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16. Meanwhile I conceive this, O my God, when I hear Thy
Scripture speak, saying, In the beginning God made heaven and
earth; but the earth was invisible and without form, and darkness was
upon the deep, and not stating on what day Thou didst create these
things. Thus, meanwhile, do I conceive, that it is on account of
that heaven of heavens, that intellectual heaven, where to understand
is to know all at once, not "in part," not "darkly," not
"through a glass," x but as a whole, in manifestation, "face to
face;" not this thing now, that anon, but (as has been said) to
know at once without any change of times; and on account of the
invisible and formless earth, without any change of times; which
change is wont to have "this thing now, that anon," because, where
there is no form there can be no distinction between "this" or
"that; " it is, then, on account of these two, a primitively
formed, and a wholly formless; the one heaven, but the heaven of
heavens, the other earth, but the earth invisible and formless; on
account of these two do I meanwhile conceive that Thy Scripture said
without mention of days, "In the beginning God created the heaven
and the earth." For immediately it added of what earth it spake.
And when on the second day the firmament is recorded to have been
created, and called heaven, it suggests to us of which heaven He
spake before without mention of days.
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