The faith of Christians is to be distinguished from the faith of demons.
Our faith must be distinguished from the faith of demons. For our faith cleanses the heart: but their faith makes them guilty. Indeed, they act wickedly, and therefore they say to the Lord: What have we to do with you? When you hear the demons say this, do you think they do not recognize him? We know, - they say -, who you are. You are the Son of God. Peter says this and is praised: the demon says this and is condemned. Whence this difference, except because the voice is alike, but the heart is different? Let us therefore distinguish our faith, nor is it enough to believe. Such faith does not cleanse the heart. By faith, he says, cleansing their hearts. But what faith, by what kind of faith, except that which the Apostle Paul defines, where he says: Faith which works through love? This faith distinguishes itself from the faith of demons, distinguishes itself from the flagitious and lost manners of men. Faith, he says. What faith? The faith which works through love, hopes for what God promises. Nothing more weighty than this definition, nothing more perfect. Therefore, there are these three things. It is necessary that in whom is faith, which works through love, hopes for what God promises. Hope is therefore the companion of faith. Hope indeed is necessary, as long as we do not see what we believe; lest, perhaps, by not seeing and despairing, we fail. It saddens us, because we do not see: but it consoles us, because we hope to see. Therefore, hope is present, and it is a companion of faith. Then also charity, by which we desire, by which we strive to reach, by which we burn, by which we hunger and thirst. This, therefore, is also added: and there will be faith, hope, and charity. For how will there not be charity, since charity is nothing else but love? But faith itself is defined, which works through love. Take away faith, what you believe perishes; take away charity, what you act perishes. For it pertains to faith that you believe; to charity, that you act. For if you believe and do not love, you do not move toward good work: and if you move, you move as a servant, not as a son: fearing punishment, not loving righteousness. Therefore, that faith, I say, cleanses the heart, which works through love.
God is not to be thought of as a body.
And now what does faith itself do? With such great testimonies of the Scriptures, with so manifold a reading, with so various and abundant an exhortation, what does it do but that we now see through a mirror in a riddle, and then face to face? But do not return again to that face of yours. Think of the face of the heart. Compel your heart to think of divine things, compel, urge. Whatever resembles the body that occurs to you thinking, cast it away. You are not yet able to say: "This is it"; at least say: "This is not it." For when will you say: "This is God"? Not even when you see it: because it is ineffable what you will see. The Apostle says he was caught up into the third heaven, and heard ineffable words. If the words are ineffable, what of that to which the words belong? Therefore, as you think about God, some grand and very large human shape perhaps occurs to you: you have placed it in the sight of your thought, as if it were something great, very large, grand, spread out with a very immense bulk. You have delimited it somewhere. If you have delimited it, it is not God. If you have not delimited it, where is the face? You are thinking of bulk, and to distinguish the parts, you set limits to the bulk. For otherwise you cannot distinguish the parts, unless you give the bulk an end. What are you doing, foolish and carnal thought? You made a great bulk, and all the greater as you thought you were honoring God more. Another one adds a cubit, and makes it greater.
A passage of Isaiah seems opposed.
But you say you have read. What have you read, who understood nothing? And yet tell, what did you read? Let us not repel the little one playing in the heart. Tell what you have read? Heaven is my throne, but the earth is the footstool of my feet. I hear, I have also read: but perhaps you think yourself superior because you have read and believed. I also believe what you said. Let us believe together. What do I say? Let us seek together. Behold, hold to what you read and believed: Heaven is my throne, that is, a seat; for ‘throne’ in Greek is ‘seat’ in Latin: but the earth is the footstool of my feet. Have you not also read this: Who has measured the heavens with the span of his hand? I think you have read: you recognize, and you confess to believe. For there indeed we read both, we believe both. Now already think, and teach me: I employ you as a teacher and make myself a little child. Teach me, I beseech you. Who is it that sits in the palm of his hand?
The passage mentioned above is being examined.
Behold, you have derived the figures and outline of the members of God from the human body. But perhaps it slipped your mind, that we were made according to the body in the image of God. Meanwhile, I accept this for consideration, examination, questioning, and being tested in dispute. If it pleases, listen to me: because in that which pleased you, I have listened to you.
God sits in heaven, and measures the heaven by his palm. Does this same heaven become wide when he sits, and narrow when he measures? Or is God himself as extensive in sitting as in the palm? If this is so, God did not make us in his likeness: for we have a palm that is much narrower than the part of the body on which we sit. But if he is as wide in his palm as he is in his sitting, he made for us members that are uneven. This is not a likeness. Therefore, let such an idol be ashamed in the Christian heart.
Accordingly, take heaven to represent all saints. For the earth is also said to represent all who are on earth: All the earth worships you. If we rightly speak according to those who dwell on earth: All the earth worships you: we rightly speak also according to those who dwell in heaven, All heaven bears you. For even the saints themselves who dwell on earth tread the earth with their flesh, but in their heart they dwell in heaven.
For they are not admonished in vain to have their heart above, and when admonished, they respond accordingly: nor is it said in vain: If you have risen with Christ, seek what is above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God; think on what is above, not what is on earth. Therefore, inasmuch as they converse there, they also carry God, and are heaven; because they are God's seat; and when they announce the words of God: The heavens declare the glory of God.
Width, length, height, and depth.
Return therefore with me to the face of the heart: prepare it itself. Within is where God speaks. The ears, eyes, and other visible members are the dwelling or organ of something interior. The inner person is where Christ resides for now through faith: there He will dwell with the presence of His divinity when we understand what is width, length, height, and depth; we will also understand the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that we might be filled with all the fullness of God. Now therefore, if this understanding does not displease you, endeavor to comprehend the width, length, height, and depth. Do not wander with the imagination of thought through worldly spaces and the comprehensible magnitude of this great mass. Attend to what I say within you. Width is in good works; length is in the long-suffering and perseverance of good works; height is in the expectation of heavenly rewards; for this height you are told to lift up your heart. Do good works and persevere in good works for the blessings of God. Esteem worldly things as nothing, lest when this world is disturbed with some scourge from that wise one, you say that you worshipped God in vain, did good works in vain, and persevered in good works in vain. For by doing good works, you have, as it were, had width: by persevering in them, you have, as it were, had length: but by seeking earthly things, you did not have height. Attend to the depth: the grace of God is in the hidden will of His purpose. For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been His counselor? And: Your judgments are like a great abyss.
The four dimensions of the cross.
This conversation of doing good, persevering in it, expecting the heavenly, giving the grace of God secretly, wisdom, not foolishness; nor reproaching why one is thus, another otherwise; for there is no injustice with God. Therefore, if it pleases, fit this conversation also to the cross of your Lord. For it was not in vain that he chose such a death, in whose power it was to die or not to die. If it was in his power to die and not to die, why not in his power to die thus or thus? Therefore, he did not choose the cross in vain, where he might crucify you to this world. For the width is in the cross’s transverse wood, where the hands are fixed: for the signification of good deeds. The length is in that part of the wood which extends from the transverse to the ground. There indeed the body is crucified, and in a certain way stands: and that station signifies perseverance. The height, however, is in that wood, which from the same transverse rises upwards towards the head: so that by it, the expectation of heavenly things is signified. Where is the depth, except in that part which is fixed in the earth? For the grace is hidden, and lies concealed in the secret. It is not seen, but from there what is seen emerges. After this, if you comprehend all these things, not only by understanding but also by acting (for a good understanding is for all those who do it); then now extend yourself, if you can, to recognize the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge. When you reach it, you will be filled with all the fullness of God. Then it will be face to face. You will be filled with all the fullness of God, not so that God will be filled with you, but that you will be filled with God. Seek there, if you can, the corporeal face. Now let trivialities be removed from the sight of the mind. Let the little boy discard trifles, let him learn to handle greater things. And we are little ones in many things: and when we were more than we are, we were tolerated by those greater. Pursue peace with all, and holiness, without which no one will see God. For this also purifies the heart: because there is faith, which works through love. Hence: Blessed are the merciful, for they shall see God.