He has not even built a house for himself! He has nothing to do with space. Even if it is written that the heaven is his throne, he is not contained as the words suggest.

^[1] Heaven is my throne, while the earth is my footstool. . . . Haven’t you also read that other text, Who measured the heaven with the palm of his hand?^[2] . . . Whoever sat in the palm of his own hand? . . .

Does the same heaven become wide when he is sitting in it and narrow when he is measuring it? Or is God the same size in his seat as he is in his palm? If that is the case, God did not make us in his own likeness, because we have palms that are much narrower than the part of the body we sit with. But if he is as broad in the palm as he is broad in the beam, then he made very unequal parts for us. No, that is not where the likeness lies. Such an idol should be ashamed of itself in a Christian mind.

So then, take heaven as standing for all the saints, since earth too stands for all who are on the earth, Let all the earth worship you.^[3]

In hesitation I turn to Christ, since I am herein seeking him; and I discover how the earth may be worshiped without impiety, how his footstool may be worshiped without impiety. For he took on himself earth from earth, and he received flesh from the flesh of Mary. And because he walked here in very flesh and gave that very flesh to us to eat for our salvation, and no one eats that flesh unless he has first worshiped, we have found out in what sense such a footstool of our Lord may be worshiped, and not only that we do not sin in worshiping it but that we sin in not worshiping.

And worship his footstool for it is holy.^[1] What is this footstool of Jesus that is holy? We read in another place: The heavens are my throne, the earth is my footstool; and here, worship his footstool. If earth is Jesus’ footstool, and the psalm says worship his footstool, then is earth to be adored? How, then, do we read in the apostle^[2] that we must worship the Creator, not the creature? In Scripture, adoration conveys two different notions: worship as an act toward God and worship in the sense of reverence. When we use the word worship in relation to God, we mean the adoration that is proper to God. When, however, we use the term with reference to a human being, as for example, Sarah worshiped^[3] Abraham and Elijah worshiped Ahab—a most ungodly king—it does not mean that Elijah worshiped Ahab as if he were God but that this worship was more like a greeting.

Now, we are ready to examine the words and worship his footstool, and [we will] see in which way the word worship is intended. Do we adore God’s footstool just as we adore God or in the same sense that we worship and pay respect to a person? We have read in the Lamentations of Jeremiah and in another of the prophets, How the Lord has hallowed his footstool!^[4] In this passage, his footstool is Jerusalem, or the temple. And so, the reference is historical.

We shall now consider the verse and worship his footstool from another point of view. If feet rest on a footstool, the words Let us worship in the place where his feet have stood^[5] likewise refer to a footstool. In that event, we may hold to the letter and mean, for example, that place where he was born, where he was crucified, where he arose from the dead. This is the explanation for beginners. . . . [Or] Jesus’ footstool is the soul of the one who believes. Happy the person in whose heart Jesus sets his feet every day! If only he would set his feet in my heart! If only his footsteps would cling to my heart forever!

If you are not humble and peaceful, the grace of the Holy Spirit cannot live within you, if you do not receive the divine words with fear. For the Holy Spirit departs from the proud and stubborn and false soul. Therefore, you ought first to meditate on the law of God that, if perhaps your deeds are intemperate and your habits disordered, the law of God may correct you and reform you.

The prophet says in the person of the Father, My hand made all these things, meaning by hand in his dark saying, the power of the Only Begotten. Now the apostle says that all things are of the Father and that all things are by the Son,^[1] and the prophetic spirit in a way agrees with the apostolic teaching, which itself also is given through the Spirit.

We must preserve in the straight and narrow road of praise and glory; and since peacefulness and humility and the tranquility of a good life are fitting for all Christians, according to the word of the Lord, who looks to no other person than to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and that trembles at his word, it the more behooves you confessors, who have been made an example to the rest of the brothers, to observe and fulfill this, as being those whose characters should provoke to imitation the life and conduct of all.

Differently to be admonished are the humble and the haughty. To the former it is to be carefully communicated how true is that excellence that they hold in hoping for it; to the latter it is to be intimated how that temporal glory is as nothing, which even when embracing it they do not grasp it. Let the humble hear how eternal are the things that they long for, how transitory the things that they despise; let the haughty hear how transitory the things are that they court, how eternal the things are that they lose.

With the altar and earthly temple removed, which a human hand had built, the sacrifices of the Jews were also rightly removed, lest they say, perhaps, We are not so foolish as to think that God can be enclosed in one place, but we will choose a different location for offering the sacrifices to God that are commanded in the law. He who sits in heaven, therefore, the very Creator of the universe, who refuses to be held in an earthly temple, willingly adopts the person as his temple who is humble and meek and trembles at his word, according to the apostle, But you are the temple of God, and the Holy Spirit dwells in you.^[1]

In these terms God rejects the worship that was restricted to one place and shows that he is the maker of heaven and earth, and the shaper of all things and the one who has no need of a temple made with hands. . . .

I have a true house and holy temple. It is whoever arranges his or her life according to my laws and fears and trembles at transgressing my commands. It is the person who stands out in a gentle disposition and humility of mind.

On whom does my Spirit rest, if not on one who is humble and quiet and who trembles at my words?^[1] So when he becomes the occupant, he fills and guides and leads the person, restrains from evil and spurs on to good, makes justice delightful, so that the person does good out of love for what is right, not out of fear of punishment. No one is capable on their own of doing what I have said. But if you have the Holy Spirit as the occupant of your house, you will find him also assisting you in everything good.

At these words Peter trembled, Plato did not; so let the fisherman keep what the great and famous philosopher ignored! You have hidden these things from the wise and the knowing and have revealed them to the little ones.^[1]

People do not observe a spiritual sabbath unless they devote themselves to earthly occupations so moderately that they still engage in reading and prayer, at least frequently, if not always.

God wishes to dwell in you. In order that you may not be unable to receive him because you are full, if you are filled elsewhere, let your heart be freed of superfluities so that it may be filled with what is necessary. Vices should be expelled, in order that there may be room for virtues; to say briefly what is useful and quite necessary, let carnal desires be rejected and charity invited. As long as we do not expel evil, we cannot be filled with the good, because jars filled with slime cannot receive and hold precious ointment.

For heaven is his resting place and the earth his footstool, because on the earth he conversed in the flesh with men and women. And the sacred flesh of God has been called his foot. The church, too, is called the place of God, because we have set it apart for the glorifying of God as a sort of consecrated place wherein we also hold conversation with him. Likewise also the places in which his energy becomes manifest to us, whether through the flesh or apart from the flesh, are spoken of as the places of God.

By these words he rejected the worship prescribed by the law by teaching this; it was for their sake that he had established this legislation from early times, not because he took pleasure in their sacrifices but because he was exercising forethought for them in their weakness. That is why he put side by side what was allowed and what was forbidden, for to sacrifice an ox or give a sheep as a burnt offering, to offer the fruit of corn and frankincense—these were in former times permitted by God, but to start a fight and lose one’s tongue to blasphemy was totally forbidden.

When an impious person offers a lamb, it is as if he has killed a dog. To sum up: The perfect justice of God rejects those who break the law. . . . And so it is not permitted, according to the words of Scripture, to perform what may even be a work of justice, except worthily. Everyone must look to himself and, without thinking of more exalted or more profound tasks, he must think only about what has been assigned to his place.

He is angry with them, saying by Isaiah, Who has required these of your hands?^[1] And by Jeremiah, since they were very bold, he threatens, Gather together your whole burnt offerings with your sacrifices, and eat flesh, for I did not speak to your ancestors or command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.^[2] For they did not act as was right, neither was their zeal according to law, but they rather sought their own pleasure in such days, as the prophet accuses them, beating down their bondsmen and gathering themselves together for strifes and quarrels, and they struck the lowly with the fist and did all things that tended to their own gratification. For this cause, they continue without a feast until the end, although they make a display now of eating flesh, out of place and out of season. For, instead of the legally appointed lamb, they have learned to sacrifice to Baal; instead of the true unleavened bread, they collect the wood, and their fathers kindle the fire, and their wives prepare the dough, that they make cakes to the host of heaven and pour out libations to strange gods, that they may provoke me to anger, says the Lord.^[3] . . . Therefore now, he who among them sacrifices an ox is as he who strikes a man, and he who sacrifices a lamb is as he who kills a dog, he that offers fine flour, it is as [if he offered] swine’s blood. . . . Now these things will never please God, neither has the Word required this of them. But he says, These have chosen their own ways, and their abominations are what their soul delights in.

This is the meaning of the Hebrew text, as it appears to me: Listen, apostles, listen, my disciples, who tremble at the word of the Lord, for I will tell you what your brothers say who hate you and cast you out and judge you to be alien; this is not on account of any evil you have done but on account of my name, for they regard all from their ranks who believe in me as they do unclean Gentiles, to whom they say: depart from me, for you are impure. . . . But then it immediately adds, and they shall be confounded, namely, those who speak such things, who do not understand the mysteries of the Scriptures, who utilize its power for their own evil and who hold humility in contempt.

For it was the Lord’s voice that said, rendering recompense to his enemies, ordering and exhorting those who destroy to spare none of those captured, savagely attacking the enemies and not only simply with the wrath of warriors but also with the will of the Sovereign. For this was only the means of their captivity and suffering.

Now when the fullness of time came, an angel of the Lord was sent to [Mary] with the good news of her conception of the Lord. And thus she conceived the Son of God, the subsistent power of the Father, not of the will of the flesh or of the will of man^[1]—that is to say, not of carnal conjunction and seed—but of the good pleasure of the Father and the cooperation of the Holy Spirit. To the Creator she gave that he might be created, to the Fashioner that he might be fashioned, and to the Son of God and God that he might from her innocent and undefiled flesh and blood put on flesh and become man. And thus she paid the debt for the first mother. For as Eve was formed from Adam without carnal conjunction, so did this one bring forth the new Adam in accordance with the law of gestation but surpassing the nature of generation. Thus, he who is without a mother begotten of a father was without a father born of a woman. And because it was of a woman it was in accordance with the law of gestation; while, because it was without father, it surpassed the nature of generation. And because it was at the normal time, for having completed the nine-month period he was born at the beginning of the tenth, it was in accordance with the law of gestation, while because it was without pain it surpassed the established order of birth—for where pleasure had not preceded, pain did not follow, as the prophet said, Before she was in labor, she brought forth, and again, before her time came to be delivered she brought forth a man child.

And so the Son of God became incarnate and was born of her. It was not as God-bearing man that he was born of her but as God incarnate; not as a prophet anointed through the operation of the one anointing but as one anointed with the entire presence of the one anointing—so that the one anointing became man and the one anointed became God.

Before she was in labor, she gave birth; before her pains came, she escaped and delivered a male child. Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? The most holy virgin mother, therefore, escaped entirely the manner of women even before she gave birth, doubtless in order that with the Holy Spirit betrothing her to himself and sanctifying her, she might conceive without intercourse with man. She has brought forth her firstborn Son, even the only-begotten Son of God . . . who on earth, in the Virgin’s nuptial chamber, joined to himself the nature of Adam, like a bridegroom, by an inalienable union, and he preserved his mother’s purity incorrupt and uninjured; him in short who in heaven was begotten without corruption and on earth birthed in a manner quite unspeakable.

Zion therefore gave birth, that is, the remnant of Israel and the faith of the believing apostles gave birth to the male Lord and Savior, who was generated at once throughout the entire universe. No one has either heard or told his story or taught it to anyone, so that all the nations might come to believe in a very short time and that there might be formed one Christian people from all the various peoples. This is what Paul was talking about when he said, If any are in Christ, they are new creatures; the old has passed away and behold, they are made new,^[1] as it is also written elsewhere, All the families of the nations will worship before him.^[2] . . . And this people was created in one day, whom the sun of righteousness^[3] illumined, as the Scripture says: The Lord will be your everlasting light.^[4] We can also correlate what is said here, a people will arise as one because Zion bore and delivered her sons, to that time when, on one day, three thousand and another five thousand of the Jewish people believed.^[5] Moreover, it is said in the same book of the Acts of the Apostles that there were persons in Jerusalem from all the nations under heaven, who heard one another speaking the glorious deeds of God, each in their own language.^[6] . . . But the meaning of the Septuagint’s text of this verse is that one people from the entire world shall arise in one moment to the preaching of the gospel. Or, in other words: I have repeatedly made this promise through many prophets, but you have not kept my promise in mind, O city full of crying, O temple vacated by the Lord, O people to whom I returned its own rejection. Is it not I who make fertile and make sterile? Did not she who was previously barren not later bear and deliver a child? Of this is it written in the Psalms: He gives the barren woman a home and makes her a joyful mother of children.^[7]

Again Isaiah teaches that Jerusalem will not be destroyed root, branch and all. For when he foretold the complete captivity of Jerusalem, he mentioned those chosen to survive. For a not insignificant number will be saved, obviously through faith in Christ—and he wants to make this clear. But the Jews were enraged with him and killed the prince of life. But when he rose again, trampling on death, he returned to his God and Father in heaven. In the meantime, the divine apostles proclaimed him to all, and they called even those who had been enraged with him to repentance and to salvation through faith and the forgiveness of sins through baptism.

Those who write of the nature of animals say that all wild creatures, beasts of burden, and sheep and birds have an innate affection for their offspring and young but that the greatest love is found among eagles, who build their nests in very high and inaccessible locations so that no serpent can harm their chicks. Also to be found among newly hatched eagles is the aetiten stone,^[1] which overcomes all poisons. If this is true, then the eagle’s affection is rightly compared with that of God for his creatures, who protects his children by taking every precaution to shatter the adversary’s plots on the name of the stone that is placed in Zion’s foundation,^[2] lest the dragon and ancient serpent, the devil and Satan, seize his newborns.^[3] And this Jerusalem, a mother by whom sons are consoled and caressed on her knees, is she of whom the apostle wrote: But the Jerusalem above, who is the mother of us all, is free.^[4]

This struggle is the correction of noble good deeds in them. For their sweat is profitable, and they have youth-like endurance in order to gain not an earthly possession but rather so that they become filled with graces from God and are satisfied in every desire. To these he makes this promise, Like infants at the breast you will be filled by the breasts of consolation. Since Isaiah has previously compared the figure of a woman with the new Zion, he remains in this way of speaking and compares this comfort with that of the breasts and milk of the Holy Spirit. For in the Song of Songs it says, Your breasts are better than wine.^[1] . . . And Scripture calls Christ glory, for the psalmist says about him, to prepare glory in our land.^[2] This entrance is the mystery of the economy in the flesh. Being God by nature, he became man through his incarnation and in such manner came into the world. Those feed on the precise message of faith concerning him, and they learn in what way the glory, that is, Christ came into the world. And directly connected to this, the divine prophet speaks of his clear appearance in the flesh, taking on Christ’s voice as he says, I will descend on them as a river of peace, and as a spring I will wash over the glory ofthe nations.

So, then, the Holy Spirit is the river, and the abundant river, which according to the Hebrews flowed from Jesus in the lands, as we have received it prophesied by the mouth of Isaiah. This is the great river that flows always and never fails. And not only a river but also one of the copious stream and overflowing greatness, as also David said, The stream of the river makes glad the city of God.^[1]

A mother draws her children near her; we seek our mother, the church. Whatever is weak and young has an appeal and sweetness and lovableness of its own, just because in its weakness it does stand in need of assistance. But God does not withhold assistance from such an age of life. Just as the male and female parent regard their young tenderly—whether it be horses their colts, or cows their calves, or lions their cubs, or deer their fawn or men and women their children—so, too, does the Father of all draw near to those who seek his aid, giving them a new birth and making them his own adopted children. He recognizes them as his little ones, he loves only them, and he comes to the aid of such as these and defends them. That is why he calls them his children.

For it is not only in the present life that I provide consolation for you through my heralds, but also in the heavenly city I will fill you with manifold joys—granting you the resurrection from the dead. This is what he meant by comparing the growth of bones to the growth of a plant.

By the Lord will come in fire and with his chariots like a tornado or storm we should understand him to be speaking of the angelic powers, when the Lord will come in the glory of the Father with his angels to judge the living and the dead.^[1] This is not to suggest, however, that the Lord himself is fire, but rather that the punishment to be sustained will feel like fire. Although Moses said and an apostle confirmed that God is a consuming fire,^[2] the Savior expressed the very substance of his divinity when he said, God is spirit.^[3] And there is a great difference between fire and spirit, according to the corporal understanding. . . . God is called a consuming fire, therefore, because he consumes our weaknesses, our stubble and briars and thorns, that is, the cares of this world, which cause the earth to be fruitless for the good seed,^[4] as it is said in the letter to the Hebrews: But if it bears thorns and stubble, it is reprobate and near to being cursed, the end of which is destruction.^[5]

For he will come like fire. . . . For he will descend from heaven in the glory of God the Father and with the angels. This is his chariot, as it is praised in the Psalms: The chariot of the Lord is ten thousand in dimensions with thousands of those rejoicing.^[1] For he will come to give judgment in anger and to cast them off with a flame of fire. For casting off means rejection, just as he says to those who are dead in their sins, Depart from me, you evildoers.^[2]