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that I might hide you, who are unbearable to all? But this I did out of cowardice, while you, my God, all the more embraced me, all the more kissed me, all the more held me in your arms, bringing me wholly inside the hem of your garments and covering me with your light, and making me forgetful of the things I saw (197) and the terrible things that formerly possessed me. O depth of mysteries, O height of glory, O ascent, O deification, O riches, O ineffable splendor of the things being said! Who will be able to comprehend from words or to understand the greatness of the glory? For he who has not seen what eye has not known, and has not heard what ear had not heard and has not entered into the heart of man, how will he believe the one writing about them? And even if he were to believe, how will he be able to see through words what eye has not seen? And how will he worthily grasp through hearing what the ear of men has never heard, so that he may understand them well and be able to contemplate them, whose beauty and form are impossible for those who see them—it is without form and incomprehensible to all by whom it is seen, that I may say it to you again? Who, by fashioning these things with his reason, would not fall far from the truth and be led astray by fabrication and fantasies, recounting and seeing false images of his own reasonings, of his own mind? For just as each person imagines Hades and the punishments there as he might wish, yet no one at all knows them as they are, so understand for me that those good things in the heavens are incomprehensible to all and unseen; but these things are known and beheld only by those to whom God will reveal them (198) according to the measure of each one's worth, the measure of faith, hope, and love, the measure of the keeping of the Lord's commandments.

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ἵν᾿ ἀποκρυβῶ σε, τόν ἄστεκτον πᾶσιν; Ἀλλά τοῦτο μέν ἔπραττον ἐκ δειλίας ἐγώ, σύ δέ, Θεέ μου, μᾶλλον περιεπλέκου, μᾶλλον κατησπάζου με, μᾶλλον ἐνηγκαλίζου ἔνδον τοῦ κρασπέδου σου τῶν ἱματίων εἰσάγων ὅλον καί σκέπων με φωτί σου, καί ἀμνημονεῖν ποιῶν τῶν ὁρωμένων (197) καί τῶν κατεχόντων με δεινῶν τό πρῴην. Ὤ μυστηρίων βάθος, ὤ ὕψος δόξης, ὤ ἀναβασις, ὤ θέωσις, ὤ πλοῦτος, ὤ λαμπρότης ἄφραστος τῶν λεγομένων! Τίς καταλαβεῖν ἐκ τῶν λόγων ἰσχύσει ἤ τό μέγεθος κατανοῆσαι τῆς δόξης; Ὅς γάρ οὐκ εἶδεν, ἅ ὀφθαλμός οὐκ οἶδε, καί οὐκ ἤκουσεν, ἅ οὖς οὐκ ἠκηκόει καί εἰς καρδίαν ἀνθρώπου οὐκ ἀνέβη, πῶς τῷ γράφοντι περί αὐτῶν πιστεύσει; Εἰ δέ καί πιστεύσειε, πῶς διά λόγου ἰδεῖν ἰσχύσει, ἅ ὀφθαλμός οὐκ εἶδε; Πῶς δέ ἀξίως δι᾿ ἀκοῆς χωρήσει, ἅ οὐκ ἤκουσεν οὖς ποτε τῶν ἀνθρώπων, ἵνα καί καλῶς περί αὐτῶν νοήσῃ, ἐν περινοίᾳ δυνηθῇ τε γενέσθαι, ὧν ἀμήχανον τοῖς ὁρῶσι τό κάλλος καί τό εἶδος, τό ἀνείδεον ὑπάρχει καί ἀκατανόητόν ἐστι τοῖς πᾶσιν, οἷσπερ ὁρᾶται, ἵνα σοι πάλιν εἴπω; Τῷ λογισμῷ ταῦτα τίς ἀναπλάττων οὐκ ἄν ἐκπέσῃ τῆς ἀληθείας πόρρω καί πλανηθῇ πλάσματι καί φαντασίαις, εἰκόνας ψευδεῖς συλλογισμῶν οἰκείων, οἰκείου νοός ἀνιστορῶν καί βλέπων; Ὥσπερ γάρ ᾅδην καί τάς ἐκεῖ κολάσεις ἕκαστος φαντάζεται, ὡς ἄν ἐθέλοι, πλήν οὖν, ὡς εἰσίν, οὐδείς τῶν πάντων οἶδεν, οὕτως μοι νόει τά ἀγαθά ἐκεῖνα τά ἐν οὐρανοῖς ἀκατάληπτα πᾶσι καί ἀθέατα˙ μόνοις γνωστά δέ ταῦτα καί θεωρητά, οἷς Θεός ἐκκαλύψει (198) κατά τό μέτρον τῆς ἀξίας ἑκάστου, μέτρον πίστεως, ἐλπίδος καί ἀγάπης, μέτρον φυλακῆς τῶν ἐντολῶν Κυρίου.