I hear thee; I have read it also: but it may be that thou thinkest thyself to have the advantage,
in that thou hast both read and believed. But I also believe what thou hast just said. Let us
then believe it together. What do I say? Let us search it out together. Lo! hold fast what thou
hast so read and believed; “Heaven is My throne (that is, “my seat,” for “throne,”1917 in
Greek, is “seat,”1918 in Latin), and the earth is My footstool.” But hast thou not read these
words as well, “Who has meted out the heaven with the palm of His hand?”1919 I conclude
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that thou hast read them; thou dost acknowledge them, and confess that thou believest them;
for in that book we read both the one and the other, and believe both. But now think a while,
and teach me. I make thee my teacher, and myself the little one. Teach me, I pray thee, “Who
is He that sitteth on the palm of His hand?”
14. See, thou hast drawn the figure and lineaments of the members of God from a human
body. And perhaps it has occurred to thee to think, that it is according to the body that we
were made after the Image of God. I will admit this idea for a time to be considered, and
canvassed, and examined, and by disputation to be thoroughly sifted. Now then, if it please
thee, hear me; for I heard thee in what thou wast pleased to say. God sitteth in heaven, and
meteth out the heaven with His palm. What! doth the same heaven become broad when it
is God’s seat, and narrow, when He meteth it out? Or is1920 God when sitting, limited to
the measure of His palm? If this be so, God did not make us after His likeness, for the palm
of our hand is much narrower than that part of the body whereon we sit. But if He be as
broad in His palm as in His sitting, He hath made our members quite unlike His. There is
no resemblance here. Let the Christian then blush to set up such an idol in his heart as this.
Wherefore take heaven for all saints. For the earth also is spoken of all who are in the earth,
“Let all the earth worship Thee.”1921 If we may properly say with regard to those who dwell
on the earth, “Let all the earth worship Thee,” we may with the same propriety say also as
to those who dwell in heaven, “Let all the heaven bear Thee.” For even the Saints who dwell
on earth, though in their body they tread the earth, in heart dwell in heaven. For it is not in
vain that they are reminded to “lift up their hearts,”1922 and when they are so reminded,
they answer, “that they lift them up:” nor in vain is it said, “If ye then be risen with Christ,
seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your
affections on things above, not on things on the earth.”1923 In so far therefore as they have
1917 Thronus.
1918 Sedes.
1919 Isa. xl. 12.
1920 An ipse Deus tantus est in sedendo quantus in palmo.
1921 Ps. lxv. 4, Sept. (lxvi. English version).
1922 In the Communion Office.
1923 Col. iii. 1, 2.
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On the words of the Gospel, Matt. Chap. v. 3 and 8, 'Blessed are the poor…