{"id":"01KJR8Q6JHT5NJS4XCTMXNNP2K","cid":"bafkreictcfoa6x5lzchojmpf42dtp22m5ly3se5mx7j6nff3s2upqouce4","type":"text_chunk","properties":{"char_end":570443,"char_start":562444,"chunk_index":79,"chunk_total":89,"estimated_tokens":2000,"source_file_key":"confessions","text":"over our inner darksome and floating deep: from Whom we have in this\r\npilgrimage received an earnest, that we should now be light: whilst we\r\nare saved by hope, and are the children of light, and the children of\r\nthe day, not the children of the night, nor of the darkness, which yet\r\nsometimes we were. Betwixt whom and us, in this uncertainty of human\r\nknowledge, Thou only dividest; Thou, who provest our hearts, and callest\r\nthe light, day, and the darkness, night. For who discerneth us, but\r\nThou? And what have we, that we have not received of Thee? out of the\r\nsame lump vessels are made unto honour, whereof others also are made\r\nunto dishonour.\r\n\r\nOr who, except Thou, our God, made for us that firmament of authority\r\nover us in Thy Divine Scripture? as it is said, For heaven shall be\r\nfolded up like a scroll; and now is it stretched over us like a skin.\r\nFor Thy Divine Scripture is of more eminent authority, since those\r\nmortals by whom Thou dispensest it unto us, underwent mortality. And\r\nThou knowest, Lord, Thou knowest, how Thou with skins didst clothe men,\r\nwhen they by sin became mortal. Whence Thou hast like a skin stretched\r\nout the firmament of Thy book, that is, Thy harmonizing words, which\r\nby the ministry of mortal men Thou spreadest over us. For by their very\r\ndeath was that solid firmament of authority, in Thy discourses set forth\r\nby them, more eminently extended over all that be under it; which whilst\r\nthey lived here, was not so eminently extended. Thou hadst not as yet\r\nspread abroad the heaven like a skin; Thou hadst not as yet enlarged in\r\nall directions the glory of their deaths.\r\n\r\nLet us look, O Lord, upon the heavens, the work of Thy fingers; clear\r\nfrom our eyes that cloud, which Thou hast spread under them. There is\r\nThy testimony, which giveth wisdom unto the little ones: perfect, O my\r\nGod, Thy praise out of the mouth of babes and sucklings. For we know no\r\nother books, which so destroy pride, which so destroy the enemy and the\r\ndefender, who resisteth Thy reconciliation by defending his own sins. I\r\nknow not, Lord, I know not any other such pure words, which so persuade\r\nme to confess, and make my neck pliant to Thy yoke, and invite me to\r\nserve Thee for nought. Let me understand them, good Father: grant this\r\nto me, who am placed under them: because for those placed under them,\r\nhast Thou established them.\r\n\r\nOther waters there be above this firmament, I believe immortal, and\r\nseparated from earthly corruption. Let them praise Thy Name, let them\r\npraise Thee, the supercelestial people, Thine angels, who have no need\r\nto gaze up at this firmament, or by reading to know of Thy Word. For\r\nthey always behold Thy face, and there read without any syllables in\r\ntime, what willeth Thy eternal will; they read, they choose, they love.\r\nThey are ever reading; and that never passes away which they read; for\r\nby choosing, and by loving, they read the very unchangeableness of Thy\r\ncounsel. Their book is never closed, nor their scroll folded up; seeing\r\nThou Thyself art this to them, and art eternally; because Thou hast\r\nordained them above this firmament, which Thou hast firmly settled over\r\nthe infirmity of the lower people, where they might gaze up and learn\r\nThy mercy, announcing in time Thee Who madest times. For Thy mercy, O\r\nLord, is in the heavens, and Thy truth reacheth unto the clouds. The\r\nclouds pass away, but the heaven abideth. The preachers of Thy word pass\r\nout of this life into another; but Thy Scripture is spread abroad over\r\nthe people, even unto the end of the world. Yet heaven and earth also\r\nshall pass away, but Thy words shall not pass away. Because the scroll\r\nshall be rolled together: and the grass over which it was spread, shall\r\nwith the goodliness of it pass away; but Thy Word remaineth for ever,\r\nwhich now appeareth unto us under the dark image of the clouds, and\r\nthrough the glass of the heavens, not as it is: because we also, though\r\nthe well-beloved of Thy Son, yet it hath not yet appeared what we\r\nshall be. He looketh through the lattice of our flesh, and He spake us\r\ntenderly, and kindled us, and we ran after His odours. But when He shall\r\nappear, then shall we be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. As He\r\nis, Lord, will our sight be.\r\n\r\nFor altogether, as Thou art, Thou only knowest; Who art unchangeably,\r\nand knowest unchangeably, and willest unchangeably. And Thy Essence\r\nKnoweth, and Willeth unchangeably; and Thy Knowledge Is, and Willeth\r\nunchangeably; and Thy Will Is, and Knoweth unchangeably. Nor seemeth it\r\nright in Thine eyes, that as the Unchangeable Light knoweth Itself, so\r\nshould it be known by the thing enlightened, and changeable. Therefore\r\nis my soul like a land where no water is, because as it cannot of itself\r\nenlighten itself, so can it not of itself satisfy itself. For so is the\r\nfountain of life with Thee, like as in Thy light we shall see light.\r\n\r\nWho gathered the embittered together into one society? For they have all\r\none end, a temporal and earthly felicity, for attaining whereof they do\r\nall things, though they waver up and down with an innumerable variety of\r\ncares. Who, Lord, but Thou, saidst, Let the waters be gathered together\r\ninto one place, and let the dry land appear, which thirsteth after Thee?\r\nFor the sea also is Thine, and Thou hast made it, and Thy hands prepared\r\nthe dry land. Nor is the bitterness of men's wills, but the gathering\r\ntogether of the waters, called sea; for Thou restrainest the wicked\r\ndesires of men's souls, and settest them their bounds, how far they may\r\nbe allowed to pass, that their waves may break one against another: and\r\nthus makest Thou it a sea, by the order of Thy dominion over all things.\r\n\r\nBut the souls that thirst after Thee, and that appear before Thee (being\r\nby other bounds divided from the society of the sea), Thou waterest by\r\na sweet spring, that the earth may bring forth her fruit, and Thou, Lord\r\nGod, so commanding, our soul may bud forth works of mercy according\r\nto their kind, loving our neighbour in the relief of his bodily\r\nnecessities, having seed in itself according to its likeness, when from\r\nfeeling of our infirmity, we compassionate so as to relieve the needy;\r\nhelping them, as we would be helped; if we were in like need; not only\r\nin things easy, as in herb yielding seed, but also in the protection of\r\nour assistance, with our best strength, like the tree yielding fruit:\r\nthat is, well-doing in rescuing him that suffers wrong, from the hand\r\nof the powerful, and giving him the shelter of protection, by the mighty\r\nstrength of just judgment.\r\n\r\nSo, Lord, so, I beseech Thee, let there spring up, as Thou doest, as\r\nThou givest cheerfulness and ability, let truth spring out of the earth,\r\nand righteousness look down from heaven, and let there be lights in the\r\nfirmament. Let us break our bread to the hungry, and bring the houseless\r\npoor to our house. Let us clothe the naked, and despise not those of our\r\nown flesh. Which fruits having sprung out of the earth, see it is good:\r\nand let our temporary light break forth; and ourselves, from this lower\r\nfruitfulness of action, arriving at the delightfulness of contemplation,\r\nobtaining the Word of Life above, appear like lights in the world,\r\ncleaving to the firmament of Thy Scripture. For there Thou instructest\r\nus, to divide between the things intellectual, and things of sense, as\r\nbetwixt the day and the night; or between souls, given either to things\r\nintellectual, or things of sense, so that now not Thou only in the\r\nsecret of Thy judgment, as before the firmament was made, dividest\r\nbetween the light and the darkness, but Thy spiritual children also\r\nset and ranked in the same firmament (now that Thy grace is laid open\r\nthroughout the world), may give light upon the earth, and divide betwixt\r\nthe day and the night, and be for signs of times, that old things\r\nare passed away, and, behold, all things are become new; and that our\r\nsalvation is nearer than when 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