2. The weakness of my tongue confesseth unto Thy Highness, seeing that Thou madest heaven and earth. This heaven which I see, and this earth upon which I tread (from which is this earth that I carry about me), Thou hast made. But where is that heaven of heavens, [1072] O Lord, of which we hear in the words of the Psalm, The heaven of heavens are the Lord's, but the earth hath He given to the children of men? [1073] Where is the heaven, which we behold not, in comparison of which all this, which we behold, is earth? For this corporeal whole, not as a whole everywhere, hath thus received its beautiful figure in these lower parts, of which the bottom is our earth; but compared with that heaven of heavens, even the heaven of our earth is but earth; yea, each of these great bodies is not absurdly called earth, as compared with that, I know not what manner of heaven, which is the Lord's, not the sons' of men.

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Footnotes:

[1072] That is, not the atmosphere which surrounds the earth, as when we say, "the birds of heaven" (Jeremiah 4:25), "the dew of heaven" (Genesis 27:28); nor that "firmament of heaven" (Genesis 1:17) in which the stars have their courses; nor both these together; but that "third heaven" to which Paul was "caught up" (2 Corinthians 12:1) in his rapture, and where God most manifests His glory, and the angels do Him homage.

[1073] Psalm 115:16, after the LXX., Vulgate, and Syriac.