things, as we daily see and act. How then should we be able to
comprehend or understand the secret counsel of God's Majesty, or
search it out with our sense, wit, reason, or understanding?


That no Man understands God's Works.

No man, said Luther, is able to imagine, much less to understand,
what God hath done, and still doth without ceasing. Although we
laboured and sweated blood to write but only three lines in such
manner as St. John did write, yet were we never able to perform it.
What, then, should we any way admire or wonder at our wisdom? I,
for my part, said Luther, will be a fool, and will yield myself
captive.

When one asked where God was before Heaven was created, St. Austin
made answer thereunto and said, He was in himself. And as another,
said Luther, asked me the same question, I said, He was building
Hell for such idle, presumptuous, fluttering spirits and
inquisitors. After he had created all things, he was everywhere,
and yet he was nowhere; for I cannot fasten nor take hold of him
without the Word. But he will be found there where he hath bound
himself to be. The Jews found him at Jerusalem by the Throne of
Grace (Exodus xxv.). We find him in the Word and Faith, in Baptism
and Sacraments; but in his Majesty he is nowhere to be found.

It was a special grace in the Old Testament, when God bound himself
to a certain place where he would be found, namely, in that place
where the Tabernacle was, towards which they prayed; as first in
Shiloh and Shechem, afterwards at Gibeon, and lastly at Jerusalem in