7. Take another illustration. In all things the beginning and the ending are most excellent. If you look upon a house, it is the foundation and the roof which are more considerable than the other parts, if you look upon a field it is the sowing and the harvest, the planting and the vintage. How sweet are the grafts of trees, how pleasant are the fruits! In the same manner also was the heaven created first, and man last, as a kind of heavenly creature upon earth. For although in body he is compared with the beasts, in mind he is numbered among the inhabitants of heaven; for _as we have borne the image of the earthy; we shall also bear the image of the heavenly_. How should he not be heavenly, who is made after the image and likeness of God? Sidenote: Is. lxvi. 1. Sidenote: S. John xiv. 23. 8. Rightly therefore in the creation of the world the heaven is both first and last, wherein is that which is beyond heaven, even the God of heaven. And of man is rather to be understood the text, _Heaven is my throne_, for God does not sit above the element, but in the heart of man. Wherefore the Lord also says, _We will come unto Him, and make our abode with Him_. Heaven therefore is the first work in the creation of the world, and man the last. Sidenote: Ps. cii. 25. Sidenote: Ib. cxix. 73. Sidenote: Ps. xix. 1. Sidenote: S. Matt. v. 16. Sidenote: Ib. xvi. 18. Sidenote: Deut. xxxii. 13. Sidenote: 1 Cor. x. 4. 9. Heaven is of the world, man above the world; for the former is a portion of the world, the latter is an inhabitant of Paradise, and the possession of Christ. Heaven is thought to be undecaying, yet it passes away; man is deemed to be incorruptible, yet he puts on incorruption; the fashion of the first perishes, the latter rises again as being immortal; yet the hands of the Lord, according to the authority of Scripture, formed them both. For as we read of the heavens, _And the heavens are the work of Thy hands_; so also man says, _Thy hands have made me and fashioned me_; and again, _The heavens declare the glory of God_. And as the heaven is resplendent with stars, so are men bright with the light of good works, for their works shine before their Father Which is in heaven. The former is the firmament of heaven which is on high, and the latter firmament is not unlike to it, whereof it is said, _Upon this rock will I build My Church_; the one is the firmament of the elements, the other of virtues, and the last is more excellent; _they sucked honey out of the firm rock_, for _the Rock_ is the flesh _of Christ_, which redeemed the heaven and the whole world. Sidenote: 2 S. Pet. i. 4. Sidenote: Acts xvii. 27, 28.