{"id":"01KJR8Q6E2TSKXDYF97R3QKZM4","cid":"bafkreibqa3lxe4mfqgrfcx4frdrav43zzo6wrpt26bn4ily7jmvkybmkpa","type":"text_chunk","properties":{"char_end":363877,"char_start":355985,"chunk_index":50,"chunk_total":89,"estimated_tokens":1973,"source_file_key":"confessions","text":"with Thee; and yet know I Thee that Thou art in no ways passible; but I,\r\nwhat temptations I can resist, what I cannot, I know not. And there is\r\nhope, because Thou art faithful, Who wilt not suffer us to be tempted\r\nabove that we are able; but wilt with the temptation also make a way to\r\nescape, that we may be able to bear it. I will confess then what I\r\nknow of myself, I will confess also what I know not of myself. And that\r\nbecause what I do know of myself, I know by Thy shining upon me; and\r\nwhat I know not of myself, so long know I not it, until my darkness be\r\nmade as the noon-day in Thy countenance.\r\n\r\nNot with doubting, but with assured consciousness, do I love Thee, Lord.\r\nThou hast stricken my heart with Thy word, and I loved Thee. Yea also\r\nheaven, and earth, and all that therein is, behold, on every side they\r\nbid me love Thee; nor cease to say so unto all, that they may be without\r\nexcuse. But more deeply wilt Thou have mercy on whom Thou wilt have\r\nmercy, and wilt have compassion on whom Thou hast had compassion: else\r\nin deaf ears do the heaven and the earth speak Thy praises. But what do\r\nI love, when I love Thee? not beauty of bodies, nor the fair harmony\r\nof time, nor the brightness of the light, so gladsome to our eyes, nor\r\nsweet melodies of varied songs, nor the fragrant smell of flowers, and\r\nointments, and spices, not manna and honey, not limbs acceptable to\r\nembracements of flesh. None of these I love, when I love my God; and\r\nyet I love a kind of light, and melody, and fragrance, and meat, and\r\nembracement when I love my God, the light, melody, fragrance, meat,\r\nembracement of my inner man: where there shineth unto my soul what space\r\ncannot contain, and there soundeth what time beareth not away, and there\r\nsmelleth what breathing disperseth not, and there tasteth what eating\r\ndiminisheth not, and there clingeth what satiety divorceth not. This is\r\nit which I love when I love my God.\r\n\r\nAnd what is this? I asked the earth, and it answered me, \"I am not He\";\r\nand whatsoever are in it confessed the same. I asked the sea and the\r\ndeeps, and the living creeping things, and they answered, \"We are not\r\nthy God, seek above us.\" I asked the moving air; and the whole air with\r\nhis inhabitants answered, \"Anaximenes was deceived, I am not God.\" I\r\nasked the heavens, sun, moon, stars, \"Nor (say they) are we the God whom\r\nthou seekest.\" And I replied unto all the things which encompass the\r\ndoor of my flesh: \"Ye have told me of my God, that ye are not He; tell\r\nme something of Him.\" And they cried out with a loud voice, \"He made\r\nus.\" My questioning them, was my thoughts on them: and their form of\r\nbeauty gave the answer. And I turned myself unto myself, and said to\r\nmyself, \"Who art thou?\" And I answered, \"A man.\" And behold, in me there\r\npresent themselves to me soul, and body, one without, the other within.\r\nBy which of these ought I to seek my God? I had sought Him in the body\r\nfrom earth to heaven, so far as I could send messengers, the beams\r\nof mine eyes. But the better is the inner, for to it as presiding and\r\njudging, all the bodily messengers reported the answers of heaven and\r\nearth, and all things therein, who said, \"We are not God, but He made\r\nus.\" These things did my inner man know by the ministry of the outer: I\r\nthe inner knew them; I, the mind, through the senses of my body. I asked\r\nthe whole frame of the world about my God; and it answered me, \"I am not\r\nHe, but He made me.\"\r\n\r\nIs not this corporeal figure apparent to all whose senses are perfect?\r\nwhy then speaks it not the same to all? Animals small and great see it,\r\nbut they cannot ask it: because no reason is set over their senses to\r\njudge on what they report. But men can ask, so that the invisible things\r\nof God are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made;\r\nbut by love of them, they are made subject unto them: and subjects\r\ncannot judge. Nor yet do the creatures answer such as ask, unless they\r\ncan judge; nor yet do they change their voice (i.e., their appearance),\r\nif one man only sees, another seeing asks, so as to appear one way to\r\nthis man, another way to that, but appearing the same way to both, it is\r\ndumb to this, speaks to that; yea rather it speaks to all; but they only\r\nunderstand, who compare its voice received from without, with the truth\r\nwithin. For truth saith unto me, \"Neither heaven, nor earth, nor any\r\nother body is thy God.\" This, their very nature saith to him that seeth\r\nthem: \"They are a mass; a mass is less in a part thereof than in the\r\nwhole.\" Now to thee I speak, O my soul, thou art my better part: for\r\nthou quickenest the mass of my body, giving it life, which no body can\r\ngive to a body: but thy God is even unto thee the Life of thy life.\r\n\r\nWhat then do I love, when I love my God? who is He above the head of\r\nmy soul? By my very soul will I ascend to Him. I will pass beyond that\r\npower whereby I am united to my body, and fill its whole frame with\r\nlife. Nor can I by that power find my God; for so horse and mule that\r\nhave no understanding might find Him; seeing it is the same power,\r\nwhereby even their bodies live. But another power there is, not that\r\nonly whereby I animate, but that too whereby I imbue with sense my\r\nflesh, which the Lord hath framed for me: commanding the eye not to\r\nhear, and the ear not to see; but the eye, that through it I should\r\nsee, and the ear, that through it I should hear; and to the other senses\r\nseverally, what is to each their own peculiar seats and offices; which,\r\nbeing divers, I the one mind, do through them enact. I will pass beyond\r\nthis power of mine also; for this also have the horse, and mule, for\r\nthey also perceive through the body.\r\n\r\nI will pass then beyond this power of my nature also, rising by degrees\r\nunto Him Who made me. And I come to the fields and spacious palaces of\r\nmy memory, where are the treasures of innumerable images, brought into\r\nit from things of all sorts perceived by the senses. There is stored up,\r\nwhatsoever besides we think, either by enlarging or diminishing, or\r\nany other way varying those things which the sense hath come to; and\r\nwhatever else hath been committed and laid up, which forgetfulness hath\r\nnot yet swallowed up and buried. When I enter there, I require what I\r\nwill to be brought forth, and something instantly comes; others must be\r\nlonger sought after, which are fetched, as it were, out of some inner\r\nreceptacle; others rush out in troops, and while one thing is desired\r\nand required, they start forth, as who should say, \"Is it perchance\r\nI?\" These I drive away with the hand of my heart, from the face of my\r\nremembrance; until what I wish for be unveiled, and appear in sight, out\r\nof its secret place. Other things come up readily, in unbroken order, as\r\nthey are called for; those in front making way for the following; and\r\nas they make way, they are hidden from sight, ready to come when I will.\r\nAll which takes place when I repeat a thing by heart.\r\n\r\nThere are all things preserved distinctly and under general heads, each\r\nhaving entered by its own avenue: as light, and all colours and forms of\r\nbodies by the eyes; by the ears all sorts of sounds; all smells by the\r\navenue of the nostrils; all tastes by the mouth; and by the sensation of\r\nthe whole body, what is hard or soft; hot or cold; or rugged; heavy or\r\nlight; either outwardly or inwardly to the body. All these doth that\r\ngreat harbour of the memory receive in her numberless secret and\r\ninexpressible windings, to be forthcoming, and brought out at need; each\r\nentering in by his own gate, and there laid up. Nor yet do the things\r\nthemselves enter in; only the images of the things perceived are there\r\nin readiness, for thought to recall. Which images, how they are formed,\r\nwho can tell, though it doth plainly appear by which sense each hath\r\nbeen brought in and stored up?"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KJR8NK5DAD726FMQ6JCHGZ5R","peer_label":"confessions","peer_type":"text","predicate":"derived_from"},{"peer":"01KJR8M0JHPZXCPKJ34HTYXSWW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KJR8R5M8VXDW8Z6YHQTCPK14","peer_label":"god","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"divine_being","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:06.976Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8RD27Q2ZKWRPWYSM5M4QJ","peer_label":"narrator","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:06.976Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8RCN6XSNA8V71990X5RHN","peer_label":"temptations","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"concept","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:06.976Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8RCJJ50A8WKPA2GXBK78Y","peer_label":"soul","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"concept","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:06.976Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8RD2SSVQYVNR9T9HZBTCV","peer_label":"body","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"concept","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:06.976Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8RD2MQY0P6CW4HQTM8D5J","peer_label":"world creation","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"cosmological_entity","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:06.976Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8RCV1P844E8BB4NSZBSXZ","peer_label":"inner man","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"concept","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:06.976Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8RD8MKNY8E2G89AFGR4S6","peer_label":"senses","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"faculty","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:06.976Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8RDAXTSBP7GNCCBE9DWT4","peer_label":"images of things perceived","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"concept","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:06.976Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8RDNAJ2MYYAY9RPJXXB71","peer_label":"reason","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"faculty","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:06.976Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8RDS31AMKMYBTB18FY4HS","peer_label":"anaximenes","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:06.976Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8RDPGMTFMSJTZYJW998ZH","peer_label":"memory","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"faculty","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:06.976Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8RDNM29ATEDCYBRNNCX1G","peer_label":"faithful","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"entity","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:06.976Z"}}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-03-02T21:54:24.834Z","ts":"2026-03-02T21:55:07.900Z","edited_by":{"method":"system","user_id":"01KJ60XQBHJ0GBGTP9X8HXAPPM"}}