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| The Conclusion of the Book with a Prayer, and an Apology for Multitude of Words.
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Chapter 28.—The
Conclusion of the Book with a Prayer, and an Apology for Multitude
of Words.
51. O Lord our God, we believe in
Thee, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. For the Truth
would not say, Go, baptize all nations in the name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, unless Thou wast a Trinity.
Nor wouldest thou, O Lord God, bid us to be baptized in the name of
Him who is not the Lord God. Nor would the divine voice have said,
Hear, O Israel, the Lord thy God is one God, unless Thou wert so a
Trinity as to be one Lord God. And if Thou, O God, wert Thyself the
Father, and wert Thyself the Son, Thy Word Jesus Christ, and the
Holy Spirit your gift, we should not read in the book of truth,
“God sent His Son;”1079
nor wouldest Thou, O
Only-begotten, say of the Holy Spirit, “Whom the Father will send
in my name;”1080
and,
“Whom I will send to you from the Father.”1081
Directing my purpose by this rule
of faith, so far as I have been able, so far as Thou hast made me
to be able, I have sought Thee, and have desired to see with my
understanding what I believed; and I have argued and labored much.
O Lord my God, my one hope, hearken to me, lest through weariness I
be unwilling to seek Thee, “but that I may always ardently seek
Thy face.”1082
Do Thou
give strength to seek, who hast made me find Thee, and hast given
the hope of finding Thee more and more. My strength and my
infirmity are in Thy sight: preserve the one, and heal the
other. My knowledge and my ignorance are in Thy sight; where
Thou hast opened to me, receive me as I enter; where Thou hast
closed, open to me as I knock. May I remember Thee, understand
Thee, love Thee. Increase these things in me, until Thou renewest
me wholly. I know it is written, “In the multitude of speech,
thou shalt not escape sin.”1083
But O that I might speak only in
preaching Thy word, and in praising Thee! Not only should I so flee
from sin, but I should earn good desert, however much I so spake.
For a man blessed of Thee would not enjoin a sin upon his own true
son in the faith, to whom he wrote, “Preach the word: be instant
in season, out of season.”1084
Are we to say that he has not
spoken much, who was not silent about Thy word, O Lord, not only in
season, but out of season? But therefore it was not much, because
it was only what was necessary. Set me free, O God, from that
multitude of speech which I suffer inwardly in my soul, wretched as
it is in Thy sight, and flying for refuge to Thy mercy; for I am
not silent in thoughts, even when silent in words. And if, indeed,
I thought of nothing save what pleased Thee, certainly I would not
ask Thee to set me free from such multitude of speech. But many are
my thoughts, such as Thou knowest, “thoughts of man, since they
are vain.”1085
Grant to
me not to consent to them; and if ever they delight me,
nevertheless to condemn them, and not to dwell in them, as though I
slumbered. Nor let them so prevail in me, as that anything in my
acts should proceed from them; but at least let my opinions, let my
conscience, be safe from them, under Thy protection. When the wise
man spake of Thee in his book, which is now called by the special
name of Ecclesiasticus, “We speak,” he said, “much, and yet
come short; and in sum of words, He is all.”1086
When, therefore, we shall have
come to Thee, these very many things that we speak, and yet come
short, will cease; and Thou, as One, wilt remain “all in
all.”1087
And we
shall say one thing without end, in praising Thee in One, ourselves
also made one in Thee. O Lord the one God, God the Trinity,
whatever I have said in these books that is of Thine, may they
acknowledge who are Thine; if anything of my own, may it be
pardoned both by Thee and by those who are Thine. Amen.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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