Page:Anglo-Saxon version of the Hexameron of St. Basil.djvu/32

Rh (but) with one divine nature, one Almighty Creator. Great is the Father, and great is His wisdom, and great is their love. Look now earnestly that thou do not so greatly err, as to wish to make the Son of less importance than is His beloved Father, or by thy little understanding will make more powerless the love of them both; but thou mayest not, nevertheless,—though thou so greatly err,—make that any of them be more unmighty than Almighty God. All the Old Testament, concerning which we have formerly spoken, and the Saviour Himself, in His holy gospel, declare the Holy Trinity in a true unity, one Almighty God, ever without beginning, and that never hath ending; and in what manner wilt thou now enquire further about this, when thou thyself knowest not truly how to make enquiries about thyself? Tell me now truly, in what way canst thou see thy back or thy neck, although thou look backwards? or thine own soul, how is it created? Thou shalt believe in the living God, and shalt not dispute beyond thy condition concerning Him, lest thou err as too many did, who, beyond their understanding, made enquiries concerning it, without belief, and therefore perished.

IV. Upon the first day our Lord created a sevenfold work, that is to say, all the angels, and the beginning of light, and the substance of which He afterwards created His creatures, the heavens on high and the earth below, all the body of waters and the spacious sea, and the lofty atmosphere, all in one day. The angels He made of wondrous fairness, and of great strength, many thousands, all bodiless, living in spirit; concerning them we have spoken, sometime before, more plainly in writing. God was not without light, when He created the light. He is Himself the light, that enlighteneth all things, for He created the light of day, and afterwards increased it with the shining stars, as is hereafter mentioned.