was not formerly before that the almighty workman made it in the beginning and all the earth, by His great skill, but He Himself, who made so mightily such a craft, was a Creator without beginning.
II. Completely ignorant (dizzy) and deceived by the evil spirit, is the man who is unwilling to believe that the living God was ever dwelling (in eternity) before that He formed the creatures, but He hath made known His powers, by means of the things created, and He would that the things created should see His wonders, and should worship Him always in glory, with those that have understanding, that is to say, angels and men. In the beginning the Al- mighty Father created this earth, in the way that Moses has written, and the beginning is the Son of the Almighty God in a spiritual sense, as the gospel sayeth to us, Ego principium qui et loquor vobis.[1] This the Saviour said in His holy gospel. "I, Myself, that am speaking to you, am the beginning." [2] He is Himself the true[3] beginning of that which was verily a beginning, and He is the true wisdom of the Father of wisdom, and the mighty[4] power by which He formed the wondrous things that were created, and He quickened them all with the (principle of) life, which they have, by means of the Holy Ghost, who proceedeth from the Father and the Son, inasmuch as He is truly the love of them both, (being) common to both of them, an Almighty God, of one nature, and of one majesty, in one Godhead.
III. This is much for you men to contemplate in your minds, and no man is able in this world perfectly to speak about the true God. Ye shall, nevertheless, hear something about Him, in order that ye may not lead your life in unbelief, (as ye would do,) if ye have no knowledge and understanding about that, and if ye did not hear any thing about the heavenly God, who truly ever reigneth, in three persons
- ↑ See St. John's Gospel, viii. 25. Greek; and also "Bedæ Commentaria in Vetus Testamentum," vol. vii. p. 3. (edit. Giles.)
- ↑ Revelations of St. John xxi. 6.
- ↑ See "Ælfric's preface to the Heptateuch," edited by Thwaites, A.D. 1698, and "Alfric's Vorrede zur Genesis," given by Heinrich Leo in his Angelsächsische Sprachproben.
- ↑ Ælfric in a sermon upon our Lord's Nativity, says, "Word bið wisdomes geswutelung, and ðæt word ðæt is se wisdom, is acenned of ðam Ælmihtigum Fæder butan anginne; forðan ðe he wæs æfre God of Gode, wisdom of ðam wisan Fæder. Nis he na geworht, forðan ðe he is God, and na gesceaft, ac se Ælmihtiga Fæder gesceop ðurh ðane (illegible text)sceafta," &c.
