Page:Aelfric's Lives of Saints Vol 1.djvu/27

 evil, but hateth the evil-doers and the unrighteous. The creatures whom this one Creator created are manifold, and of various form, and move diversely. Some are invisible spirits without body, as are the angels in Heaven; some creep on the earth with their whole body as worms do; some go on two feet, some on four feet, some fly with wings, some swim in the waters, and yet all these are bowed down earthward, and thither is their desire, either because it pleaseth them or because they needs must; but man alone goeth upright, which signifieth that his thoughts should be more upward than downward, lest the mind be lower than the body; and that he ought to seek after the eternal life for which he was created rather than after earthly things; even as his form showeth him. All these creatures have a beginning, and some also an end, as we before said, but the true Creator hath no beginning, because He is Himself the beginning, neither created nor made. He made all things and continueth from everlasting to everlasting; nothing could make Him, because nothing was before Him; and if He had been made, then could He never have been Almighty God. Again, if any witless man think that God made Himself, we ask him how He could have made Himself if He existed not before? He was ever unmade, and ever continueth unending; we may wonder at Him, but we may not, and must not, enquire further concerning this, if we would not lose ourselves. The sun which lighteth up the whole earth is God's creature, and we can understand that her light is from herself and not she from the light, and the heat proceedeth equally from the sun and from her light. So likewise the Son of Almighty God is eternally begotten of the Father, true light and true wisdom; and the Holy Ghost is eternally of Them both, not begotten, but proceeding; and the Son alone took human nature, and on this day was born as man, to the end that He might fetch us to His kingdom. There is nothing so needful to any man living in this mortal life as that he should know the Almighty God by faith, and afterwards [know] his own soul.

We have often spoken to you of your faith concerning the Holy Trinity; now will we, if we can, briefly tell you something about