On Prayer 23.4

We have discussed these matters more fully in examining the passages in Genesis; but now too, so as not to pass over so great a problem entirely in silence, it will be enough to recall the words, “I will dwell among them and walk among them,” said by God in Deuteronomy. For such as is his walking among the saints, such also is his walking in paradise; every sinner hides from God, flees his visitation, and withdraws from boldness; for so also “Cain went out from the face of God and dwelt in the land of Naid opposite Eden.” As, then, he dwells in the saints, so also in heaven: either in every saint who bears “the image of the heavenly,” or in Christ, in whom are all who are being saved, the “lights” and stars of heaven; or he dwells there because of the saints in heaven, according to the words, “To you I have lifted up my eyes, you who dwell in heaven.” And the saying in Ecclesiastes, “Do not hasten to bring out a word before the face of God; for God is in heaven above, and you on earth below,” means to show the distance between those who are in the body “of humiliation” and the one who is with the angels and holy powers exalted by benefit and by the Word, or with Christ himself. For it is not absurd that he himself should properly be the throne of the Father, called heaven in a more allegorical sense, and that his church, called earth, should be “the footstool of his feet.”