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51. O Lord our God, we believe in Thee, the Father and the
Son and the Holy Spirit. For the Truth would not say, Go,
baptize all nations in the name of the Father and of the Son and of
the Holy Spirit, unless Thou wast a Trinity. Nor wouldest thou,
O Lord God, bid us to be baptized in the name of Him who is not the
Lord God. Nor would the divine voice have said, Hear, O
Israel, the Lord thy God is one God, unless Thou wert so a
Trinity as to be one Lord God. And if Thou, O God, weft
Thyself the Father, and weft Thyself the Son, Thy Word Jesus
Christ, and the Holy Spirit your gift, we should not read in the
book of truth, "God sent His Son;" nor wouldest Thou, O
Only-begotten, say of the Holy Spirit, "Whom the Father will
send in my name;" and, "Whom I will send to you from the
Father." Directing my purpose by this rule of faith, so far as I
have been able, so far as Thou hast made me to be able, I have
sought Thee, and have desired to see with my understanding what I
believed; and I have argued and labored much. O Lord my God, my
one hope, hearken to me, lest through weariness I be unwilling to
seek Thee, "but that I may always ardently seek Thy face." Do
Thou give strength to seek,, who hast made me find Thee, and hast
given the hope of finding Thee more and more. My strength and my
infirmity are in Thy sight: preserve the one, and heal the other.
My knowledge and my ignorance are in Thy sight; where Thou hast
opened to me, receive me as I enter; where Thou hast closed, open
to me as I knock. May I remember Thee, understand Thee, love
Thee. Increase these things in me, until Thou renewest me wholly.
I know it is written, "In the multitude of speech, thou shalt not
escape sin." But O that I might speak only in preaching Thy word,
and in praising Thee! Not only should I so flee from sin, but I
should earn good desert, however much I so spake. For a man blessed
of Thee would not enjoin a sin upon his own true son in the faith, to
whom he wrote, "Preach the word: be instant in season. out of
season." Are we to say that he has not spoken much, who was not
silent about Thy word, O Lord, not only in season, but out/of
season? But therefore it was not much, because it was only what was
necessary. Set me free, O God, from that multitude of speech which
I suffer inwardly in my soul, wretched as it is in Thy sight, and
flying for refuge to Thy mercy; for I am not silent in thoughts,
even when silent in words. And if, indeed, I thought of nothing
save what pleased Thee, certainly I would not ask Thee to set me
free from such multitude of speech. But many are my thoughts, such as
Thou knowest, "thoughts of man, since they are vain." Grant to me
not to consent to them; and if ever they delight me, nevertheless to
condemn them, and not to dwell in them, as though I slumbered. Nor
let them so prevail in me, as that anything in my acts should proceed
from them; but at least let my opinions, let my conscience, be safe
from them, under Thy protection. When the wise man spake of Thee in
his book, which is now called b the special name of Ecclesiasticus,
We speak," he said, "much, and yet co e short; and in sum of
words, He is all." When, therefore, we shall have come to Thee,
these very many things that we speak, and yet come short, will cease;
and Thou, as One, wilt remain "all in all." And we shall say one
thing without end, in praising Thee in One, ourselves also made one
in Thee. O Lord the one God, God the Trinity, whatever I have
said in these books that is of Thine, may they acknowledge who are
Thine; if anything of my own, may it be pardoned both by Thee and by
those who are Thine. Amen.
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