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Bekenntnisse
11. Wie die Geschöpfe sind und nicht sind.
Und ich wandte meinen Blick auf die Dinge, die unter dir stehen, und ich erkannte, daß sie weder absolut sind noch absolut nicht sind; sie existieren zwar, weil sie von dir geschaffen sind, sie existieren nicht, weil sie nicht sind, was du bist. Denn das ist in Wahrheit, was ohne Wechsel bleibt. „Für mich aber ist's gut, Gott anzuhangen“1 ; denn wenn ich nicht in dir bleibe, kann ich auch nicht in mir bleiben. Er aber „bleibt in sich und macht doch alles neu“2; und weiter heißt es: „Du bist mein Gott, denn meiner Güter bedarfst du nicht“3.
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Masquer
The Confessions of St. Augustin In Thirteen Books
Chapter XI.--That Creatures are Mutable and God Alone Immutable.
17. And I viewed the other things below Thee, and perceived that they neither altogether are, nor altogether are not. They are, indeed, because they are from Thee; but are not, because they are not what Thou art. For that truly is which remains immutably. 1 It is good, then, for me to cleave unto God, 2 for if I remain not in Him, neither shall I in myself; but He, remaining in Himself, reneweth all things. 3 And Thou art the Lord my God, since Thou standest not in need of my goodness. 4
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Therefore, he argues, is God called the I AM (De Nat. Boni, 19): for omnis mutatio facit non esse quod erat. Similarly, we find him speaking in his De Mor. Manich. (c. I.): "For that exists in the highest sense of the word which continues always the same, which is throughout like itself, which cannot in any part be corrupted or changed, which is not subject to time, which admits of no variation in its present as compared with its former condition. This is existence in its true sense." See also note 3, p. 158. ↩
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Ps. lxxiii. 28. ↩
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Wisd. vii. 27. ↩
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Ps. xvi. 2. ↩