OT § 145

(Verse 18 and following) To whom then will you liken God, or what image will you set before Him? Can the craftsman make a graven image, or the goldsmith overlay it with gold, and the silversmith spread silver plates upon it? Or perhaps the skilled craftsman chooses a piece of wood that will not rot and seeks out a proficient artisan to fashion an image that will not move. Having described the greatness of God and shown His power in part, and having compared the nations and islands to a drop from a bucket and a speck of dust on the scales, and having refuted the use of ashes and sacrificial ceremonies, he teaches those who follow that all the nations before Him are as nothing and are counted by Him as less than nothing. To whom then will you liken God, or what image will you set before Him, who is a Spirit, who is in all things and is everywhere present, and who holds the earth in His hand as if it were a small container? At the same time, he derides the foolishness of nations, because the artisan, whether a blacksmith or a goldsmith or a silversmith, makes their own god and fastens it with nails and firmly establishes it so that it is not blown away by the gusts of wind. And this is what he introduces: a wise artisan has chosen a strong and incorruptible wood, which is called Amsuchan in Hebrew; this type of wood is incorruptible and is used especially for making idols. However, he says this so that, rejecting idols, the way of the Gospel may be followed, and all wrongs may be made right; the valleys may be lifted up, and the hills may be brought low; and the glory of the Lord may be revealed, so that all flesh may see the salvation of God. According to the tropology, we can say that the leaders of the heretics are rebuked for inventing diverse idols from their own hearts; either by the charm of eloquence, which is interpreted as silver; or by the brilliance of gold, which appeals to the senses; or by the incorruptibility of wood, which represents the baser doctrines: and they are considered permanent by the inventors, and are supported by dialectical skill, so that they may not be moved or fall, but may stand firm on a solid root.

Here he excludes the error of the idolaters. And first, he mocks this error as to the intention of the worker, that they wished to make a god: then, consequently, he is so powerful, to whom have you likened God, he speaks according to the error of those who thought the likenesses themselves were gods, or what image, as to those who thought the things of which they were likenesses were gods, as the sun or the moon: who is like to you, among the strong, O Lord? (Exod 15:11).

According to the moral sense we can say that the leaders of the heretics flourish, inventing different idols from their heart or by the charm of speech, which is what silver means, or by the splendor of gold, which appeals to the senses, or by the fine wood—these are the more vile teachings and are thought everlasting by those who invent them and are strengthened by dialectical skill lest they move and decay. Instead, they "stand fast" with a solid root.

For if we consider the different nations in all the world, from ocean to ocean, that is, from the Indian Sea to Brittania, and from the Atlantic up to the northern ice cap where the waters congeal and fine amber is frozen, we see that every race of human being lives like locusts within it.… Are we not amazed at the relative smallness of human beings whose bodies are like locusts when you consider their minute movements in the grand scheme of things?… The Lord is the one who stretched out the heavens and increased them so that the multitude of angels could live above them and the human race could dwell below as a house fit to contain all the reasonable creatures he had made.… Greek and Roman history tells of so many kings. Where is that uncountable army of Xerxes? Where is the Israelite host in the desert? Where is the incredible power of kings? What shall I say about those long ago? For present examples teach us that leaders are next to nothing, and the rulers of the earth are considered empty. The princes and judges of the earth … are neither sown nor planted nor fixed with a stable root. They are carried off at the command of God in an instant and perish like the blade of grass taken by the wind and storm, just as it is written, "And I crossed over, and he was not there; I sought him, and his place was not found."

At the moment when he gave the law, the God of the universe transmitted his commands in these terms: "You shall not make for yourself an image or likeness of any thing, whether of things in the heaven above, and in the earth beneath, and in the waters under the earth … for I am the Lord your God." That is to say, of the God whose appearance you have not seen. Here also the prophetic text, while denouncing the lack of sense of those who fabricate idols and who worship them, strives to show the infinite character of divine capacity; but in [Isaiah's] inability to teach people another way, he sets out the creation to indicate [its] extraordinary measure; that which, he says, is a drop in the bucket, a turning of a balance, or spittle, so much is all the human race in relation to that ineffable and unlimited power. Then [Isaiah] teaches that the collection of all kinds of beasts is a small thing and not enough for an offering in honor of the divine magnificence, and that [even] all the forests of Lebanon are incapable of satisfying the fire lit [on the altar of sacrifice]. What image could you, therefore, fashion that would be equivalent in nature?

What art can produce an imitation of him who precisely is boundless?

And as to the foolish work, that they wished to introduce the noblest form into base matter: has the workman cast a graven statue? They gave the incommunicable name to stones and wood (Wis 14:21).

On the subject of the God of the universe, [Isaiah] has expressed himself in the following manner: "Lebanon is not enough to burn," while here, to mock the feebleness of idols, he makes it obvious that the artisan has a need for wood to give form to the pretended god. Not only, [Isaiah] says, does he borrow its essence and its appearance from an outside source, but he even calls for much artfulness in order to obtain an image and to keep it from being moved.

The divinely inspired Scripture was not silent. For the knowledge of the truth from above was veiled through the patriarchs, through the law and the prophets. But this was not the case when the only-begotten Word of God came among us as a man to illuminate those on the earth. This was the last days when the leader of those who oppose spiritual deception came. It was the first of the attacks on idolatry. For the choir of the saints never stops attacking such deception, showing how loathsome it is while at the same time making known the [true] Maker and Lord of the universe.

(Vers. 21 seqq.) Do you not know? Do you not hear? Has it not been announced to you from the beginning? Have you not understood the foundations of the earth? He sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like locusts. He spreads out the heavens like nothing, and expands them as a tent to dwell in. He makes secret things known as if they were not. He has made the rulers of the earth as nothing. They are not planted, nor are they sown, nor do their roots take hold in the earth. He blows on them and they wither, and the whirlwind carries them away like stubble. And to whom have you compared me and made me equal? says the Lord. Lift up your eyes on high and see who has created these things: he who brings out their host by number, and calls them all by name. Because of his great power and strength, and because his power has no end. LXX: Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been told to you from the beginning? Have you not understood the foundation of the earth? He who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers. He who sets the heavens like a tent and stretches them like a dwelling place. He who makes princes rule for nothing, and reduces the earth to nothing. For they shall not be planted, nor shall they be sown, nor shall their root be established in the earth. He blows upon them, and they wither, and the storm carries them away like straw. So now to whom will you compare me? Or how am I equal? says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high and see: who created these? He who leads according to his ordered number, he will call all by name, from much glory and in the strength of fortitude: nothing escapes you. From the beginning, he said, I have taught you by the natural law, and afterwards I have testified through the written law of Moses, what idols are nothing, and that the Creator of the world himself is God, who has founded such a great mass of land upon the seas, and has placed it upon the rivers: so that the heaviest element hangs by the will of God upon the thin waters, who sits as a king upon the circumference of the earth: from which some contend that it is like a dot and a globe, and its inhabitants like locusts. For if we consider the various nations in the whole world, from the Ocean to the Ocean, that is, from the Indian sea to the British, and from the Atlantic to the harshness of the North, where the waters freeze and beautiful amber grows, we see that the entire human race dwells in the middle like locusts. So why does the earth and ash boast? Because the heavens, indeed, as I will use the authority of the Scriptures, are stretched out like a chamber; or, as it is contained in Hebrew, like a tent, of which we have spoken above: for which the LXX interpreted it as saliva there: and one word now translated as spit, now as chamber, that is, a vault; and its width extends above them like a tent and a canopy, so as to cover people like a roof and make them dwell as if in a very large house. Why should we be surprised if the small bodies of humans are considered like locusts and tiny creatures? Again, in this place, they argue that the semicircle is close to the earth (or rather, the heavens), and they claim that the sky is similar to a sphere. They use the term 'arch' because the middle part of the sphere covers the earth: when in Hebrew, we read not 'arch' but 'dust', that is, very fine powder. For the saliva that is thrown onto the ground and mixes with the dust and disappears, shows that the magnitude of all bodies should be regarded as nothing. But he who stretched out the heavens and spread them out, so that either above could dwell the multitude of angels, or below could dwell human beings, and as if he created a great house for reasonable creatures, he himself established princes according to the quality of the times, whether as secret scrutineers, so that they may be as if they are not; and he made judges of the earth as if they were nothing. For this reason, the Seventy translated it, but they translated the earth as if it were nothing; indeed, in the beginning of Genesis where it is written, 'But the earth was invisible and unfinished' (Gen. 1:1), others translated it as, 'But the earth was empty and nothing.' How many kings, both Greek and Barbarian, does Roman history narrate! Where is that countless army of Xerxes? Where is the multitude of Israel in the desert? Where is the incredible power of kings? What about the ancient ones? Let present examples teach us, that princes are considered as nothing, and rulers of the earth as empty. Those princes and rulers of the earth (or, as others suspect, of heaven) are neither satisfied, nor established, nor firmly rooted, and by the sudden command of God they are taken away and perish, as straw is carried away by the whirlwind and storm; according to what is written: 'I passed by, and he was not there; I sought him, and his place was not found' (Ps. XXXVI, 36). So with such great power and majesty of the Creator, how can you compare God to the likeness of a creature? And do you not rather understand the Creator from the magnitude of the creatures? If you do not believe in words, believe at least in your own eyes; and consider the power of the Lord from the service of the heavens and all the elements. He summons their army, that is, the heavens, in number; and he calls them all by name, and it is understood, the stars. Of which it is also sung in the Psalms: He counts the multitude of the stars: and he calls them all by name (Ps. 46:4). Whether we interpret the hosts of heaven as the army of angels and all the heavenly hosts of which Daniel speaks: Thousands of thousands ministered to Him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him (Dan. VII, 10). Hence the Lord of hosts is called, which in our language is called the Lord of armies and forces, or powers. He brings forth his host according to the number of the heavens: so that the sun, and the moon, and the other stars, which Abraham could not number, are numbered by Him, and serve the assigned function (Gen. XV): while the same course of the heavens is completed by the sun in one year, by the morning star and the evening star in two years, by the moon in each month, and all the stars follow their appointed times, and some of them are called wandering, and we see their movements with our eyes, not with our minds, nor do we understand them as much as we marvel at them. For the magnitude of God's strength makes all things serve in its own order. Whether according to the Seventy, by the multitude of his glory and the power of his virtue, nothing can escape him; but he knows all the ways, plans, and courses of the Creator by his majesty.

From the beginning, [Isaiah] says, have I not taught you the weakness of the idols? Do you not know who it is who set the earth on its foundations with a view to assuring its stability?

Second, he convicts the one who errs. And first, from the natural law, which prescribes: do you not know, by natural reason, that idols are not gods?; and from the written law, which prohibits: has it not been told you? Have they not heard? (Rom 10:18). He convicts also from the consideration of terrestrial creatures, as to their creation: have you not understood the foundations of the earth, to have been founded by him? That is, that part of the earth that is next to the center: when he balanced the foundations of the earth (Prov 8:29).

Therefore, it is enough to mention the qualities and substance of the heavens that we find in the writings of Isaiah, who expressed the nature of the celestial sphere in ordinary and familiar language, saying that God has made the heavens firm like smoke, not wanting to reveal its subtle and immaterial nature. And he also speaks of its appearance, saying that God has made the heavens like a vault, within which all things in the sea and on land are enclosed. It is similarly signified when it is read: Because the Lord has stretched out the heavens. For it is extended like a skin to the dwellings and abodes of the saints; or like a book, so that the names of many who have deserved the grace of Christ by faith and devotion may be written, to whom it is said: Rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.

"He that stretches out the heavens as a vaulted ceiling." These same thoughts, let us also recommend to ourselves concerning the earth, not to be curious about what its substance is; or to wear ourselves out by reasoning, seeking its very foundation; or to search for some nature destitute of qualities, existing without quality of itself; but to realize well that all that is seen around it is related to the reason of its existence, forming an essential part of its substance.

This is the first heaven, shaped like a vaulted chamber, which was created on the first day along with the earth, and of it Isaiah speaks thus: He that hath established the heaven as a vaulted chamber. But the heaven, which is bound to the first at the middle, is that which was created on the second day, to which Isaiah refers when he says: And having stretched it out as a tent to dwell in. David also says concerning it: Stretching out the heaven as a curtain, and indicating it still more clearly he says: Who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters.

For the very Prophet through whom the retrogression of the sun was effected, when, by means of the dread sign, he had in reality confuted the theory of the Babylonians, by showing that the heaven is not a revolving sphere, and that they held an opinion that is erroneous, this very Prophet not long afterwards speaks thus of the figure of the heaven: He that established the heaven as a vaulted chamber; and again: The Lord God who made the heaven and fixed it, thus declaring at once that it is a vault, and that it is established and fixed and not in revolution

For, contending against the divine words, which say: He that established the heaven as a vault, these most superior persons cry out in opposition and say: "It is not so, for it is spherical, and this is manifest from the eclipses which we have already adduced."

He made therefore the heaven, not a sphere, as those vain babblers conceive—for He did not make a rolling sphere, but, as the prophet says: Who hath made the heaven as a vaulted chamber and stretched it out as a tent to dwell in; for none of us is so impious as to be persuaded by these triflers, and not by the words of the Prophet, which declare that the heaven has a beginning and an end.

Nevertheless the main characteristic remains: the sense not merely that God is stronger than man, not merely that God is more secret than man, but that He means more, that He knows better what He is doing, that compared with Him we have something of the vagueness, the unreason, and the vagrancy of the beasts that perish. "It is He that sitteth above the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers." We might almost put it thus. The book is so intent upon asserting the personality of God that it almost asserts the impersonality of man. Unless this gigantic cosmic brain has conceived a thing, that thing is insecure and void; man has not enough tenacity to ensure its continuance.

When he spoke of the heavens, Isaiah said, "It is he who set up the heaven as a vaulted chamber and stretched it out as a tent over the earth." And he said of the earth, "It is he that comprehends the circle of the earth and made the earth as if it were nothing," even though the earth is so great and vast.… Despite the fact that the earth is so great and so vast, God made it with such ease that the prophet could find no fitting example. So he said that God made the earth "as if it were nothing."

It is he, [Isaiah] says, who has caused the earth to appear; it is he who holds it in his hand and who directs it. As for human beings, they are no different from grasshoppers if one compares them with divine power. Then [Isaiah] teaches that God is not only the Maker of the earth but also the Creator of the heavens: "He that set up the heaven as a chamber and stretched it out as a tent to dwell in." For since the earth is like the ground floor of a house and the sky simulates a roof in the form of an arch and dome, [Isaiah] has aptly compared it with a tent. And after having shown us the God of the universe as Creator, the prophetic text indicates to us his ineffable providence.

It is thus he has brought down Sennacherib, Nebuchadnezzar and thousands of others. "And has made the earth as nothing." For the power of the Creator does not even have the object of his creation as a measure, but only his will: "Our God has done in heaven and on earth whatsoever he has pleased," not all that he has the power [to do] but all he pleases: for he would be capable [of accomplishing] works many times greater, but God has accomplished what he judges to be best.

And as to their creator: it is he that sits upon the globe of the earth, for it is spherical, as though governing it, and the inhabitants thereof are as locusts, in respect to the magnitude of the earth, or of God himself; also from the creation of heavenly creatures: he that stretches out, as to the magnitude of heaven, as nothing, as to the subtlety of its substance, as a tent, for himself, as that in which his power first shines out among corporeal things, as to power; or as in the dwelling of the angels and saints, as to dignity; or also of the whole lower creation, as to their brightness: he prepares the world by his wisdom (Jer 10:3).

He convicts them as to the subjugation of the great, setting out the destruction of those who are great, either according to knowledge: he that brings the searchers of secrets, namely the philosophers; or according to power, the judges, that is, the princes: they have failed in their search (Ps 64:6).

And he shows the ease of their destruction by a similitude of grass or of a tree, which does not have strong roots in the earth: and surely: against a leaf, that is carried away with the wind, you show your power, and you pursue a dry straw (Job 13:25).

God is one thing, and what belongs to God is another thing.… How will you employ in a comparison with God an object as your example, [such as a king] which fails in all the purposes that belong to a comparison? Why, when supreme power among kings cannot evidently be varied but only unique and singular, is an exception made in the case of him (of all others) who is King of kings, and (from the exceeding greatness of his power and the subjection of all other ranks to him) the very summit, as it were, of dominion?

To him who has performed works, to him who has accomplished these works and who continually goes on performing them, to whom do you compare him? What mark of respect do you offer to him that is worthy of him?

He sets out the conclusion: and to whom have you likened me? Who in the clouds can be compared to the Lord? (Ps 89:6).

He says, look at the sun, the moon, the movement of the stars, the cycle of the year, the changing of the seasons, the regular succession of night and day. For this is what he has added: "He who brings forth by number the order of the cosmos." For He calls the setting in order of creation "the cosmos." "He shall call them all by names." He is ignorant of nothing, he says, but He knows all things with clarity, since it is He who has given a name equally to each and everything. "By means of the greatness of Your glory and by the power of Your might nothing has escaped You." He has power above all, He is able to do all, He is ignorant of nothing that exits and He knows the very thoughts of men. (Theodoret of Cyrus) God, whose knowledge is simply manifold, and uniform in its variety, comprehends all incomprehensibles with so incomprehensible a comprehension, that though He willed always to make His later works novel and unlike what went before them, He could not produce them without order and foresight, nor conceive them suddenly, but by His eternal foreknowledge. (St. Augustine City of God)

Since so great is the power and majesty of the Creator, to which likeness do you compare God, thus failing to understand the founder from the greatness of creation? If you do not believe the words, at least believe your eyes and recognize the power of the Lord from the service all heavens and elements give him, who "leads out their army by number," that is, the heavens, about which in the psalms it says, "Who numbers the host of stars and calls them all by name." Or we can call the army of heaven angels and all the companies of heaven.… For the greatness of the strength of God made all to serve him in order … but he knows their way and reasons and course in his majesty as the Creator.

In many places in scripture is the phrase "Lift up your eyes" set forth by the divine word, urging us to elevate and raise our thoughts and our vision, which is cast down and stooped, unable to fully look up and to rise on high; just as in Isaiah: "Lift up your eyes on high and see: who has created these things?" And the Savior, when about to proclaim the Beatitudes to those gathered on the plain, lifted up his eyes to his disciples and said, "Blessed are they" and so forth; for no true disciple of Jesus is below, just as neither is the one resting in Abraham's bosom. Thus the rich man, being in torments, lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham and Lazarus in his bosom. Moreover, the woman "bowed together and could in no wise lift up herself" was straightened by Jesus so that she might lift up her eyes. And no one involuntarily afflicted or attached to the flesh or immersed in material things has kept the commandment that says, "Lift up your eyes," whence such a one shall not see the fields even if they are "already white to harvest." Yet again, no one working the deeds of the flesh has lifted up their eyes.

[Isaiah] says, look at the sun, the moon, the movement of the stars, the cycle of the year, the changing of the seasons, the regular succession of night and day. For this is what [Isaiah] has added: "He who brings forth by number the order of the cosmos." For he calls the setting in order of creation "the cosmos." "He shall call them by names." He is ignorant of nothing, [Isaiah] says, but he knows all things with clarity, since it is he who has given a name equally to each and every thing. "By means of the greatness of [your] glory and by the power of [your] might nothing has escaped you." He has power above all, he is able [to do] all, he is ignorant of nothing that exists, and he knows the very thoughts of people.

Do not think that I ignore the designs of your souls, God says through Isaiah, and do not believe that you escape my view when you hold perverse reasonings. This passage lets [us] see clearly that he has also thrown the accusation of polytheism against Israel itself.

Lift up your eyes. Here he establishes the same divine power against those who despair. And first, he establishes divine majesty from the creation of things: who has created these things, namely, heavenly things: he spoke, and they were made (Ps 148:5); from the perfection of his knowledge: who brings out, to fulfill his will, in number, determined in his knowledge, their host, namely, the stars or angels of the heavens, and calls them all by their names, determining for each its proper nature, from which it can be named: who tells the number of the stars: and calls them all by their names (Ps 147:4); from the fullness of his dominion: by the greatness of his might, for fighting, and strength, for resisting, and power, for working; not one of them was missing, from his dominion: is there any numbering of his soldiers? (Job 25:3).

(Verse 27 and following) Why do you say, Jacob, and speak, Israel: My way is hidden from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over by my God? Do you not know, or have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, does not faint, neither is He weary, and there is no searching of His understanding. He gives power to the faint, and to them that have no might He increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall. But those who hope in the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall take wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. LXX: Do not say, Jacob, and what you spoke, Israel: My way is hidden from the Lord, and my judgment is disregarded by my God, and now you do not know, and have not heard? The eternal God, the God who created the ends of the earth: he shall not hunger, nor shall he labor, nor is there any finding of his understanding. He gives strength to the hungry: and does not grieve the sorrowful. For the young will hunger, and the adolescents will labor, and the chosen ones will be weak. But those who wait for God will change their strength. They will take wings like eagles: they will run, and will not labor: they will walk, and will not hunger. The greatness of the Almighty God is so vast that nothing escapes him, and everything is governed by his will. So why do you say Jacob, that is, the two tribes that were called Judah; and you speak of Israel, the other ten tribes in Samaria, who have already been led captive into Assyria: My way is hidden from the Lord: and my just judgment will pass by my God? And this is the meaning: You say that earthly things do not pertain to God, nor does He consider what each of us does. Hence we are unjustly oppressed by our enemies, and, like the beasts and the fish, we are scattered without any governor, according to Habakkuk. To this God responds: Do you not know? Have the words of the preceding Scriptures not taught you, or do you not know according to the Septuagint, because you have not heard that the eternal God and Creator of all things knows all things, contains all things, and governs all things with His majesty? Does it not fail at any time, nor does it labor; so that it does not understand your judgement, and your ways are hidden from it? There is no investigation of his wisdom, about which place I think that saying of the Apostle is taken: His judgments are incomprehensible, and his ways are investigable (perhaps 'unsearchable') (Rom. XI, 33); or, as the LXX translated, he does not hunger, and he does not labor. For where there is food, there is often hunger if you remove the food: and where there is hunger, there is also labor. But since these things are not in God, why do you attribute human passions to him? Rather, he gives strength to the hungry and weary, and he multiplies virtue and strength to those who seem to be nothing in the world. According to the Septuagint, it is he who gives sorrow to those who do not grieve, for it is sadness that leads to death, and it is sadness that leads to life. Therefore, to those who have a hardened heart, he gives sadness so that they may understand their sins. And because many take pleasure in bodily health, and consider youth and childhood to be perpetual, he joins this and says that the flourishing age quickly falls, and strong bodies wither. But those who have confidence not in their own strength, but in God, and always await His mercy, let them change their strength and go from virtue to virtue: and let them take wings like eagles, and hear: Your youth will be renewed like the eagle's (Psalm 103:5); let them run to the Lord, and not grow weary of desiring Him; let them walk, and never grow faint. We have frequently said that the eagles' old age is rejuvenated by a change of feathers, and only those eagles can look upon the sun's rays and behold the splendor of its shining with sparkling eyes: and they should prove their noble offspring, by means of this experiment. And so even the saints are made young again, and with an immortal body, they do not feel the toil of mortals, but are caught up in the clouds to meet Christ, and never go hungry according to the LXX, because they have the Lord himself as food.

He excludes their error. And first, he sets out the error: why say you: my way is hid from the Lord, he does not see what evils I suffer, otherwise, he would defend me; judgment, that is, the power to judge, which he formerly had: say not: I shall be hidden from God (Sir 16:17); they have said: the Lord has forsaken the earth, and the Lord sees not (Ezek 9:9).

If they shall assign the toil of making all things as the reason why God only made the Son, the whole creation will cry out against them as saying unworthy things of God; and Isaiah, too, who has said in Scripture, "The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, does not faint, neither is he weary: there is no searching of his understanding." And if God made the Son alone, as not lowering himself to make the rest but committed them to the Son as an assistant, this on the other hand is unworthy of God, for in him there is no pride. No, the Lord reproves the thought when he says, "Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing?" … If then it is not unworthy of God to exercise his providence, even down to things so small, a hair of the head and a sparrow and the grass of the field, also it was not unworthy of him to make them. For what things are the subjects of his providence, of those he is Maker through his proper Word. No, a worse absurdity lies before the people who speak this way; for they distinguish between the creatures and the framing and consider the latter the work of the Father, the creatures the work of the Son; whereas either all things must be brought to be with the Son, or if all that is originate comes to be through the Son, we must not call him one of the originated things.

Then he recalls the truths that he has often taught: "[I am an] eternal God." This is what the blessed Moses has also said: "I AM WHO I AM." As for the blessed David, he in his turn addresses himself to him in these terms: "But you, Lord, endure forever, and your remembrance to generation and generation." Or again: "But you are the same, and your years shall not fail."

He sets out the reproof of the error; and first, the confirmation of the proof from the law: know you not, from the natural law, or have you not heard, from the written law, these things which follow? He sets out the reproof, first, showing the greatness of God from the things which he has in himself, namely, the eternity of his dominion: everlasting God; the Lord shall reign for ever and ever (Exod 15:18); unfailing power: he shall not faint, that he could not do all things, nor labor, that he could do them with difficulty: his power is an everlasting power (Dan 7:14); the incomprehensibility of his knowledge, neither is there any searching out of his wisdom: O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and of the knowledge of God! How incomprehensible are his judgments, and how unsearchable his ways (Rom 11:33).

This is what the admirable Hannah has also said: "The Lord makes poor and makes rich; he brings low, and he lifts up."

Second, by the great things which he does in others. And first, in those whom he strengthens, he shows their original weakness: it is he that gives strength, as to him who first had been strong and then weakened; to them that are not, as to those who were not strong, above: you have been a strength to the poor (Isa 25:4); he calls those things that are not (Rom 4:17); the weak things of the world has God chosen (1 Cor 1:27).

He shows the greatness of his strength by comparison to natural strength, which he shows failing first: youths shall faint, who are in the state of advancing; young men, who seem strong: no man shall prevail by his own strength (1 Sam 2:9).

The second disposition for the inflowing of the gift of fortitude is through the imperturbable consolation of hope. "Those who hope in the Lord shall renew their strength: they shall take wings as eagles, they shall run and not labor: they shall walk and not grow faint." A man would gladly bear a great burden for a mark of gold. If a fly refreshes so much, then you ought greatly to be moved to endure for the hope of a future and eternal reward. In God we ought to trust, because he "gives strength to the weary."

We have said that the old age of eagles is revived by a change of their wings and that they alone who see the brilliance of the sun and the radiance of its splendor are able to gaze with gleaming eyes; and they test their young ones to see whether they are of noble birth by this same test. In the same way the saints are made young again as they put on their immortal bodies so that they no longer feel the toil of mortals but are taken up into the clouds before the face of Christ, and in no way (following the Septuagint) do they hunger, since they have the Lord present to them as food.

The soul runs swiftly to God and touches Him again and again; and it runs without fainting by reason of its hope. For here the love that has made it strong makes it to fly swiftly. Of this the prophet Isaiah speaks thus: ' The saints that hope in God shall renew their strength;'

These things took place at the time of the Jews and the divine apostles. In fact, all those who did not believe were handed over to famine, disease, war and bondage. Those, however, who believed were renewed by the All-Holy Spirit and so imitated the swift flight of eagles. They flew over all the earth, struggling in bodies so foreign to them.

The greatness of the strength given by God: but they that hope in the Lord shall change their strength, namely, from natural to divine, so that they are not tired in ascending: they shall take wings: they shall make themselves wings like those of an eagle (Prov 23:5); nor in swift progress: they shall run; nor in continuous advancing: they shall walk, above: there is none that shall faint, nor labor (Isa 5:27).

The saints are compared to eagles, because of the height of their flight: will the eagle mount up at your command, and make her nest in high places? (Job 39:27); in which is signified eminence of contemplation, above: his eyes shall see the king in his beauty (Isa 33:17); because of the subtlety of their odor: wheresoever the body shall be, thither will the eagles also be gathered together (Luke 17:37); in which is signified the fervor of love: we will run after you to the odor of your ointments (Song 1:3); because of the loftiness of their place: three things are hard to me, and the fourth I am utterly ignorant of. The way of an eagle in the air (Prov 30:18–19); in which is signified zeal for heavenly conversation: but our conversation is in heaven (Phil 3:20); because of the swiftness of their motion: our persecutors were swifter than the eagles of the air (Lam 4:19); in which is signified promptness of good works: have you seen a man swift in his work? (Prov 22:29); because of their renewal: your youth shall be renewed like the eagle's (Ps 103:5); in which is signified zeal for amendment and progress: though our outward man is corrupted, yet the inward man is renewed day by day (2 Cor 4:16); because of the beauty of their members: a large eagle with great wings, long-limbed, full of feathers, and of variety, came to Libanus (Ezek 17:3); in which is signified the beauty of the virtues: you are all fair, O my love (Song 4:7); because of their solicitude for their children: as the eagle enticing her young to fly, and hovering over them, he spread his wings (Deut 32:11); in which is signified solicitude for the saints: who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is scandalized, and I am not on fire? (2 Cor 11:29).