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  "chapter": {
    "num": 5,
    "slug": "05-that-god-is-unseen-yet-most-manifest",
    "title": "That God Is Unseen Yet Most Manifest",
    "of": 8,
    "words": 1346,
    "text": "## That God Is Unseen Yet Most Manifest\n\nThis discourse I share with you, O Tat, so that you may not remain ignorant of the most excellent name of God.\n\nContemplate in your mind how that which seems hidden and unmanifest to many may become most manifest to you.\n\nFor if it were apparent to all, it would not encompass everything. Whatever is apparent is generated or made—it was made manifest.\n\nBut that which is unmanifest exists eternally.\n\nIt does not need to be made manifest, for it always is.\n\nBeing unmanifest and eternal, He makes all other things manifest, yet He Himself is not made manifest.\n\nHe is not made, yet in imagination He envisions all things; in appearance, He makes them appear. For appearance pertains only to things that are generated or made; appearance is nothing but generation.\n\nBut He is the One who is neither made nor generated; He is also unapparent and unmanifest.\n\nYet, by making all things appear, He appears in all and through all; but especially, He is manifested in those things wherein He chooses.\n\nTherefore, O Tat, my son, pray first to the Lord and Father—the One and Only—from whom mercy flows to you, that you may know and understand so great a God, and that He may shine one of His beams upon your understanding.\n\nFor only the understanding perceives that which is not manifest or apparent, as it is itself not manifest or apparent. And if you can, O Tat, it will appear to the eyes of your mind.\n\nFor the Lord, free from envy, appears throughout the whole world. You may perceive His intelligence, grasp it in your mind, and contemplate the image of God.\n\nBut if that which is within you is not known or apparent to you, how can He within you be seen and appear to you through your eyes?\n\nBut if you wish to see Him, consider and understand the sun; consider the course of the moon; consider the order of the stars.\n\nWho is it that maintains this order? For all order is defined by number and place.\n\nThe sun is the greatest of the gods in heaven, to whom all the heavenly gods yield, as to a king and potentate. Yet, being so great—greater than the earth or the sea—he is content to allow countless lesser stars to move above him. Whom does he fear in the meantime, O son?\n\nEach of these stars in heaven follows a unique course; who has prescribed to each the manner and magnitude of their paths?\n\nThe constellation known as the Bear turns around itself and carries the whole world with it. Who possesses and crafted such an instrument?\n\nWho has set the boundaries of the sea? Who has established the earth? For there must be someone, O Tat, who is the Maker and Lord of these things.\n\nFor it is impossible, O son, that place, number, or measure should exist without a Maker.\n\nNo order can arise from disorder or disproportion.\n\nI wish it were possible for you, O my son, to have wings and fly into the air, and being lifted up between heaven and earth, to see the stability of the earth, the fluidity of the sea, the courses of the rivers, the vastness of the air, the sharpness and swiftness of fire, the motion of the stars, and the speed of the heavens as they circle around all these.\n\nO son, what a joyful sight it would be to see all these at once—to see that which is unmovable moved, and that which is hidden appear and be manifest.\n\nAnd if you wish to see and behold this Workman, even through mortal things upon earth and in the depths, consider, O son, how man is formed in the womb. Examine diligently the skill and artistry of the Workman. Learn who it was that wrought and fashioned the beautiful and divine shape of man. Who defined and outlined his eyes? Who formed his nostrils and ears? Who opened his mouth? Who stretched out and connected his sinews? Who channeled the veins? Who hardened and strengthened the bones? Who clothed the flesh with skin? Who divided the fingers and the joints? Who flattened and broadened the soles of the feet? Who carved the pores? Who stretched out the spleen? Who shaped the heart like a pyramid? Who made the liver broad? Who made the lungs spongy and full of air spaces? Who made the belly large and capacious? Who placed the more honorable parts in plain view and hid the unseemly ones?\n\nSee how many arts are combined in one material, how many works in one form—all exceedingly beautiful, all made with measure, yet all differing.\n\nWho has made all these things? What mother? What father? None but God, who is unmanifest, who made all things by His own will.\n\nNo one says that a statue or an image is made without a sculptor or painter; was this workmanship made without a Workman? O great blindness, O great impiety, O great ignorance!\n\nNever, O son Tat, can you separate the workmanship from the Workman. Rather, the best name of all the names of God is to call Him the Father of all, for so He is alone; and this is His work—to be the Father.\n\nAnd if you urge me to speak more boldly, it is His essence to be pregnant with all things and to make them.\n\nAnd just as it is impossible for anything to be made without a Maker, so it is impossible that He should not always be, and always be making all things—in heaven, in the air, on earth, in the depths, in the whole world, andin every part of the whole that is or that is not.\n\nFor there is nothing in the whole world that is not Himself—both the things that are and the things that are not.\n\nFor the things that are, He has made manifest; and the things that are not, He has hidden within Himself.\n\nThis is God, who is better than any name; this is He who is secret; this is He who is most manifest; this is He who is to be seen by the mind; this is He who is visible to the eye; this is He who has no body; and this is He who has many bodies. Rather, there is nothing of any body which is not He.\n\nFor He alone is all things.\n\nAnd for this reason, He has all names, because He is the One Father; and therefore, He has no name, because He is the Father of all.\n\nWho, then, can bless you or give thanks for you or to you?\n\nWhich way shall I look when I praise you?\n\nUpward? Downward? Outward? Inward?\n\nFor around you there is no direction, no place, nor anything else of all things that exist.\n\nBut all things are in you; all things come from. you; you give all things and take nothing, for you have all things, and there is nothing that you do not have.\n\nWhen shall I praise you, O Father? For it is neither possible to comprehend your hour nor your time.\n\nFor what shall I praise you? For what you have made or for what you have not made? For those things you have manifested or for those things you have hidden?\n\nWhy shall I praise you—as being of myself or having anything of my own, or rather being another's?\n\nFor you are what I am; you are what I do; you are what I say.\n\nYou are all things, and there is nothing else you are not.\n\nYou are you—all that is made and all that is not made.\n\nThe Mind that understands.\n\nThe Father that makes and forms.\n\nThe Good that works.\n\nThe Good that does all things.\n\nOf matter, the most subtle and delicate part is air; of air, the soul; of the soul, the mind; of the mind, God.\n\nThe Sixth Book. Called \"That in God alone is Good.\"",
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