21. Tor, lest any one should think that one among the three is in this way intimated to have been the greater, and that this one is to be understood to have been the Lord, the Son of God, while the other two were His angels; because, whereas three appeared, Abraham there speaks to one as the Lord: Holy Scripture has not forgotten to anticipate, by a contradiction, such future cogitations and opinions, when a little while after it says that two angels came to Lot, among whom that just man also, who deserved to be freed from the burning of Sodom, speaks to one as to the Lord. Tor so Scripture goes on to say, " And the Lord went His way, as soon as He left communing with Abraham; and Abraham returned to his place." 2 Chap. xii. — Th^ appearance to Lot is examined. ''But there came two angels to Sodom at even." Here, what I have begun to set forth must be considered more attentively. Certainly Abraham was speaking with three, and called that one, in the singular number, the Lord. Perhaps, some one may say, he recognised one of the three to be the Lord, but the other two His angels. What, then, does that mean which Scripture goes on to say, " And the Lord went His way, as soon as He had left communing with Abraham; and Abraham returned to his place: and there came two 1 Pliil. ii. 6, 7. 2 Gen. xviii. 33.
64 ON THE TRINITY. [BOOK 11.
angels to Sodom at even "? Are we to suppose that the one who, among the three, was recognised as the Lord, had departed, and had sent the two angels that were with Him to destroy Sodom? Let us see, then, what follows. " There came," it is said, " two angels to Sodom at even; and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom: and Lot seeing them, rose up to meet them; and he bowed himself with his face toward the ground; and he said. Behold now, my lords, turn in, I pray you, into your servant's house." Here it is clear, both that there were two angels, and that in the plural number they were invited to partake of hospitality, and that they were honourably designated lords, when they perchance were thought to be men. 22. Yet, again, it is objected that except they were known to be angels of God, Lot would not have bowed himself with his face to the ground. Why, then, is both hospitality and food offered to them, as though they wanted such human succour? But whatever may here lie hid, let us now pursue that which we have undertaken. Two appear; both are called angels; they are invited plurally; he speaks as with two plurally, until the departure from Sodom. And then Scripture goes on to say, " And it came to pass, when they had brought them forth abroad, that they said, Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain, and there thou shalt be saved,^ lest thou be consumed. And Lot said unto them. Oh! not so, my lord: behold now, thy servant hath found grace in thy sight,"" etc. What is meant by his saying to them, " Oh! not so, my lord," if He who was the Lord had already departed, and had sent the angels? Why is it said, " Oh! not so, my lord," and not, " Oh! not so, my lords " 1 Or if he wished to speak to one of them, why does Scripture say, " But Lot said to them. Oh! not so, my lord: behold now, thy servant hath found grace in thy sight," etc.? Are we here, too, to understand two persons in the plural mmiber, but when the two are addressed as one, there the one Lord God of one substance? But which two persons do we liere understand? — of the Father and of the Son, or of the Father and of the Holy Spirit, or of the Son and of the Holy Spirit? Tlie last, perhaps, is the more suitable; for they said of themselves ^ Tins clause is not in the Hebrew. ^ Gen. xix. 1-19.
CHAP. XIII.] THE APPEAEANCE TO MOSES IN THE BUSH. 65 that they were sent, which is that which we say of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. For we find nowhere in the Scriptures that the Father was sent.
Chap. xiii. — The ajojoearance in the hush.
23. But when Moses was sent to lead the children of Israel out of Egypt, it is written that the Lord appeared to him thus: "!N"ow Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the back side of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb. And the Angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire, out of the midst of a bush; and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.
And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt. And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." -^ He is here also first called the Angel of the Lord, and then God. Was an angel, then, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? Therefore He may be rightly understood to be the Saviour Himself, of whom the apostle says, " Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever." " He, therefore, "who is over all, God blessed for ever," is not unreasonably here understood also to be Himself the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. But why is He previously called the Angel of the Lord, when He appeared in a flame of fire out of the bush? Was it because it was one of many angels, who by an economy bare the person of his Lord? or was something of the creature assumed by Him in order to bring about a visible appearance for the business in hand, and that words might thence be audibly uttered, whereby the presence of the Lord might be shown, in such way as was fitting, to the corporeal senses of man, by means of the creature made subject? For if he was one of the angels, who could easily affirm whether it was the person of the Son which was imposed upon him to announce, or that DE TRIN. E of the Holy Spirit, or that of God the Father, or altogether of the Trinity itself, who is the one and only God, in order that he might say, " I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob "? For we cannot say that the Son of God is the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, and that the Father is not; nor will any one dare to deny that either the Holy Spirit, or the Trinity itself, whom we believe and understand to be the one God, is the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. For he who is not God, is not the God of those fathers. Furthermore, if not only the Father is God, as all, even heretics, admit; but also the Son, which, whether they will or not, they are compelled to acknowledge, since the apostle says, "Who is over all, God blessed for ever; " and the Holy Spirit, since the same apostle says, " Therefore glorify God in your body;" when he had said above, " Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which ye have of God V'^ and these three are one God, as catholic soundness believes: it is not sufficiently apparent which person of the Trinity that angel bare, if he was one of the rest of the angels, and whether any person, and not rather that of the Trinity itself. But if the creature was assumed for the purpose of the business in hand, whereby both to appear to human eyes, and to sound in human ears, and to be called the Angel of the Lord, and the Lord, and God;-then cannot God here be understood to be the Father, but either the Son or the Holy Spirit. Although I cannot call to mind that the Holy Spirit is anywhere else called an angel, which yet may be understood from His work; for it is said of Him, " And He will show you ^ things to come; " '^ and " angel " in Greek is certainly equivalent to " messenger " * in Latin: but we read most evidently of the Lord Jesus Christ in the prophet, that He is called " the Angel of Great Counsel,"^ while both the Holy Spirit.and the Son of God is God and Lord of the angels.
Chap. xiv. — Of the appearance in the pillar of cloud and of fire. 24. Also in the Qfoinc;; forth of the children of Israel from I CHAP. XV.] OF THE APPEARANCE OF GOD- ON SINAI. 6 7 Eg)rpt it is written, " And the Lord went before tliem, by day in a pillar of cloud to lead tbem the way, and by night in a pillar of fire. He took not away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people."-^ Who here, too, would doubt that God appeared to the eyes of mortal men by the creature made subject to Him, and that corporeal, not by His own substance? But it is not similarly apparent whether the Father, or the Son, or the Holy Spirit, or the Trinity itself, the one God. Nor is this distinguished there either, in my judgment, where it is written, " The glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud, and the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel,"^ etc.
Chap. xv. — Of the appearance on Sinai. Whether the Trinity spaJce in that appearance or some one Person specially.
25. But now of the clouds, and voices, and lightnings, and the trumpet, and the smoke on Mount Sinai, when it was said, " And Mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire, and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace; and all the people that was in the camp trembled; and when the voice of the trumpet sounded long and waxed louder and louder, Moses spake, and God answered him by a voice." ^ And a little after, when the Law had been given in the ten commandments, it follows in the text, " And all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking." And a little after, '' And [when the people saw it,] they removed and stood afar off, and Moses drew near unto the thick darkness * where God was, and the Lord said unto Moses," ^ etc. What shall I say about this, save that no one can be so insane as to believe the smoke, and the fire, and the cloud, and the darkness, and whatever there was of the kind, to be the substance of the word and wisdom of God which is Christ, or of the Holy Spirit? For not even the Arians ever dared to say that they were the substance of God the Father. All these things, then, were wrought through the creature serving the Creator, and were presented in a suitable economy to human senses; unless, perhaps, because it is said, "And C8 ox THE TRINITY. [BOOK II.
Moses drew near to tlie cloud where God was," carnal tlioudits must needs suppose that the cloud was indeed seen by the people, but that within the cloud Moses with the eyes of the flesh saw the Son of God, whom doting heretics will have to be seen in His own substance. Forsooth, Moses may have seen Him with the eyes of the flesh, if not only the wisdom of God which is Christ, but even that of any man you please and howsoever wise, can be seen with the eyes of the flesh; or if, because it is written of the elders of Israel, that " they saw the place where the God of Israel had stood," and that " there was under His feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were the body of heaven in his clearness," ^ therefore we are to believe that the word and wisdom of God in His own substance stood within the space of an earthly place, who indeed " reacheth firmly from end to end, and sweetly ordereth all things;"^ and that the Word of God, by whom all things were made,'" is in such wise changeable, as now to contract, now to expand Himself; (may the Lord cleanse the hearts of His faithful ones from such thoughts!) But indeed all these visible and sensible things are, as we have often said, exhibited through the creature made subject in order to signify the invisible and intelligible God, not only the Father, but also the Son and the Holy Spirit, " of whom are all things, and through whom are all things, and in whom are all things; " * although '■' the invisible things of God, from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead." ^ 26. But as far as concerns our present undertaking, neither on Mount Sinai do I see how it appears, by aU those things which were fearfully displayed to the senses of mortal men, whether God the Trinity spake, or the Father, or the Son, or the Holy Spirit severally. But if it is allowable, without rash assertion, to venture upon a modest and hesitating conjecture from this passage, if it is possible to understand it of one person of the Trinity, why do we not rather understand the Holy Spirit to be spoken of, since the Law itself also, which was given there, is said to have been written upon tables of CHAP. XVL] in what MANNER MOSES SAW GOD. 69 stone with the finger of God/ by which name we know the Ploly Spirit to be signified in the Gospel.^ And fifty days are numbered from the slaying of the lamb and the celebration of the Passover until the day in which these things began to be done in Mount Sinai; just as after the passion of our Lord fifty days are numbered from His resurrection, and then came the Holy Spirit which the Son of God had promised. And in that very coming of His, which we read of in the Acts of the Apostles, there appeared cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them:^ which agrees with Exodus, where it is written, " And Mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire:" and a little after, " And the sight of the glory of the Lord," he says, " was like devouring fire on the top of the mount in the eyes of the children of Israel."* Or if these things were therefore wrought because neither the Father nor the Son could be there presented in that mode without the Holy Spirit, by whom the Law itself must needs be written; then we know doubtless that God appeared there, not by His own substance, which remains invisible and unchangeable, but by the appearance above mentioned of the creature; but that some special person of the Trinity appeared, distinguished by a proper mark, as far as my capacity of understanding reaches, we do not see.
Chap. xvi. — In what manner Moses saw Ood.
26. There is yet another difficulty which troubles most people, viz. that it is written, " And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend;" whereas a little after, the same Moses says, " JSTow therefore, I pray Thee, if I have found grace in Thy sight, show me now Thyself plainly, that I may see Thee, that I may find grace in Thy sight, and that I may consider that this nation is Thy people;" and a little after Moses again said to the Lord, " Show me Thy glory." What means this then, that in everything which was done, as above said, God was thought to have appeared by His own substance; whence the Son of God has been believed by these miserable people to be visible not by the creature, but by Himself; and that Moses, entering into the cloud, appeared to have had this 70 ON THE TRINITY. [BOOK 11.
very object in entering, that a cloudy darkness indeed might be shown to the eyes of the people, but that Moses within might hear the words of God, as though he beheld His face; and, as it is said, " And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend;" and yet, behold, the same Moses says, " If I have found grace in Thy sight, show me Thyself plainly "? Assuredly he knew that he saw corporeally, and he sought the true sight of God spiritually. And that mode of speech accordingly which was wrought in words, was so modified, as if it were of a friend speaking to a friend. Yet who sees God the Father with the eyes of the body? And that Word, which was in the beginning, the Word which was with God, the Word which was God, by which all things were made,^ — who sees Him with the eyes of the body?
And the Spirit of wisdom, again, who sees with the eyes of the body? Yet what is " Show me now Thyself plainly, that I may see Thee," unless. Show me Thy substance? But if Moses had not said this, we must indeed have borne with those foolish people as we could, who think that the substance of God was made visible to his eyes through those things which, as above mentioned, were said or done. But when it is here demonstrated most evidently that this was not granted to him, even though he desired it; who will dare to say, that by the like forms which had appeared visibly to him also, not the creature serving God, but that itself which is God, appeared to the eyes of a mortal man?
28. Add, too, that which the Lord afterwards said to Moses, '•' Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see my face, and live. And the Lord said. Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shall stand upon a rock: and it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee into a watch-tower^ of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by: and I will take away my hand, and thou shalt see my back parts; but my face shall not be seen."^ * Clift — A. V. Spelunca is one reading in S. Aug., but the Benedictines read specula = watcli-tower, which the context proves to be certainly right. ' CHAP, XYIL] of the FACE, AND OF THE BACK PAETS, OF GOD. 7l Chap. xvii. — Hotv the hack parts of God were seen. The faith of the resurrection of Christ. The Catholic Church only is the place from whence the back parts of God are seen. The hack parts of God were seen by the Israelites. It is a rash opinion to think that God the Father only was never seen by the fathers.
'Not unfitly is it commonly understood to he prefigured from the person of onr Lord Jesus Christ, that His " back parts " are to be taken to be His flesh, in which He was born of the Virgin, and died, and rose again; whether they are called back parts ^ on account of the posteriority of mortality, or because it was almost in the end of the world, that is, at a late period/ that He deigned to take it: but that His face was that form of God, in which He " thought it not robbery to be equal with God,"^ which no one certainly can see and live; whether because after this life, in which we are absent from the Lord,* and where the corruptible body presseth down the soul;^ we shall see "face to face,"^ as the apostle says — (for it is said in the Psalms of this life, " Verily every man living is altogether ^^anity;"^ and again, " For in Thy sight shall no man living be justified;"^ and in this life also, according to John, ''It doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know," he says, " that when He shall, appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is,"^ which he certainly intended to be understood as after this life, when we shall have paid the debt of death, and shall have received the promise of the resurrection); — or whether that even now, in whatever degree v/e spiritually understand the wisdom of God, by which all things were made, in that same degree we die to carnal affections, so that, considering this world dead to us, we also ourselves die to this world, and say what the apostle says, " The world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world." ^^ For it was of this death that he also says, " Wherefore, if ye be dead with Christ, why as though living in the world are ye subject to ordinances V'^^ Not therefore without cause will no one be able to see the face, that is, the manifestation itself of the wisdom of God, and live. For it is this very appearance, for the ^^ Col. ii. 20. Viventes de hoc mundo decernitis.
72 ON THE TPJNITY. [BOOK II.
contemplation of which every one sighs who strives to love God with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his mind; to the contemplation of which, he who loves his neighbour, too, as himself builds up his neighbour also as far as he may; on which two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.^ And this is signified also in Moses hifnself. For when he had said, on account of the love of God with which he was specially inflamed, " If I have found grace in Thy sight, show me now Thyself plainly, that I may find grace in Thy sight;" he immediately subjoined, on account of the love also of his neighbour, " And that I may know that this nation is Thy people."
It is therefore that appearance which hurries away every rational soul with the desire of itself, and the more ardently the more pure that soul is; and it is the more pure the more it rises to spiritual things; and it rises the more to spiritual things the more it dies to carnal things. But whilst we are absent from the Lord, and walk by faith, not by sight,^ we ought to see the back parts of Christ, that is His flesh, by that very faith, that is, standing on the solid foundation of faith, which the rock signifies, and beholding it from such a safe watch-tower, namely in the Catholic Church, of which it is said, " And upon this rock I will build my Church."^ For so much the more certainly we love that face of Christ, which we earnestly desire to see, as we recognise in His back parts how much first Christ loved us.
29. But in that flesh itself the faith of His resurrection saves and justifies us. For, " If thou shalt believe," he says, "in thine heart, that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved;"* and again, *' Who was delivered," he says, " for our offences, and was raised again for our justification."^ So that the reward of our faith is the resurrection of the body of our Lord. For even His enemies believe that that flesh died on the cross of His passion, but they do not believe it to have risen again. Which we believing most firmly, gaze upon it as from the solidity of a rock: whence we wait with certain hope for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body;^ because we hope for tliat in the members of CHAP. XVII.] HOW GOD APPEAEED TO MOSES. 73 Christ, that is, in ourselves, which by a sound faith we acknowledge to be perfect in Him as in our Head. Thence it is that He would not have His back parts seen, unless as He passed by, that His resurrection may be believed. Por that which is Pascha in Hebrew, is translated Passover.-^ Whence John the Evangelist also says, " Before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour was come, that He should pass out of this world unto the Pather."^ 30. But they who believe this, but believe it not in the Catholic Church, but in some schism or in heresy, do not see the back parts of the Lord from " the place that is by Him." Por what does that mean which the Lord says, " Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock "? What earthly place is " by " the Lord, unless that is " by Him " which touches Him spiritually? Por what place is not " by " the Lord, who "reacheth from one end to another mightily, and sweetly doth order all things;"^ and of whom it is said, " Heaven is His throne, and earth is His footstool;" and who said, " Where is the house that ye build unto me, and where is the place of my rest? Por has not my hand made all those things? "* But manifestly the Catholic Church itself is understood to be " the place by Him," wherein one stands upon a rock, where he healthfully sees the " Pascha Domini," that is, the " Passing by"^ of the Lord, and His back parts, that is, His body, who believes in His resurrection. " And thou shalt stand," He says, " upon a rock while my glory passeth by."
Por in reality, immediately after the majesty of the Lord had passed by in the glorification of the Lord, in which He rose again and ascended to the Pather, we stood firm upon the rock. And Peter himself then stood firm, so that he preached Him with confidence, whom, before he stood firm, he had thrice from fear denied;*^ although, indeed, already before placed in predestination upon the watch-tower of the rock, but with the hand of the Lord still held over him that he mi2:ht not see. Por he was to see His back parts, and the Lord had not yet " passed by," namely, from death to life; He had not yet been glorified by the resurrection.
* Isa. Ixvi. 1,2. 5 Transitus. « Matt. xxvi. 70-74.