tongue be silent, let the heart be aroused, let the heart be lifted up thither. For it is not of such a nature as that it can ascend into the heart of man; but the heart of man must itself ascend to it. Let us consider the creatures (“for the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made”1865), if haply in the things which God hath made, with which we have some familiarity of intercourse, 263 we may find some resemblance, whereby we may prove that there are some three things which may be exhibited1866 as three separably, yet whose operation is inseparable. 16. Come, brethren, give me your whole attention. But first of all consider what it is that I promise; if haply I can find any resemblance in the creature, for the Creator is too high above us. And peradventure some one of us, whose mind the glare of truth hath, as it were, stricken with sparks of its brightness, can say those words, “I said in my ecstasy.”—What saidst thou in thine ecstasy?—“I am cast away from the sight of Thine eyes.” 1867 For it seems to me as if he who said this had lifted up his soul unto God, and had been carried beyond himself, while they said daily unto him, “Where is thy God?”—had reached by a kind of spiritual contact to that unchangeable Light, and through the weakness1868 of his sight had been unable to endure it, and so had fallen back again into his own, as it were, sick and languid state, and had compared himself with that Light, and had felt that the eye of his mind could not yet be attempered to the light of God’s wisdom. And because he had done this in ecstasy, hurried away from his bodily senses, and taken1869 up into God, when he was recalled in a manner from God to man, he said, “I said in my ecstasy.” For I saw in ecstasy I know not what, which I could not long endure, and being restored to my mortal estate,1870 and the manifold thoughts of mortal things from the body which presseth down the soul, I said, what? “I am cast away from the sight of Thine eyes.” Thou art far above, and I am far below. What then, brethren, shall we say of God? For if thou hast been able to comprehend what thou wouldest say, it is not God; if thou hast been able to comprehend it, thou hast comprehended something else instead of God. If thou hast been able to com- prehend Him as thou thinkest, by so thinking thou hast deceived thyself. This then is not God, if thou hast comprehended it; but if it be God, thou hast not comprehended it. How therefore wouldest thou speak of that which thou canst not comprehend? 17. Let us see then, if haply we cannot find something in the creature whereby we may prove that some three things are exhibited1871 separately whose operation is yet inseparable. 1865 Rom. i. 20. 1866 Proferantur. 1867 Ps. xxxi. 22, Sept. 1868 See Aug Conf. B. xii. ch. 23–26. 1869 Subreptus. 1870 Membris. 1871 Demonstrari. 562 Of the words of St. Matthew’s Gospel, Chap. iii. 13, 'Then Jesus cometh…