Isaias 40:26

And they say that he was followed by some that used divinations, and some that had been long vexed by sore diseases. They plainly, then, believed in the performance of cures, and signs and wonders, from our Scriptures. For if certain powers move the winds and dispense showers, let them hear the psalmist: “How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts!” This is the Lord of powers, and principalities, and authorities, of whom Moses speaks; so that we may be with Him. “And ye shall circumcise your hard heart, and shall not harden your neck any more. For He is Lord of lords and God of gods, the great God and strong,” and so forth. And Isaiah says, “Lift your eyes to the height, and see who hath produced all these things.”

As for their other assertion, that God’s knowledge cannot comprehend things infinite, it only remains for them to affirm, in order that they may sound the depths of their impiety, that God does not know all numbers. For it is very certain that they are infinite; since, no matter of what number you suppose an end to be made, this number can be, I will not say, increased by the addition of one more, but however great it be, and however vast be the multitude of which it is the rational and scientific expression, it can still be not only doubled, but even multiplied. Moreover, each number is so defined by its own properties, that no two numbers are equal. They are therefore both unequal and different from one another; and while they are simply finite, collectively they are infinite. …

Now this seems to me to be said by those who felt rightly, but had not courage to speak boldly, and who then would restrain the others by pointing to the result, as though they were attempting impossibilities. Here again they call the multitude “the world.” For Scripture is wont to call by the name “world” both the creation, and those who live in wickedness; the one, when It saith, “Who bringeth out His world by number” ( Isa. xl. 26 ); the other when It saith, “The world hateth not you, but Me it hateth.” ( c. vii. 7 .) And these things it is necessary to know exactly, that we may not through the signification of words afford a handle to the heretics.

2. Neither have Mine eyes been lifted up . The strict sense of the Greek here conveys a different meaning; οὐδὲ ἐμετεωρίσθησαν οἱ ὀφθαλμοί μου, that is, have not been lifted up from one object to look on another. Yet the eyes must be lifted up in obedience to the Prophet’s words: Lift up your eyes and see who hath displayed all these things . And the Lord says in the gospel: Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields, that they are white unto harvest . The eyes, then, are to be lifted up: not, however, to transfer their gaze elsewhere, but to remain fixed once for all upon that to which they have been raised.