Chapter IV.—All Things Have Been
Created by the Grace of God, and are Not of Him as Standing in Need
of Created Things.
5. What, therefore, could there be wanting
unto Thy good, which Thou Thyself art, although these things had
either never been, or had remained formless,—the which Thou
madest not out of any want, but out of the plenitude of Thy
goodness, restraining them and converting them to form not as
though Thy joy were perfected by them? For to Thee, being perfect,
their imperfection is displeasing, and therefore were they
perfected by Thee, and were pleasing unto Thee; but not as if Thou
wert imperfect, and wert to be perfected in their perfection. For
Thy good Spirit was borne over the waters,
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not borne up by them as if He
rested upon them. For those in whom Thy good Spirit is said to
rest,
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He causes
to rest in Himself. But Thy incorruptible and unchangeable will,
which in itself is all-sufficient for itself, was borne over that
life which Thou hadst made, to which to live is not all one with
living happily, since, flowing in its own darkness, it liveth also;
for which it remaineth to be converted unto Him by whom it was
made, and to live more and more by “the fountain of life,” and
in His light to “see light,”
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and to be perfected, and
enlightened, and made happy.
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Gen. i. 2
.
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Num. xi. 25
.
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Ps. xxxvi. 9
.