Confessions

⁷ For it is Thou, Lord, that judgest me; for although no “man knows the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him,” yet is there something of man which “the spirit of man which is in him” itself knows not. But You, Lord, who hast made him, know him wholly. I indeed, though in Your sight I despise myself, and reckon “myself but dust and ashes,” yet know something concerning You, which I know not concerning myself. And assuredly “now we see through a glass darkly,” not yet “face to face.” So long, therefore, as I be “absent” from You, I am more “present” with myself than with You; and yet know I that You can not suffer violence; but for myself I know not what temptations I am able to resist, and what I am not able. But there is hope, because You are faithful, who will not suffer us to be tempted above that we are able, but wilt with the temptation also make a way to escape, that we may be able to bear it. I would therefore confess what I know concerning myself; I will confess also what I know not concerning myself.

And because what I do know of myself, I know by You enlightening me; and what I know not of myself, so long I know not until the time when my “darkness be as the noonday” in Your sight.