3. To thee, poor little feeble man, India is
far from the land of the Goths, and Spain from Persia; but to God, who
holds the whole earth in the hollow of His hand Is. xl. 12., all things are near at hand. Impute
not then weakness to God, from a comparison of thy feebleness, but
rather dwell on His power On the argument from
God’s power compare Athenagoras, De Resurr. c. ix; Justin.
M. De Resurr. c. v; Theophil. ad Autolyc. c. xiii.; Iren.
V. iii. 2.. Does then
the sun, a small work of God, by one glance of his beams give warmth to
the whole world; does the atmosphere, which God has made, encompass all
things in the world; and is God, who is the Creator both of the sun,
and of the atmosphere, far off from the world? Imagine a mixture
of seeds of different plants (for as thou art weak concerning the
faith, the examples which I allege are weak also), and that these
different seeds are contained in thy single hand; is it then to thee,
who art a man, a difficult or an easy matter to separate what is in
thine hand, and to collect each seed according to its nature, and
restore it to its own kind? Canst thou then separate the things
in thine hand, and cannot God separate the things contained in His
hand, and restore them to their proper place? Consider what I
say, whether it is not impious to deny it?