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17. Let us take an instance for the purpose from visible things.
Somebody whom you do not recognize. says to you, You know me; and
in order to remind you, tells you where,when, and how he became known
to you; and if, after the mention of every sign by which you might be
recalled to remembrance, you still do not recognize him, then you have
so come to forget, as that the whole of that knowledge is altogether
blotted out of your mind; and nothing else remains, hut that you take
his word for it who tells you that you once knew him; or do not even do
that, if you do not think the person who speaks to you to be worthy of
credit. But if you do remember him, then no doubt you return to your
own memory, and find in it that which had not been altogether blotted
out by forgetfulness. Let us return to that which led us to adduce
this instance from the intercourse of men. Among other things,the
9th Psalm says, "The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the
nations. that forget God;" and again the 22d Psalm, "All the
ends of the world shall be reminded, and turned unto the Lord."
These nations, then, will not so have forgotten God as to be unable
to remember Him when reminded of Him; yet, by forgetting God, as
though forgetting their own life, they had been turned into death,
i.e. into hell. But when reminded they are turned to the Lord, as
though, coming to life again by remembering their proper life which
they had forgotten. It is read also in the 94th Psalm, "Perceive
now, ye who are unwise among the people; and ye fools, when will ye
be wise? He that planted the ear, shall He not hear?" etc. For
this is spoken to those, who said vain things concerning God through
not understanding Him.
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