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26. But having then read those books of the Platonists, and being
admonished by them to search for incorporeal truth, I saw Thy
invisible things, understood by those things that are made; x and
though.repulsed, I perceived what that was, which through the
darkness of my mind I was not allowed to contemplate, assured that
Thou wert, and wert infinite, and yet not diffused in space finite or
infinite; and that Thou truly art, who art the same ever? varying
neither in part nor motion; and that all other things are from Thee,
on this most sure ground alone, that they are. Of these things was I
indeed assured, yet too weak to enjoy Thee. I chattered as one well
skilled; but had I not sought Thy.way in Christ our Saviour, I
would have proved not skilful, but ready to perish. For now, filled
with my punishment, I had begun to desire to seem wise; yet mourned
I not, but rather was puffed up with knowledge? For where was that
charity building upon the' "foundation" of humility, "which is
Jesus Christ"? Or, when would these books teach me it? Upon
these, therefore, I believe, it was Thy pleasure that I should
fall before I studied Thy Scriptures, that it might be impressed on
my memory how I was affected by them; and that afterwards when I was
subdued by Thy books, and when my wounds were touched by Thy healing
fingers, I might discern and distinguish what a difference there is
between presumption and confession, between those who saw whither
they were to go, yet saw not the way, and the way which leadeth not
only to behold but to inhabit the blessed country.s For had I first
been moulded in Thy Holy Scriptures,. and hadst Thou, in
the.familiar use of them, grown sweet unto me, and had I afterwards
fallen upon those volumes, they might perhaps have withdrawn me from
the solid ground of piety; or, had I stood firm in that wholesome
disposition which I had thence imbibed, I might have thought that it
could have been attained by the study of those books alone;
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