But when he speaks of the world of our senses as God’s footstool, it is for these reasons. First to shew that not in creation is to be found the cause which made it; secondly to make it plain that even the whole world does not move at its own free unshackled will, but is the standing-ground of God who steers and pilots in safety all that is. And yet to say that He uses hands or feet or any created part at all is not the true account. For God is not as man (Num. 23:19). It is but the form employed merely for our instruction because we cannot get outside ourselves, but frame our conceptions of the Uncreated from our own experience. It is a fine saying when by way of illustration he speaks of the world as an appearance of brick. It does seem to stand fast and firm like a brick as we judge it when our outward sight comes in contact with it, but its actual movement is exceeding swift, outstripping all particular movements. To our bodily eyes the sun by day and the moon by night present the appearance of standing still. Yet we all know that the rapidity of the course on which they are carried is unapproached, since they traverse the whole heaven in a single day. So too also the whole heaven itself appears to stand still but actually revolves, and this motion is apprehended by the eye which is itself invisible and closer akin to the divine—the eye of the understanding.
On the Confusion of Tongues 21
Tap any verse to see what it echoes — and start a chain or echo from it.