And so, when you have gone over all these points^[1] with suitable reflections on each, when you have, in addition, studied the process of breathing, the manner in which the heart conserves its warmth, the organs of digestion and the veins, you will discern in all of these wonders the inscrutable wisdom of the Creator; so that you will be able to say with the prophet: Your knowledge is become wonderful from the study of myself. Give heed, therefore, to yourself, that you may give heed to God, to whom be glory and power forever and ever. Amen.

In truth, to know oneself seems to be the hardest of all things. Not only our eye, which observes external objects, does not use the sense of sight on itself, but even our mind, which contemplates intently another’s sin, is slow in the recognition of its own defects. Therefore, even at present our speech, after eagerly investigating matters pertaining to others, is slow and hesitant in the examination of our own nature. Yet, it is not possible for one, intelligently examining himself, to learn to know God better from the heavens and earth than from our own constitution, as the prophet says, Your knowledge is become wonderful from myself; that is, having carefully observed myself, I have understood the superabundance of wisdom in you.

Do we, whose minds are so feeble, believe that we can comprehend whether God’s foresight is the same as his memory and understanding, who do not behold individual things by thought but embraces all that he knows in one eternal, unchangeable and ineffable vision? In this difficulty and distress, therefore, we may indeed cry aloud to the living God, Your knowledge is become wonderful to me; it is sublime, and I cannot reach it. For I understand from myself how wonderful and how incomprehensible your knowledge is, by which you have made me, when I consider that I cannot even comprehend myself whom you have made; and yet in my meditation a fire flames out,^[1] so that I seek your face evermore.^[2]

Since water does not support horses, donkeys, mules, the tracks of wheels and the marks of wagons and chariots, which are all unmistakable guides to travelers by land, the Maker of the universe has given to the broad seas the disposition of the stars like road tracks on land.

Praise the wonders of divine providence!

Oh! Ineffable love! Oh! unspeakable wisdom! Who could marvel enough at the goodness of divine providence, at its power, its nobility in difficulties, its ease in managing awkward situations, its magnificence, its resourcefulness? Truly your knowledge was wonderful to me: I was overwhelmed and could not reach to it. That is my exclamation, too. If you listen to me, you too will recite these words with me, praise the Benefactor with all your might and render grateful words of thanks for his countless blessings.

And so loud is their proclamation that the whole human race hears their voice, There are no speeches or utterances where their voices are not heard.^[1] For every race and every tongue hears the proclamations of day and night. Tongue differs from tongue, but nature is one and derives the same lesson from day and night. Thus the same author, singing the praises of the Creator in another psalm, says, Your knowledge was wonderful to me; I was overwhelmed, and I could not reach to it.

Therefore, let us listen to what the prophet says about this: Your knowledge is too wonderful for me. But let us see what he says further on: I will give you thanks, for you are fearful and wonderful. Why fearful? We wonder at the beauty of columns, mural art, the physical bloom of youth. Again, we wonder at the open sea and its limitless depth, but we wonder fearfully when we stoop down and see how deep it is. It was in this way that the prophet stooped down and looked at the limitless and yawning sea of God’s wisdom. And he was struck with shuddering. He was deeply frightened, he drew back, and he said in a loud voice, I will give you thanks for you are fearfully wondrous; wondrous are your works.^[1] And again, Your knowledge is too wondrous for me; it is too lofty and I cannot attain to it.

Do you see how prudent the servant is and how grateful is his heart? What he is saying is this: I thank you that I have a Master whom I cannot comprehend. And he is not now speaking of God’s essence. He passes over the incomprehensibility of his essence as if it is something on which everybody is agreed. What he is speaking of here is God’s omnipresence; and he is showing that this is the very thing that he does not understand, namely, how God is present everywhere. To prove to you that he is speaking of God’s omnipresence, listen to what follows: If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I go down to hell, you are present.^[2] Do you see how God is everywhere present? The prophet did not know how this was true but he shudders, he is upset, he is at a loss when he so much as thinks about it.

Since, therefore, all things are seen and heard, let us fear him and abandon the abominable lusts that spawn evil works, in order that we may be shielded by his mercy from the coming judgments. For where can any of us escape from his mighty hand? For the Scripture says somewhere, Where shall I go, and where shall I be hidden from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there; if I depart to the ends of the earth, there is your right hand; if I take my bed in the depths, there is your Spirit. Where, then, can one go, or where can one flee from him who embraces the universe? 1

For if our heart should have a bad opinion [of us], that is, should accuse us within, because we do not do with that intention with which it ought to be done, God is greater than our heart and knows all things. You conceal your heart from people; conceal it from God if you can. How will you conceal it from him to whom it was said by a certain sinner, Where shall I go from your spirit, and from your face where shall I flee? He was asking where he might flee to escape the judgment of God and did not find [an answer]. For where is God not? If I ascend into heaven, he says, you are there. If I descend into hell, you are present. Where will you go? Where will you flee? Do you wish to listen to advice? If you wish to flee from him, flee to him! Flee to him by confessing, not by hiding from him. For you cannot hide, but you can confess. Say to him, You are my refuge,^[1] and let love be nurtured in you, which alone leads to life. Let your conscience bear testimony to you because it is of God. If it is of God, do not wish to boast of it before people because neither the praises of people lift you into heaven nor do their censurings put you down from there. Let him who gives the crown see; let him be witness by whom as Judge you are crowned. God is greater than our heart and knows all things.

Hold most firmly and never doubt that God the Trinity is unbounded in power, not in mass; and that every creature, spiritual and bodily, is bound by his power and his presence. For God the Father says, I fill the heavens and the earth.^[1] For it is said of the Wisdom of God, which his Son is, that it reaches mightily from one end of the earth to the other and orders all things well.^[2] Concerning the Holy Spirit we read that the Spirit of the Lord has filled the whole world.^[3] And David the prophet says, Where can I go from your Spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.

My mind, intent on the study of truth, took delight in these most pious teachings about God. For it did not consider any other thing worthy of God than that he is so far beyond the power of comprehension that the more the infinite spirit would endeavor to encompass him to any degree, even though it be by an arbitrary assumption, the more the infinity of a measureless eternity would surpass the entire infinity of the nature that pursues it. Although we understood this teaching in a reverent manner, it was clearly confirmed by these words of the prophet: Whither shall I go from your spirit? Or whither shall I flee from your face? If I ascend into heaven, you are there; if I descend into hell, you are present. If I take my wings early in the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there also shall your hand lead me and your right hand shall hold me. There is no place without God, nor is there any place which is not in God. He is in heaven, in hell and beyond the seas. He is within all things; he comes forth and is outside all things. While he thus possesses and is possessed, he is not included in anything nor is he not in all things.

I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.^[1] The son set out abroad and fled into a far country; but he did not escape from those accusing witnesses, the eyes of the heavenly Father. David explains this more clearly by his words: Whither shall I go from your spirit? or whither shall I flee from your face? If I ascend into heaven, you are there; if I descend into hell, you are present. If I take my wings early in the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall your hand lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. David sees that throughout the world all transgressions stand exposed to the eyes of God. Neither the sky, nor the earth, nor the seas, nor a deep cavern nor night itself can hide sins from him. The psalmist perceives how lawless and evil it is to sin in the sight of God. Therefore, he cries out, To you only have I sinned and have done evil before you.^[2]

If they^[1] really conceive of a kind of subordination of the Son in relation to the Father, as though he were in a lower place, so that the Father sits above and the Son is thrust off to the next seat below, let them confess what they mean. We shall have no more to say. A plain statement of the view will at once expose its absurdity. They who refuse to allow that the Father pervades all things do not so much as maintain the logical sequence of thought in their argument. The faith of the orthodox is that God fills all things; but they who divide their up and down between the Father and the Son do not remember even the word of the prophet: If I climb up into heaven, you are there; if I go down to hell, you are there also. Now, to omit all proof of the ignorance of those who predicate place of incorporeal things, what excuse can be found for their attack upon Scripture, shameless as their antagonism is, in the passages Sit on my right hand^[2] and Sat down on the right hand of the majesty of God?^[3] The expression right hand does not, as they contend, indicate the lower place, but equality of relation; it is not understood physically, in which case there might be something sinister about God, but Scripture puts before us the magnificence of the dignity of the Son by the use of dignified language indicating the seat of honor. It is left then for our opponents to allege that this expression signifies inferiority of rank. Let them learn that Christ is the power of God and wisdom of God,^[4] and that he is the image of the invisible God^[5] and brightness of his glory^[6] and that him has God the Father sealed,^[7] by engraving himself on him.

For God was everywhere who said, I fill heaven and earth.^[1] But if this was said of the Father, where could he be without his Word and his Wisdom, which teaches from end to end mightily, and orders all things sweetly?^[2] But neither could he be anywhere without his Spirit. If, therefore, God is everywhere, then his Spirit is also everywhere. Consequently, the Holy Spirit was also sent to that place where he already was. For he, too, who finds no place to which he could go from the face of God, says, If I shall ascend into heaven, you are there; if I shall descend into hell, you are present, wishing it to be understood that God is present everywhere, referred to his Spirit in the preceding verse. For there he spoke as follows: Where shall I go from your Spirit? And where shall I flee from your face?

For this reason, of course, it was not enough for Jesus to say, I will that where I am they also may be, but he added, with me.^[1] For to be with him is a great good. For even the wretched can be where he is because wherever anybody at all may be [there] he also is; but the blessed alone are with him, because they will be unable to be blessed except by his action. Or has it not been truly said to God, If I ascend into heaven, you are there; and if I descend into hell, you are present? Or on the other hand is Christ not God’s Wisdom, which reaches everywhere by reason of its purity?^[2]

Likewise we Christians who are Christ’s servants should truly stand valiantly in wakefulness like good and faithful servants^[1] who are eager to do honor to their master. Let us gird ourselves in asceticism, inwardly strengthened by austerity, having the lamps of our hearts filled with the oil of grace^[2] from the Spirit and illumined by prayer; in this way we shall valiantly do battle with the powerful incitement provided by the sweetness of sleep. In this way the dark will be light for us, just as the prophet said, and night will be illumined by our faces: the darkness will not make our minds dark, so let us spend the dark night awake as if it were bright daylight.

Therefore the Lord supported us when he fashioned us; he supports us also when he bids us to be born. Consequently, the just person says, You have supported me from my mother’s womb. Whose mother’s? Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you.^[1] Those, whom the Lord forms, he also supports; he supports them even in their coming forth: And before you came forth from your mother’s womb, I sanctified you.^[2] He is our supporter, for he has supported us with his hands. He is called a supporter as the Creator of the human race. And he is our supporter, for he has supported us by his visitation, that he may protect us. In view of this, the psalmist himself says in another passage, He that dwells in the aid of the most High shall say to the Lord, ‘You are my supporter and my refuge.’^[3] The first support is that of God’s working in us, the second in that of his protection of us. Indeed, listen to Moses saying, Spreading his wings he received them and supported them upon his shoulders.^[4] He supported them like the eagle, which was accustomed to examine its progeny, so as to keep and to bring up those whom it observed to possess the qualities of a true offspring and the gift of an undamaged constitution and to reject those in whom it detected weakness of a degenerate origin even at that tender age.

Let them not persuade themselves that they should not do penance, who, although they have not contaminated their hands by impious sacrifices, yet have defiled their consciences with certificates.^[1] That profession is of one who denies; the testimony is of a Christian who rejects what he had been. He said that he had done what another actually did, and, although it is written, You cannot serve two masters,^[2] he served a secular master, he submitted to his edict, he obeyed human authority rather than God. He should have seen whether he published what he committed with less scandal or less guilt among people; however, he will not be able to escape and avoid God as his judge, for the Holy Spirit says in the Psalms, Your eyes have seen my imperfection, and all will be written in your book, and again, People look on the face, but God [looks] on the heart. Let the Lord himself also forewarn and instruct you with these words: And all the churches shall know that I am he who searches the desires and hearts.^[3] He perceives the concealed and the secret and considers the hidden, nor can anyone evade the eyes of God who says, Am I a God at hand, and not a God afar off? Shall a person be hid in secret places and I not see him?^[4] He sees the hearts and breasts of each one, and, when about to pass judgment not only on our deeds but also on our words and thoughts, he looks into the minds and the wills conceived in the very recess of a still closed heart.

Watch, for when the body is sleeping it is nature that holds sway over us, and our activity is directed not by our wills but by the impulse of nature. When a heavy torpor of weakness and sadness rules over the soul, it is the enemy who holds sway over it and leads it against its own desire. It is force that holds sway over nature and the enemy who holds sway over the soul. That is why our Lord spoke of vigilance of soul and of body lest the body sink into a heavy sleep and the soul into a sluggishness born of timidity; just as [Scripture] says, Let justice awaken you,^[1] and, When I awake I am still with you, and, Do not lose heart.^[2] This is why we do not lose heart^[3] in the ministry confided to us.

Yet, it is not hard for us, if we wish it, to take up a love for justice and a hatred for iniquity. God has advantageously given all power to the rational soul, as that of loving, so also that of hating, in order that, guided by reason, we may love virtue but hate vice. It is possible at times to use hatred even praiseworthily. Have I not hated them, O Lord, that hated you and pined away because of your enemies? I have hated them with a perfect hatred.^[1]

I also ask and beg of you to expound for me what [Paul] says to the Romans, for I admit I have very poor sight for this opinion of the apostle about the Jews, where he says, As concerning the gospel, indeed they are enemies for your sake, but as touching the election they are most dear for the sake of the ancestors.^[1] How can these same ones be enemies for our sake, now that we former Gentiles have become believers, as if Gentiles could only believe if the Jews had refused to believe? Is not God the one Creator of all, who will have all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth,^[2] and was he not able to gain both without dispossessing one for the other? Second, most dear for the sake of the ancestors: how or why this most dear, if they do not believe and if they continue to be enemies of God? O God, he says, have I not hated them that hated you and pined away because of your enemies? I have hated them with a perfect hatred.^[3] Certainly, I think the Father’s voice speaks to his Son by the prophet in the same psalm where he spoke on behalf of believers: But to me your friends, O God, are made exceedingly honorable; their dominions are exceedingly strengthened. How can it be profitable for their salvation to be most dear to God for the sake of the ancestors when salvation is acquired only through the faith and grace of Christ? What good does it do them to be loved, when they are inevitably to be damned because of their unbelief, because they have fallen away from the faith of the prophets and of the patriarchs, their ancestors, and have become enemies of the gospel of Christ? If they are most dear to God, how shall they be lost? And if they do not believe, how can they fail to be lost? If they are loved for the sake of the ancestors, without any merit of their own, why will they not be saved for the sake of the ancestors, too? And if, Noah, Daniel and Job shall be in the midst thereof, they shall not deliver the wicked children: they shall be delivered.^[4]