being in the Creator, in so much higher a way, in that the one is visible, the Other Invisible;
the one temporal, the Other Eternal; the one changeable, the Other Unchangeable; the one
corruptible, the Other Incorruptible. Lastly, in the case of men themselves, what we find,
man and man, are two men; here the Father and the Son are One God.
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15. I render unspeakable thanks to our Lord God, that He hath vouchsafed, at your
prayers, to deliver my infirmity from this most perplexed and difficult place. Yet above all
things remember this, that the Creator transcends indescribably whatever we could gather
from the creature, whether by the bodily senses, or the thought of the mind. But wouldest
thou with the mind reach Him? Purify thy mind, purify thine heart. Make clean the eye
whereby That, whatever It be, may be reached. For “blessed are the clean in heart, for they
shall see God.”3589 But whilst the heart was not cleansed, what could be provided and
granted more mercifully by Him, than that That Word of whom we have spoken so great
and so many things, and yet have spoken nothing worthy of Him; that That Word, “by
whom all things were made,” should become that which we are, that we might be able to
attain to That which we are not? For we are not God; but with the mind or the interior eye
of the heart we can see God. Our eyes dulled by sins, blinded, enfeebled by infirmity, desire
to see; but we are in hope, not yet in possession. We are the children of God. This saith John,
who says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was
God;”3590 he who lay on the Lord’s Breast, who drew in these secrets from the Bosom of
His Heart; he says, “Dearly beloved, we are the children of God, and it doth not yet appear
what we shall be; we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see
Him as He is.”3591 This is promised us.
16. But in order that we may attain, if we cannot yet see God the Word, let us hear the
Word made Flesh; seeing we are carnal, let us hear the Word Incarnate. For for this cause
came He, for this cause took upon Him our infirmity, that thou mightest be able to receive
the strong words of a God bearing thy weakness. And He is truly called “milk.” For He giveth
milk to infants, that He may give the meat of wisdom to them of riper years. Suck then now
with patience, that thou mayest be fed to thy heart’s most3592 eager wish. For how is even
the milk, wherewith infants are suckled, made? Was it not solid meat on the table? But the
infant is not strong enough to eat the meat which is on the table; what does the mother do?
She turns the meat3593 into the substance of her flesh, and makes milk of it. Makes for us
what we may be able to take. So the Word was made Flesh, that we little ones, who were
3589 Matt. v. 8.
3590 John i. 1.
3591 1 John iii. 2.
3592 Avidè.
3593 Incarnat.
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On the words of the Gospel, John i. 1, ‘In the beginning was the word, and…