Chapter XI.—What May Be
Discovered to Him by God.
11. Already hast Thou told me, O Lord, with a
strong voice, in my inner ear, that Thou art eternal, having alone
immortality. Since Thou
art not changed by any shape or motion, nor is Thy will altered by
times, because no will which changes is immortal. This in Thy sight
is clear to me, and let it become more and more clear, I beseech
Thee; and in that manifestation let me abide more soberly under Thy
wings. Likewise hast Thou said to me, O Lord, with a strong voice, in my inner ear, that Thou hast made all natures and substances, which are not what Thou Thyself art, and yet they are; and that only is not from Thee which is not, and the motion of the will from Thee who art, to that which in a less degree is, because such motion is guilt and sin; and that no one’s sin doth either hurt Thee, or disturb the order of Thy rule, either first or last. This, in Thy sight, is clear to me and let it become more and more clear, I beseech Thee; and in that manifestation let me abide more soberly under Thy wings.
12. Likewise hast Thou said to me, with a
strong voice, in my inner ear, that that creature, whose will Thou
alone art, is not co-eternal unto Thee, and which, with a most
persevering purity drawing its support from Thee, doth, in place and at no time, put forth its own mutability; and Thyself being ever present with it, unto whom with its entire affection it holds itself, having no future to expect nor conveying into the past what it remembereth, is varied by no change, nor extended into any times. O blessed one,—if any such there be,—in clinging unto Thy Blessedness; blest in Thee, its everlasting Inhabitant and its Enlightener! Nor do I find what the heaven of heavens, which is the Lord’s, can be better called than Thine house, which contemplateth Thy delight without any defection of going forth to another; a pure mind, most peacefully one, by that stability of peace of holy spirits, the citizens of Thy city “in the heavenly places,” above these heavenly places which are seen.
13. Whence the soul, whose wandering has been
made far away, may understand, if now she thirsts for Thee, if now
her tears have become bread to her, while it is daily said unto her
“Where is thy God?” if she now seeketh of Thee one
thing, and desireth that she may dwell in Thy house all the days of
her life. And what
is her life but Thee? And what are Thy days but Thy eternity, as
Thy years which fail not, because Thou art the same? Hence, therefore, can the soul, which is able, understand how far beyond all times Thou art eternal; when Thy house, which has not wandered from Thee, although it be not co-eternal with Thee, yet by continually and unfailingly clinging unto Thee, suffers no vicissitude of times. This in Thy sight is clear unto me, and may it become more and more clear unto me, I beseech Thee; and in this manifestation may I abide more soberly under Thy wings.
14. Behold, I know not what shapelessness there is
in those changes of these last and lowest creatures. And who shall
tell me, unless it be some one who, through the emptiness of his
own heart, wanders and is staggered by his own fancies? Who, unless
such a one, would tell me that (all figure being diminished and
consumed), if the formlessness only remain, through which the thing
was changed and was turned from one figure into another, that that
can exhibit the changes of times? For surely it could not be, because without the change of motions times are not, and there is no change where there is no figure.