45. God reveals his cunning to the elect. — Understand: none but I, who through the discerning minds of the elect examine the words of his suggestions, and make it manifest that these things are not as they sounded. For they seem to promise good, but they draw to a ruinous end. To enter into the midst of his mouth, therefore, is to search through the words of his cunning, so that in no wise is it weighed what they sound forth, but whither they tend. Adam refused to enter into the midst of his mouth, when he neglected to weigh cautiously the intention of that persuasion; for he believed that he received divinity through him, and lost immortality (Genesis 3). Whence therefore he stood incautiously outside the understanding of his words, thence he offered himself wholly to be devoured by his burning. It follows: