Psalms 108

Of the Greeks, some have said that God is the soul of the world; others that his power does not extend to earth but only to heaven. Some, laboring under a similar delusion, misinterpret the text "and your faithfulness to the skies" and have dared to limit the providence of God to the skies and heaven and to alienate from God the things on earth, forgetting the psalm that says, "If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I sink to the underworld, you are present there." For if there is nothing higher than heaven and the underworld is deeper than the earth, he who rules the lower regions reaches the earth also.

But, when once they had become submissive after reflecting on that thought, they would find the church promised to all nations, not in slanders and in human fables but in the sacred Books, and they would see it set before their eyes. Then they would not doubt that Christ, as promised in those Books, though unseen, is now above the heavens. Why in the world, then, should I begrudge them salvation, by recalling my colleagues from this sort of fatherly duty, when it is through this that we see many renouncing their former blindness? Yet some who believed, without seeing, that Christ is raised above the heavens, still denied his glory over all the earth, which they did see, although the prophet, with strong significance, included both in one sentence when he said, "Be exalted, O God, above the heavens, and your glory over all the earth."

Therefore, nothing needs to be said in this place about those who censure and blaspheme Christ (since we are speaking about his glory, by which he was glorified in the world), since the Holy Spirit glorified him with true glory only in the holy catholic church. For elsewhere, that is, either among the heretics or among certain pagans, he cannot be truly glorified on earth, even when he seems to be repeatedly praised. His true glory, therefore, in the catholic church, is sung by the prophet in this way: "Be exalted above the heavens, O God, and above all the earth your glory." And so, because after his exaltation the Holy Spirit will come and will glorify him, this the sacred psalm, this the Only-Begotten himself promised would happen, which we see fulfilled.

For who does not know that sandals are made from dead animals? But the Lord coming incarnate appeared as if shod, because in his divinity he assumed the dead flesh of our corruption. Hence also through the Prophet he says: "Over Edom I will extend my sandal." For by Edom the Gentile world is signified, and by the sandal the assumed mortality is designated. Therefore the Lord asserts that he extends his sandal over Edom, because when he became known to the Gentiles through flesh, divinity came to us as if shod.