice, in
my inner ear, 'that Thou art eternal, having alone immortality.
Since Thou art not changed by any shape or motion, nor is Thy will
altered by times, because no will which changes is immortal. This in
Thy sight is clear to me, and let it become more and more clear, I
beseech Thee; and in that manifestation let me abide more soberly
under Thy wings. Likewise hast Thou said to me, 0 Lord, with a
strong voice, in my inner ear, that Thou hast made all natures and
substances, which are not what Thou Thyself art, and yet they are;
and that only is not from Thee which is not, and the motion of the
will from Thee who art, to that which in a less degree is, because
such motion is guilt and sin; x and that no one's sin doth either hurt
Thee, or disturb the order of Thy rule. either first or last.
This, in Thy sight, is clear to me and let it become more and more
clear, I beseech Thee; and in that manifestation let me abide more
soberly under Thy wings.
12. Likewise hast Thou said to me, with a strong voice, in my
inner ear, that that creature, whose will Thou alone art, is not
co-eternal unto Thee, and which, with a most persevering purit.
drawing its support from Thee, doth, in place and at no time, put
forth its own mutability; ' and Thyself being ever present with it,
unto whom with its entire affection it holds itself, having no future
to expect nor conveying into the past what it remembereth, is varied by
no change, nor extended into any times.s O blessed one, if any
such there be, in clinging unto Thy Blessedness; blest in Thee,
its everlasting Inhabitant and its Enlightener! Nor do I find what
the heaven of heavens, which is the Lord's, can be better called
than Thine house, which contemplateth Thy delight without any
defection of going forth to another; a pure mind, most peacefully
one, by that stability of peace of holy spirits. the citizens of Thy
city "in the heavenly places," above these heavenly places which are
seen.
13. Whence the soul, whose wandering has been made far away, may
understand, if now she thirsts for Thee, if now her tears have become
bread to her, while it is daily said unto her "Where is thy
God?". if she now seeketh of Thee one thing, and desireth that she
may dwell in Thy house all the days of her life? And what is her life
but Thee? And what are Thy days but Thy eternity, as Thy years
which fail not, because Thou art the same? Hence, therefore, can
the soul, which is able, understand how far beyond all times Thou art
eternal; when Thy house, which has not wandered from Thee, although
it be not co-eternal with Thee, yet by continually and unfailingly
clinging unto Thee, suffers no vicissitude of times. This in Thy
sight is clear unto me, and may it become more and more clear unto me,
I beseech Thee; and in this manifestation may I abide more soberly
under Thy wings.
14. Behold, I know not what shapelessness there is in those
changes of these last and lowest creatures. And who shall tell me,
unless it be some one who, through the emptiness of his own heart,
wanders and is staggered by his own fancies? Who, unless such a one,
would tell me that (all figure being diminished and consumed), if the
formlessness only remain, through which the thing was changed and was
turned from one figure into another, that that can exhibit the changes
of times? For surely it could not be, because without the change of
motions times are not, and there is no change where there is no
figure.
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