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Augustine, Saint, Bishop of Hippo, 354-430

"The Confessions of St. Augustine"

For
truth saith unto me, "Neither heaven, nor earth, nor any other body is
thy God." This, their very nature saith to him that seeth them:
"They are a mass; a mass is less in a part thereof than in the whole."
Now to thee I speak, O my soul, thou art my better part: for thou
quickenest the mass of my body, giving it life, which no body can give
to a body: but thy God is even unto thee the Life of thy life.
What then do I love, when I love my God? who is He above the head of
my soul? By my very soul will I ascend to Him. I will pass beyond that
power whereby I am united to my body, and fill its whole frame with
life. Nor can I by that power find my God; for so horse and mule
that have no understanding might find Him; seeing it is the same
power, whereby even their bodies live. But another power there is, not
that only whereby I animate, but that too whereby I imbue with sense
my flesh, which the Lord hath framed for me: commanding the eye not to
hear, and the ear not to see; but the eye, that through it I should
see, and the ear, that through it I should hear; and to the other
senses severally, what is to each their own peculiar seats and
offices; which, being divers, I the one mind, do through them enact.


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