Chapter XI.—That Creatures are
Mutable and God Alone Immutable.
17. And I viewed the other things below Thee,
and perceived that they neither altogether are, nor altogether are
not. They are, indeed, because they are from Thee; but are not,
because they are not what Thou art. For that truly is which remains
immutably.
534
It is good,
then, for me to cleave unto God,
535
for if I remain not in Him, neither
shall I in myself; but He, remaining in Himself, reneweth all
things.
536
And Thou art
the Lord my God, since Thou standest not in need of my goodness.
537
534
Therefore, he argues, is God called the I AM (
De
Nat. Boni
, 19): for
omnis mutatio facit non esse quod
erat.
Similarly, we find him speaking in his
De Mor.
Manich.
(c. I.): “For that exists in the highest sense of the
word which continues always the same, which is throughout like
itself, which cannot in any part be corrupted or changed, which is
not subject to time, which admits of no variation in its present as
compared with its former condition. This is existence in its true
sense.” See also note 3, p. 158.
535
Ps. lxxiii. 28
.
536
Wisd. vii. 27
.
537
Ps. xvi. 2
.