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2. For of the plenitude of Thy goodness Thy creature subsists,
that a good, which could profit Thee nothing, nor though of Thee was
equal to Thee, might yet be, since it could be made of a Thee. For
what did heaven and earth, which Thou madest in the beginning,
deserve of Thee? Let those spiritual and corporeal natures, which
Thou in Thy wisdom madest, declare what they deserve of Thee to
depend thereon, even the inchoate and formless, each in its own
kind, either spiritual or corporeal, going into excess, and into
remote unlikeness unto Thee (the spiritual, though formless, more
excellent than if it were a formed body; and the corporeal, though
formless, more excellent than if it were altogether nothing), and
thus they as formless would depend upon Thy Word, unless by the same
Word they were recalled to Thy Unity, and endued with form, and
from Thee, the one sovereign Good, were all made very good. How
have they deserved of Thee, that they should be even formless, since
they would not be even this except from Thee?
3. How has corporeal matter deserved of Thee, to be even invisible
and formless. since it were not even this hadst Thou not made it; and
therefore since it was not, it could not deserve of Thee that it
should be made? Or how could the inchoate spiritual creature. deserve
of Thee, that even it should flow darksomely like the deep,- unlike
Thee, had it not been by the same Word turned to that by Whom it was
created, and by Him so enlightened become light, although not
equally, yet conformably to that Form which is equal unto Thee? For
as to a body, to be is not all one with being beautiful, for then it
could not be deformed; so also to a created spirit, to live is not all
one with living wisely, for then it would be wise unchangeably. But
it is good for it always to hold fast unto Thee. lest, in turning
from Thee, it lose that light which it hath obtained in turning to
Thee, and relapse into a light resembling the darksome deep. For
even we ourselves, who in respect of the soul are a spiritual
creature, having turned away from Thee, our light, were in that life
"sometimes darkness; "' and do labour amidst the remains of our
darkness, until in Thy Only One we become Thy righteousness, like
the mountains of God. For we have been Thy judgmentS, which are
like the great deep.'
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