|
28. For it is true, O Lord, that Thou hast made heaven and
earth; it is also true, that the Beginning is Thy Wisdom, in
Which Thou hast made all things.' It is likewise true, that this
visible world hath its own great parts, the heaven and the earth,
which in a short compass comprehends all made and created natures. It
is also true, that everything mutable sets before our minds a certain
want of form, whereof it taketh a form, or is changed and turned. It
is true, that that is subject to no times which so cleaveth to the
changeless form as that, though it be mutable, it is not changed. It
is true, that the formlessness, which is almost nothing, cannot have
changes, of times. It is true, that that of which anything is made
may by a certain mode of speech be called by the name of that thing
which is made of it; whence that formlessness of which heaven and earth
were made might it be called "heaven and earth." It is true, that
of all things having form, nothing is nearer to the formless than the
earth and the deep. It is true, that not only every created, and
formed thing, but also whatever is capable of creation and of form,
Thou hast made, "by whom are all things." ' It is true, that
everything that is formed from that which is formless was formless
before it was formed.
|
|