VIIII. Verba Inobedientiae .

VIIII. Verba Inobedientiae .

He said, "Why do we remember the commandments of others when we do this, and we neither see nor know what we are?" We are legitimate philosophers, and we are wiser than others. So, won't we do what we know? But we will do it. For many teachers set rules according to their own will and their own ideas: and will we do as they please? What is this? If I could see trees full of leaves, and if I could understand all the birds' songs, and if all these things were to give me instructions, I still wouldn't know what I could do. But what I decide within myself, I know what kind of goodness and usefulness it has, and I understand whose salvation it is for. It's better for me to do what I know than to do what I don't recognize; because what I don't know is sometimes more harmful than helpful. So what I see, what I touch, and what I understand through my senses, this is what I must do; but I will also rest through the creatures of creation, which are my salvation. Whatever adversity I face, it's because God has made me subject to it, and I must obey. And why would God have subjected them to me if I were to have no authority over them? Therefore, I will consider what pleases me in them. * Response of obedience. But from that turbulent cloud, I heard a voice responding to this image: 'I am the one who obeys God, and I have a certain bond.' But what is that which is said? When God created everything through His Word, He said, 'Let it be,' and it came to be; I was present, and I watched over God's command, and thus all things were made. But when the first creature began to live, it soon opposed God and said that its works would not live, because it wanted to exist in another way, and even attempted to crush and bite me; yet it did not prevail. For I am the sun and the moon and the stars, and I am the fountain of waters; I exist in all the works of God, just as the soul exists in the body. And just as the will in a person fulfills what it desires, so I am the will in God, accomplishing all that God commands. For in ancient counsel, I was with God, and God arranged all things through me that He wanted to accomplish. For I am in the command of His word, like a harp that sounds, because I am His command. I desire nothing, I want nothing, I long for nothing, except what is in God, because I came forth from Him, and through Him I was created; I do not want any other God. But you, O transgression of the Creator's commandments, in your presumption say that you are God, and you do not look to anything: but whatever you want, you do. So, is it not heaven and earth that you created? And where is the beauty of the mountains and the fields that you have created? You haven't done anything from these, but you reject what God has established. How? For when you speak about yourself and judge everything according to what pleases you, you do not want God, who was before the beginning of days and will be after the change of the last day. Therefore, O wretched one, you are like trees with dry leaves and fish scales, because you, like them, are cast aside, since your name has no value, but is only in death. But the fifth image had the form of a man, except for the head, and it was fixed in the darkness mentioned, from the knees down to the feet. For there appeared no form in its head, except for what was dark in the eyes of those who were everywhere, and it was like a shadow that sometimes seemed to burn. He had placed his right hand on his chest, in silence! He was holding a green staff, and he had draped a black cloak around himself.