[153] But could you, being a man, or any other created thing, hide yourself from God? Where? From Him who is there before us whichever way we go; from Him Whose sight reaches to the ends of earth; from Him Who has filled the universe; from Him of Whom the least thing that exists is not void? And can this surprise you, that no created thing can manage to hide itself from that which is, seeing that we cannot get out of the first elements of material things, but, having made our escape from one, must ever pass thence into another?
[154] If the existent One had willed to employ the skill, by which He made amphibious creatures, in making a new kind of creature capable of living in all elements, this creature, if it had sped away from the heavy elements of the earth and water, would have arrived at the elements that are naturally light, namely air and fire; and again, after making acquaintance with the regions on high, if it had wanted to remove from them, it would have merely exchanged them for the opposite region.
[155] It would have been necessary for it in any case to show itself in some one quarter of the universe, since it was impossible for it to speed away outside it. And, besides this, the Creator had left nothing remaining outside, having entirely used up all the four elements to constitute the world, that out of perfect parts He might make the whole most perfect. Seeing then that it is in all cases out of the question to escape beyond the handiwork of God, must it not be still more impossible to flee from its Maker and Ruler? Let no one therefore accept without examining it the way of understanding the language that first suggests itself, and by so doing make the Law guilty of his own foolishness. Let him carefully note the sense which it conveys in a figure through deeper meanings underlying the expressions employed, and so attain to certain knowledge.