{"id":"01KJR8Q6JHBYXTWF23FWZM4Q7D","cid":"bafkreifbmpzfh6rtvqwdmyheyrzislvgcjq6e2jcrk6ereeerhy4tzjl6e","type":"text_chunk","properties":{"char_end":548937,"char_start":541338,"chunk_index":76,"chunk_total":89,"estimated_tokens":1900,"source_file_key":"confessions","text":"if both be true?\" And if there be a third, or a fourth, yea if any other\r\nseeth any other truth in those words, why may not he be believed to\r\nhave seen all these, through whom the One God hath tempered the holy\r\nScriptures to the senses of many, who should see therein things true but\r\ndivers? For I certainly (and fearlessly I speak it from my heart), that\r\nwere I to indite any thing to have supreme authority, I should prefer\r\nso to write, that whatever truth any could apprehend on those matters,\r\nmight be conveyed in my words, rather than set down my own meaning so\r\nclearly as to exclude the rest, which not being false, could not offend\r\nme. I will not therefore, O my God, be so rash, as not to believe, that\r\nThou vouchsafedst as much to that great man. He without doubt, when he\r\nwrote those words, perceived and thought on what truth soever we have\r\nbeen able to find, yea and whatsoever we have not been able, nor yet\r\nare, but which may be found in them.\r\n\r\nLastly, O Lord, who art God and not flesh and blood, if man did see\r\nless, could any thing be concealed from Thy good Spirit (who shall lead\r\nme into the land of uprightness), which Thou Thyself by those words wert\r\nabout to reveal to readers in times to come, though he through whom\r\nthey were spoken, perhaps among many true meanings, thought on some one?\r\nwhich if so it be, let that which he thought on be of all the highest.\r\nBut to us, O Lord, do Thou, either reveal that same, or any other true\r\none which Thou pleasest; that so, whether Thou discoverest the same to\r\nus, as to that Thy servant, or some other by occasion of those words,\r\nyet Thou mayest feed us, not error deceive us. Behold, O Lord my God,\r\nhow much we have written upon a few words, how much I beseech Thee! What\r\nstrength of ours, yea what ages would suffice for all Thy books in this\r\nmanner? Permit me then in these more briefly to confess unto Thee, and\r\nto choose some one true, certain, and good sense that Thou shalt inspire\r\nme, although many should occur, where many may occur; this being the law\r\nmy confession, that if I should say that which Thy minister intended,\r\nthat is right and best; for this should I endeavour, which if I should\r\nnot attain, yet I should say that, which Thy Truth willed by his words\r\nto tell me, which revealed also unto him, what It willed.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nBOOK XIII\r\n\r\n\r\nI call upon Thee, O my God, my mercy, Who createdst me, and forgottest\r\nnot me, forgetting Thee. I call Thee into my soul which, by the longing\r\nThyself inspirest into her, Thou preparest for Thee. Forsake me not now\r\ncalling upon Thee, whom Thou preventedst before I called, and urgedst me\r\nwith much variety of repeated calls, that I would hear Thee from afar,\r\nand be converted, and call upon Thee, that calledst after me; for Thou,\r\nLord, blottedst out all my evil deservings, so as not to repay into my\r\nhands, wherewith I fell from Thee; and Thou hast prevented all my well\r\ndeservings, so as to repay the work of Thy hands wherewith Thou madest\r\nme; because before I was, Thou wert; nor was I any thing, to which\r\nThou mightest grant to be; and yet behold, I am, out of Thy goodness,\r\npreventing all this which Thou hast made me, and whereof Thou hast made\r\nme. For neither hadst Thou need of me, nor am I any such good, as to be\r\nhelpful unto Thee, my Lord and God; not in serving Thee, as though Thou\r\nwouldest tire in working; or lest Thy power might be less, if lacking\r\nmy service: nor cultivating Thy service, as a land, that must remain\r\nuncultivated, unless I cultivated Thee: but serving and worshipping\r\nThee, that I might receive a well-being from Thee, from whom it comes,\r\nthat I have a being capable of well-being.\r\n\r\nFor of the fulness of Thy goodness, doth Thy creature subsist, that so\r\na good, which could no ways profit Thee, nor was of Thee (lest so it\r\nshould be equal to Thee), might yet be since it could be made of Thee.\r\nFor what did heaven and earth, which Thou madest in the Beginning,\r\ndeserve of Thee? Let those spiritual and corporeal natures which Thou\r\nmadest in Thy Wisdom, say wherein they deserved of Thee, to depend\r\nthereon (even in that their several inchoate and formless state, whether\r\nspiritual or corporeal, ready to fall away into an immoderate liberty\r\nand far-distant unlikeliness unto Thee;--the spiritual, though without\r\nform, superior to the corporeal though formed, and the corporeal though\r\nwithout form, better than were it altogether nothing), and so to depend\r\nupon Thy Word, as formless, unless by the same Word they were brought\r\nback to Thy Unity, indued with form and from Thee the One Sovereign\r\nGood were made all very good. How did they deserve of Thee, to be even\r\nwithout form, since they had not been even this, but from Thee?\r\n\r\nHow did corporeal matter deserve of Thee, to be even invisible and\r\nwithout form? seeing it were not even this, but that Thou madest it, and\r\ntherefore because it was not, could not deserve of Thee to be made. Or\r\nhow could the inchoate spiritual creature deserve of Thee, even to ebb\r\nand flow darksomely like the deep,--unlike Thee, unless it had been\r\nby the same Word turned to that, by Whom it was created, and by Him so\r\nenlightened, become light; though not equally, yet conformably to that\r\nForm which is equal unto Thee? For as in a body, to be, is not one with\r\nbeing beautiful, else could it not be deformed; so likewise to a created\r\nspirit to live, is not one with living wisely; else should it be wise\r\nunchangeably. But good it is for it always to hold fast to Thee; lest\r\nwhat light it hath obtained by turning to Thee, it lose by turning\r\nfrom Thee, and relapse into life resembling the darksome deep. For we\r\nourselves also, who as to the soul are a spiritual creature, turned away\r\nfrom Thee our light, were in that life sometimes darkness; and still\r\nlabour amidst the relics of our darkness, until in Thy Only One we\r\nbecome Thy righteousness, like the mountains of God. For we have been\r\nThy judgments, which are like the great deep.\r\n\r\nThat which Thou saidst in the beginning of the creation, Let there be\r\nlight, and there was light; I do, not unsuitably, understand of the\r\nspiritual creature: because there was already a sort of life, which Thou\r\nmightest illuminate. But as it had no claim on Thee for a life, which\r\ncould be enlightened, so neither now that it was, had it any, to be\r\nenlightened. For neither could its formless estate be pleasing unto\r\nThee, unless it became light, and that not by existing simply, but by\r\nbeholding the illuminating light, and cleaving to it; so that, that it\r\nlived, and lived happily, it owes to nothing but Thy grace, being turned\r\nby a better change unto That which cannot be changed into worse or\r\nbetter; which Thou alone art, because Thou alone simply art; unto\r\nThee it being not one thing to live, another to live blessedly, seeing\r\nThyself art Thine own Blessedness.\r\n\r\nWhat then could be wanting unto Thy good, which Thou Thyself art,\r\nalthough these things had either never been, or remained without form;\r\nwhich thou madest, not out of any want, but out of the fulness of Thy\r\ngoodness, restraining them and converting them to form, not as though\r\nThy joy were fulfilled by them? For to Thee being perfect, is their\r\nimperfection displeasing, and hence were they perfected by Thee, and\r\nplease Thee; not as wert Thou imperfect, and by their perfecting wert\r\nalso to be perfected. For Thy good Spirit indeed was borne over the\r\nwaters, not borne up by them, as if He rested upon them. For those, on\r\nwhom Thy good Spirit is said to rest, He causes to rest in Himself."},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KJR8NK5DAD726FMQ6JCHGZ5R","peer_label":"confessions","peer_type":"text","predicate":"derived_from"},{"peer":"01KJR8M0JHPZXCPKJ34HTYXSWW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KJR8S0R5XZDPXQBB1KVRTV64","peer_label":"confessions work","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"literary_work","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:29.296Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8RZBF8CNG0RR2SA0W2MFR","peer_label":"heaven and earth","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"cosmic_entities","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:29.296Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8RYR885K2M6VF55NG1EQC","peer_label":"holy scriptures","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"religious_text_collection","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:29.296Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8RYVZYJ7MWR309PD1VDQP","peer_label":"one god","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"divine_entity","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:29.296Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8RYX4DKVYP4ZSSPDVW36W","peer_label":"me the author","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:29.296Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8RYZZXHC7DWDZ6XQ155RN","peer_label":"book xiii","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"document_section","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:29.296Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8RYV0EDWH8W4359GP0FXK","peer_label":"land of uprightness","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"spiritual_destination","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:29.296Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8RZ2TMB9E9ZA1Y1AZRQ3V","peer_label":"thy good spirit","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"divine_aspect","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:29.296Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8RZMKZXHVK6GK1ZNK0GNP","peer_label":"spiritual natures","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"created_being_type","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:29.296Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8RZNVZPX77M4PYHS7PV25","peer_label":"beginning of creation","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"cosmic_event","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:29.296Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8RZMRRCA23BDN86C6EXXC","peer_label":"thy word","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"divine_principle","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:29.296Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8RZTGB1RADNZQV4HMQJ3T","peer_label":"unity","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"spiritual_state","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:29.296Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8S089565KBS9W6B9X14WR","peer_label":"thy grace","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"divine_attribute","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:29.296Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8S0A8QFP1A8651Y4F1XZE","peer_label":"inchoate spiritual creature","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"created_being_type","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:29.296Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8RZT0AGMHPVW1K5GA0BA6","peer_label":"corporeal natures","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"created_being_type","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:29.296Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8S0A444GECTRC6C1C2NY9","peer_label":"illuminating light","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"divine_concept","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:29.296Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8S06XPZT495FZ9QPWNF77","peer_label":"corporeal matter","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"created_substance","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:29.296Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8S0R9NN3G8J153WZT0HYJ","peer_label":"blessedness","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"spiritual_state","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:29.296Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8S0VM4YG0WW5A73VP4ZJ7","peer_label":"waters primordial","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"primordial_element","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:29.296Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8S0ZHFJHPQFWE82BFCC3Z","peer_label":"one sovereign good","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"entity","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:29.296Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8S3TPF5K6PDJTSXMYAQ2S","peer_label":"spiritual creature","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"entity","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:29.296Z"}}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-03-02T21:54:24.977Z","ts":"2026-03-02T21:55:30.640Z","edited_by":{"method":"system","user_id":"01KJ60XQBHJ0GBGTP9X8HXAPPM"}}