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37. For as a fountain in a limited space is more plentiful, and
affords supply for more streams over larger spaces than any one of those
streams which, after a wide interval, is derived from the same
fountain; so the narrative of Thy dispenser, destined to benefit many
who were likely to discourse thereon, does, from a limited measure of
language, overflow into streams of clear truth, whence each one may
draw out for himself that truth which he can concerning these
subjects,- this one that truth, that one another, by larger
circumlocutions of discourse. For some, when they read or hear these
words, think that God as a man or some mass gifted with immense
power, by some new and sudden resolve, had, outside itself, as if at
distant places, ]created heaven and earth, two great bodies above and
below, wherein all things were to be contained. And when they hear,
God said, Let it be made, and it was made, they think of words
begun and ended, sounding in times and passing away, after the
departure of which that came into being which was commanded to be; and
whatever else of the kind their familiarity with the worl. would
suggest. In whom, being as yet little ones. while their weakness by
this humble kind of speech is carried on as if in a mother's bosom,
their faith is healthfully built up, by which they have and hold as
certain that God made all natures, which in wondrous variety their
senses perceive on every side. Which words, if any one despising
them, as if trivial, with proud weakness shall have stretched himself
beyond his fostering cradle, he will, alas, fall miserably. Have
pity, O Lord God, lest they who pass by trample on the unfledged
bird; and send Thine angel, who may restore it to its nest that it
may live until it can fly.
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