CHAPTER VIII 2.

That heaven of heavens was thine, 0 Lord, bUt the earth which thou
didst give to the sons of men
to be seen and touched was not then in the same form as that in which we now see it
and touch it. For then it was invisible
and unformed and there was an abyss over which there was no light. The darkness was
truly _over_ the abyss, that
is, more than just in the abyss. For this abyss of waters which now is visible has
even in its depths a certain
light appropriate to its nature, perceptible in some fashion to fishes and the
things that creep about on the
bottom of it. But then the entire abyss was almost nothing, since it was still
altog?ther unformed. 'Yet even
there, there was something that had the possibility of being formed. For thou, 0
Lord, hadst made the world out
of unformed matter, and this thou didst make out of nothing and didst make it into
almost nothing. From it thou
hart then made these great things which we, the sons of men, marvel at. For this
corporeal heaven is truly marvelous,
this firmament between the water and the waters which thou didst make on the second
day after the creation of
light, saying, "Let it be done," and it was done.[462] This firmament thou didst
call heaven, that is, the heaven
of this earth and sea which thou madest on the third day, giving a visible shape to
the unformed matter which thou
hadst made before all the days. For even before any day thou hadst already made a
heaven, but that was the heaven
of this heaven: for in the beginning thou hadst made heaven and earth. But this
earth itself which thou hadst
made was unformed matter: it was invisible and unformed, and darkness was over the
abyss. Out of this invisible
and unformed earth, out of this formlessness which is almost nothing, thou. didst
then make all these things
of which the changeable world consists -- and yet does not fully consist in
itself[469] -- for its very changeableness
appears in this, that its times and seasons can be obser2ed and numbered. The
periods of time are measured by
the changes of things, while the forms, whose matter is the invisible earth of
which we have spoken, are varied
and altered. CHAPTER IX 9. And therefore the Spirit, the Teacher of thy servant,
[470] when he mentions that
"in the beginning thou madest heaven and earth," says nothing about times and is
silent as to the days. For, clearly,
that heaven of heavens which thou didst create in the beginning is in some way an
intellectual creature, although
in no way coeternal with thee, 0 Trinity. Yet it is nonetheless a partaker in thy
eternity. Because of the sweetness
of its most happy contemplation of thee, it is greatly restrained in its own
mutability and cleaves to thee without
any lapse from the time in which it was created, surpassing all the rolling change
of time. But this shapelessness
-- this earth invisible and unformed -- was not numbered among the days itself. For
where there is no shape or
order there is nothing that either comes or goes, and where this does not occur
there certainly are no days, nor
any vicissitude of duration. CHAPTER X la 0 Truth, 0 Light of my heart, let not my
own darkness speak to me! I had
fallen into that darkness and was darkened thereby. But in it, even in its depths,
I came to love thee. I went astray
and still I remembered thee. I heard thy voice behind me, bidding me return, though
I could scarcely hear it for
the tumults of my boisterous passions. And now, behold, I am returning, burning and
thirsting after thy fountain.
Let no one hinder me: here will I drink and so have life. Let me not be my own
life; for of myself I have lived badly.
I was death to myself: in thee I have revived. Speak to me: converse with me. I
have believed thy books, and their
words are very deep. CHAPTER XI 11. Thou hast told me already, 0 Lord, with a
strong voice in my inner ear, that
thou art eternal and alone hast immortality. Thou art not changed by any shape or
motion, and thy will is not altered
by temporal process, because no will that changes is immortal. This is clear to me,
in thy sight; let it become
clearer and clearer, I beseech thee. In that light let me abide soberly under thy
wings. Thou hast also told me,
0 Lord, with a strong voice in my inner ear, that thou hast created all natures and
all substances, which are not
what thou art thyself; and yet they do exist. Only that which is nothing at all is
not from thee, and that motion
of the will away from thee, who art, toward something that exists only in a lesser
degree -- such a motion is an
offense and a sin. No one's sin either hurts thee or disturbs the order of thy
rule, either first or last. All this,
in thy sight, is clear to me. Let it become clearer and clearer, I beseech thee,
and in that light let me abide soberly
Under thy wings. 12. Likewise, thou hast told me, with a strong voice in my inner
ear, that this creation -- whose
delight thou alone art -- is not coeternal with thee. `tech a most persevering
purity it draws its support from
thee and nowhere and never betrays its own mutability, for thou art ever present
with it; and it cleaves to thee
with its entire affection, having no future to expect and no past that it
remembers; it is varied by no change
and is extended by no time. 0 blessed one -- if such there be -- clinging to thy
blessedness! It is blest in thee,
its everlasting Inhabitant and its Light. I cannot find a term that I would judge
more fitting for "the heaven
of the heavens of the Lord" than "Thy house" -- which contemplates thy delights
without any declination toward
anything else and which, with a pure mind in most harmonious stability, joins all
tog?ther in the peace of those
saintly spirits who are citizens of thy city in those heavens that are above this
visible heaven. 13. From this