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22. Thus, O Lord, thus, I beseech Thee, let there arise, as
Thou makest, as Thou givest joy 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 let us bring the houseless poor to our house. Let us
clothe the naked, and despise not those of our own flesh. The which
fruits having sprung forth from the earth, behold, because it is
good; and let our temporary light burst forth; and let us, from this
inferior fruit of action, possessing the delights of contemplation and
of the Word of Life above, let us appear as lights in the world,
clinging to the firmament of Thy Scripture. For therein Thou makest
it plain unto us, that we may distinguish between things intelligible
and things of sense, as if between the day and the night; or between
souls, given, some to things intellectual, others to 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, placed and ranked in the
same firmament (Thy grace being manifest throughout the world), may
give light upon the earth, and divide between the day and night, and
be for signs of times; because "old things have passed away," and
"behold all things are become new;" and "because our salvation is
nearer than when we believed;" and because "the night is far spent,
the day is at hand;" and because Thou wilt crown Thy year with
blessing, sending the labourers of Thy goodness into Thy harvest, in
the sowing of which others have laboured, sending also into another
field, whose harvest shall be in the end. Thus Thou grantest the
prayers of him that asketh, and blessest the years of the just; but
Thou art the same, and in Thy years which fail not Thou preparest a
garner for our passing years. For by an eternal counsel Thou dost in
their proper seasons bestow upon the earth heavenly blessings.
23. For, indeed, to one is given by the Spirit the word of
wisdom, as if the greater light, on account of those who are delighted
with the light of manifest truth, as in the beginning of the day; but
to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit, as if the lesser
light; to another faith; to another the gift of healing; to another
the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another the
discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues. And all
these as stars. For all these worketh the one and self-same Spirit,
dividing to every man his own as He willeth; and making stars appear
manifestly, to profit withal. But the word of knowledge, wherein are
contained all sacraments, which are varied in their periods like the
moon, and the other conceptions of gifts, which are successively
reckoned up as stars, inasmuch as they come short of that splendour of
wisdom in which the fore-entioned day rejoices, are only for the
beginning of the night. For they are necessary to such as he Thy most
prudent servant could not speak unto as unto spiritual, but as unto
carnal even he who speaketh wisdom among those that are perfect.
But the natural man, as a babe in Christ, and a drinker of
milk, until he be strengthened for solid meat, and his eye be
enabled to look upon the Sun, let him not dwell in his own deserted
night, but let him be contented with the light of the moon and the
stars. Thou reasonest these things with us, our All-wise God, in
Thy Book, Thy firmament, that we may discern all things in an
admirable contemplation, although as yet in signs, and in times, and
in days, and in years.
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