Page:Ante-Nicene Christian Library Vol 3.djvu/171

Rh prefixed to the definition; and of almost all things that you have expounded, I retain the sense complete, though not all the words; because the things that you have spoken have been made, as it were, native to my soul, and inborn. For you have held out a most sweet cup to me in my excessive thirst. And that you may not suppose that I am occupying you with words, being unmindful of things, I shall now call to mind the things which were spoken, in which the order of your discussion greatly helps me; for the way in which the things that you said followed by consequence upon one another, and were arranged in a balanced manner, makes them easily recalled to memory by the lines of their order. For the order of sayings is useful for remembering them: for when you begin to follow them point by point in succession, when anything is wanting, immediately the sense seeks for it; and when it has found it, retains it, or at all events, if it cannot discover it, there will be no reluctance to ask it of the master. But not to delay in granting what you demand of me, I shall shortly rehearse what you delivered to me concerning the definition of truth.

"There always was, there is now, and there ever shall be, that by which the first Will begotten from eternity consists; and from the first Will [proceeds] a second Will. After these came the world; and from the world came time: from this, the multitude of men; from the multitude the election of the beloved, from whose oneness of mind the peaceful kingdom of God is constructed. But the rest, which ought to follow these, you promised to tell me at another time. After this, when you had explained about the creation of the world, you intimated the decree of God, "which He, of His own good pleasure, announced in the presence of all the first angels," and which He ordained as an eternal law to all; and how He established two kingdoms,—I mean that of the present time and that of the future,—and appointed times to each, and decreed that a day of judgment should be expected, which He determined, in which a severance is to be made of