DISCOURSE TWO

FROM THE DEPTHS OF THE HEART

CONVERSATION WITH GOD

A. An ornamental drop cap letter "E" (Ye) at the beginning of the text. And now, since I call upon the Most High God with articulated lips—He who is captured by deeds alone and not bribed by artful speech—you who always hold the turning of your heart toward Egypt a symbol of bondage and sin, what example shall I place here that is most similar and appropriate for you, my debt-ridden soul? You are a fellow sufferer in punishment with the destroyed Sodom city of sin, a silenced accuser of Nineveh the city that repented, a barbarian more cowardly than the Queen of the South, worse than Canaan the land of idolaters, more stubborn than Amalek an enemy of Israel, an incurable city of the marked, a remaining trace of the rebellion of ancient Israel the people of God, a memorial keeping the covenant-breaking of Judah the tribe of the kings, more reproached than Tsur Tyre, more rejected than Sidon a city denounced by Jesus, more alien-natured than Galilee, more unforgivable than the unbelieving Capernaum a city rebuked for lack of faith, censured like Chorazin, slandered like Bethsaida, an unchaste flowering wave of Ephraim a tribe associated with instability, a dove always foolish but not in tranquility, a murderous snake from the dens of lions, filled with the poison of the nature of wolves, an image of the final blows of Jerusalem the holy city, according to the word of the Lord and the voice of those who see, a tabernacle rejected and arrived at destruction, broken trusted gates, and doubly crumbled speaking structures, having left the appropriate inheritance, having forgotten the God-built house, according to the words of those written before—Moses the prophet, David the psalmist, and Jeremiah the weeping prophet—a rational dwelling, holding leprosy, struck by the bearing of instruction, restored by the law, anointed with the clay, with mournful humility, found ineffable...