able, yet not visible, as are our thoughts, and memories, and 1 Jolin xix. 34. 2 wisd. ix. 14-17.
100 ON THE TRINITY. [BOOK IIT.
wills, and the whole incorporeal creature; but there is nothing that is visible that is not also changeable.
Chap. xi. — The Essence of God never appeared in itself. Divine appearances to the fathers wrought by the ministry of angels. An objection drawn from the mode of speech removed. That the appearing of God to Abraham himself, just as that to Moses, was wrought by angels. The same Hiing is proved by the Law being given to Moses by angels. What has been said in this booh, and what remains to be said in the next.
Wherefore the substance, or, if it is better so to say, the essence of God, wherein we understand, in proportion to our measure, in however small a degree, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, since it is in no way changeable, can in no way in its proper self be visible.
22. It is manifest, accordingly, that all those appearances to the fathers, when God was presented to them according to His own dispensation, suitable to the times, were wrought through the creature. And if we cannot discern in what manner He wrought them by ministry of angels, yet we say that they were wrought by angels; but not from our own power of discernment, lest we should seem to any one to be wise beyond our measure, whereas we are wise so as to think soberly, as God hath dealt to us the measure of faith;' and we believe, and therefore speak.^ For the authority is extant of the divine Scriptures, from which our reason ought not to turn aside; nor by leaving the solid support of the divine utterance, to fall headlong over the precipice of its own surmisings, in matters wherein neither the perceptions of the body rule, nor the clear reason of the truth shines forth. Now, certainly, it is written most clearly in the Epistle to the Hebrews, when the dispensation of the New Testament was to be distinguished from the dispensation of the Old, according to the fitness of ages and of times, that not only those visible things, but also the word itself, was wrought by angels. For it is said thus: " But to which of the angels said He at any time. Sit on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool? Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation? " ^ Whence it appears that all those things were not only wrought by angels, but wrought CHAP. XI.] DIVINE APPEAEAXCES WEOUGHT BY ANGELS. 101 also on oiir account, that is, on account of the people of God, to whom is promised the inheritance of eternal life. As it is written also to the Corinthians, " Now all these things hap- pened unto them in a figure: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come." ^ And then, demonstrating by plain consequence that as at that time the word was spoken by the angels, so now by the Son; " Therefore," he says, " we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip. For if the word spoken by angels was stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward; how shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation? " And then, as though you asked, What salvation? — in order to show that he is now speaking of the New Testament, that is, of the word which was spoken not by angels, but by the Lord, he says, " Which at the iirst began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard Him; God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to His own will." ^ 23. But some one may say. Why then is it written, "The Lord said to Moses;" and not, rather. The angel said to Moses? Because, when the crier proclaims the words of the judge, it is not usually written in the record, so and so the crier said, but so and so the judge. In like manner also, when the holy prophet speaks, although we say, The prophet said, we mean nothing else to be understood than that the Lord said; and if we were to say, The Lord said, we should not put the prophet aside, but only intimate who spake by him. And, indeed, these Scriptures often reveal the angel to be the Lord, of whose speaking it is from time to time said, " the Lord said," as we have shown already. But on account of those who, since the Scripture in that place specifies an angel, will have the Son of God Himself and in Himself to be understood, because He is called an angel by the prophet, as announcing the will of His Father and of Himself; I have therefore thought fit to produce a plainer testimony from this epistle, where it is not said by an angel, but " by angels."
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24. For Stephen, too, in the Acts of the Apostles, relates these things in that manner in which they are also written in the Old Testament: " Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken, " he says; " The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia."^ But lest any one should think that the God of glory appeared then to the eyes of any mortal in that which He is in Himself, he goes on to say that an angel appeared to Moses. " Then fled Moses," he says, " at that saying, and was a stranger in the land of Midian, where he begat two sons. And when forty years were expired, there appeared to him in the wilderness of mount Sinai an angel of the Lord in a flame of flre in a bush. When Moses saw it, he wondered at the sight: and as he drew near to behold it, the voice of the Lord came unto him, saying, I am the God of thy fathers, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Then Moses trembled, and durst not behold. Then said the Lord to him. Put off thy shoes from thy feet," ^ etc. Here, certainly, he speaks both of angel and of Lord; and of the same as the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; as is written in Genesis.
25. Can there be any one who will say that the Lord appeared to Moses by an angel, but to Abraham by Himself? Let us not ask this question from Stephen, but from the book itself, whence Stephen took his narrative. For, pray, because it is written, " And the Lord God said unto Abraham; "^ and a little after, " And the Lord God appeared unto Abraham; " * were these things, for this reason, not done by angels? Whereas it is said in like manner in another place, " And the Lord appeared to him in the plains of Mamre, as he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day; " and yet it is added im- mediately, " And he lift up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood by him: " ^ of whom we have already spoken. For how will these people, who either will not rise from the words to the meaning, or easily throw themselves down from the meaning to the words, — how, I say, will they be. able to explain that God was seen in three men, except they confess that they were angels, as that which follows also shows?
> Acts vii. 2. 2 Ex. ii. 15 and iii. 7, and Acts vii. 29-33.
CHAP. XI.] THE APPEAEANCE TO ABPAPTAM. 103 Because it is not said an angel spoke or appeared to him, will tliey therefore venture to say that the vision and voice granted to Moses was wrought by an angel because it is so written, but that God appeared and spake in His own substance to Abraham because there is no mention made of an angel? What of the fact, that even in respect to Abraham an angel is not left un- mentioned? For when his son was ordered to be offered up as a sacrifice, we read thus: " And it came to pass after these things that God did tempt Abraham, and said amto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am. And He said. Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt-offering upon one of the mountains that I will tell thee of." Certainly God is here mentioned, not an angel. But a little afterwards Scripture hath it thus: " And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son. And the angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said. Here am I. And he said. Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him." What can be answered to this? Will they say that God commanded that Isaac should be slain, and that an angel forbade it? and further, that the father himself, in opposition to the decree of God, who had commanded that he should be slain, obeyed the angel, who had bidden him spare him? Such an interpretation is to be rejected as absurd. Yet not even for it, gross and abject as it is, does Scripture leave any room, for it immediately adds: " Tor now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, on account of me." ^ What is " on account of me," except on account of Him who had commanded him to be slain? Was then the God of Abraham the same as the angel, or was it not rather God by an angel? Consider what follows. Here, certainly, already an angel has been most clearly spoken of; yet notice the context: " And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt-offering in the stead of his son. And Abraham called the name of that place, The Lord saw:^ as it is * Propter me. ^ Dominus vidit.
104 ON THE TRINITY. ^ [bOOK III.
said to this day, In the mount the Lord was seen." ^ Just as that which a little before God said by an angel, " For now I know that thou fearest God; " not because it was to be under- stood that God then came to know, but that He brought it to pass that through God Abraham himself came to know what strength of heart he had to obey God, even to the sacrificing of his only son: after that mode of speech in which the effect is signified by the efficient, — as cold is said to be lazy, because it makes men lazy; so that He was therefore said to know, because He had made Abraham himself to know, who might well have not discerned the firmness of his own faith, had it not been proved by such a trial. So here, too, Abra- ham called the name of the place " The Lord saw," that is, caused Himself to be seen. For he goes on immediately to say, " As it is said to this day, In the mount the Lord was seen." Here you see the same angel is called Lord: where- fore, unless because the Lord spake by the angel? But if we pass on to that which follows, the angel altogether speaks as a prophet, and reveals expressly that God is speaking by the angel. " And the angel of the Lord," he says, " called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time, and said. By myself I have sworn, saith the Lord; for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, on account of me," ^ etc. Certainly these words, viz. that he by whom the Lord speaks should say, " Thus saith the Lord," are commonly used by the prophets also. Does the Son of God say of the Father, " The Lord saith," while He Himself is that Angel of the Father? What then? Do they not see how hard pressed they are about these three men who appeared to Abraham, when it had been said before, " The Lord appeared to him? " Were they not angels because they are called men? Let them read Daniel, saying, " Behold the man Gabriel." ^ 26. But why do w^e delay any longer to stop their mouths by another most clear and most weighty proof, where not an angel in the singular nor men in the plural are spoken of, but simply angels; by whom not any particular word was wi'ought, but the Law itself is most distinctly declared to be given; whicli certainly none of the faithful doubts that God gave to IMoses for ^ Dominus visus est. ^ Gen. xxii. ^ Dan. ix. 21.
CHAP. XL] HOW THE LAW WAS GIVEN BY ANGELS. 105 the control of the children of Israel, or yet, that it was given by angels. So Stephen speaks: " Ye stiff-necked," he says, " and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.. Which of the pro- phets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which showed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers: who have received the Law by the disposition of angels,-^ and have not kept it."^ What is more evident than this? What more strong than such an authority? The Law, indeed, was given to that people by the disposition of angels; but the advent of our Lord Jesus Christ was by it prepared and pre-announced; and He Himself, as the Word of God, was in some wonderful and unspeakable manner in the angels, by whose disposition the Law itself was given. And hence He said in the Gospel, " For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me; for he wrote of me." ^ Therefore then the Lord was speaking by the angels; and the Son of God, who was to be the Mediator of God and men, from the seed of Abraham, was preparing His own advent by the angels, that He might find some by whom He would be received, confessing themselves guilty, whom the Law unfulfilled had made transgressors. And hence the apostle also says to the Galatians, " Wherefore then serveth the Law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made, which [seed] was ordered * through angels in the hand of a mediator; " ^ that is, ordered through angels in His own hand. For He was not born by limitation, but by power. But you learn in another place that he does not mean any one of the angels as a medi- ator, but the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, in so far as He deigned to be made man: " For there is one God," he says, " and one Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus." ^ Hence that passover in the killing of the lamb: ^ hence all those things which are figuratively spoken in the Law, of Christ to come in the flesh, and to suffer, but also to rise again, which Law was given by the disposition of angels; ^ In edictis angelorum. 2 ^q^s vii. 51-53.
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in which angels was certainly the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit; and in which sometimes the Father, sometimes the Son, and sometimes the Holy Spirit, sometimes, without any distinction of person, God was figuratively signified by them, although appearing in visible and sensible forms, yet by His own creature, not by His substance, in order to the seeing of which hearts are cleansed through all those things which are seen by the eyes and heard by the ears.
27. But now, as I think, that which we had undertaken to show in this book has been sufficiently discussed and demon- strated, according to our capacity; and it has been established, both by probable reason, so far as a man, or rather, so far as I am able, and by strength of authority, so far as the divine declarations from the Holy Scriptures have been made clear, that those words and bodily appearances which were given to these ancient fathers of ours before the incarnation of the Saviour, when God was said to appear, were wrought by angels: whether themselves speaking or doing something in the person of God, as we have shown that the prophets also were wont to do, or assuming from the creature that which they themselves were not, wherein God might be shown in a figure to men; which manner of figure also. Scripture teaches by many examples, that the prophets, too, did not omit. It remains, therefore, now for us to consider, — since both in the Lord as born of a virgin, and in the Holy Spirit descending in a corporeal form like a dove,^ and in the tongues like as of fire, w^hich appeared with a sound from heaven on the day of Pentecost, after the ascension of the Lord,^ it was not the Word of God Himself by His own substance, in which He is equal and co-eternal with the Father, nor the Spirit of the Father and of the Son by His own substance, in which He Himself also is equal and co-eternal with both, but assuredly a creature, such as could be formed and exist in these fashions, which appeared to corporeal and mortal senses, — it remains, I say, to consider what difference there is between these manifes- tations and those which were proper to the Son of God and to the Holy Spirit, although wrought by the visible creature; which subject we shall more conveniently begin in another book.
BOOKFOUETH.
EXPLAINS FOR WHAT THE SON OF GOD WAS SENT, VIZ. THAT BY CHPJST's DYING rOE, SINNERS, WE WERE TO BE CONVINCED HOW GREAT IS GOD's LOVE FOR US, AND ALSO WHAT MANNER OF MEN WE ARE WHOM HE LOVED. THAT THE WORD CAME IN THE FLESH, TO THE PURPOSE ALSO OF ENABLING US TO BE SO CLEANSED AS TO CONTEMPLATE AND CLEAVE TO GOD. THAT OUR DOUBLE DEATH WAS ABOLISHED BY HIS DEATH, BEING ONE AND SINGLE. AND HERE- UPON IS DISCUSSED, HOW THE SINGLE OF OUR SAVIOUR HARMONIZES TO SALVATION WITH OUR DOUBLE; AND THE PERFECTION IS TREATED AT LENGTH OF THE SENARY NUMBER, TO WHICH THE RATIO ITSELF OF SINGLE TO DOUBLE IS REDUCIBLE, THAT ALL ARE GATHERED TOGETHER FROM MANY INTO ONE BY THE ONE MEDIATOR OF LIFE, VIZ. CHRIST, THROUGH WHOM ALONE IS WROUGHT THE TRUE CLEANSING OF THE SOUL. FURTHER IT IS DEMON- STRATED THAT THE SON OF GOD, ALTHOUGH MADE LESS BY BEING SENT, ON ACCOUNT OF THE FORM OF A SERVANT WHICH HE TOOK, IS NOT THEREFORE LESS THAN THE FATHER ACCORDING TO THE FORM OF GOD, BECAUSE HE WAS SENT BY HIMSELF; AND THAT THE SAME ACCOUNT IS TO BE GIVEN OF THE SENDING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.
Preface. — The knowledge of God is to he sought from God.
1. The knowledge of things terrestrial and celestial is com-\ monly thought much of by men. Yet those doubtless judge better who prefer to that knowledge, the knowledge of them-; selves; and that mind is more praiseworthy which knows ■ even its own weakness, than that which, without regard to this, searches out, and even comes to know, the ways of the ' stars, or which holds fast such knowledge already acquired, while ignorant of the way by which itself to enter into its i own proper health and strength. But if any one has already become awake towards God, kindled by the warmth of the Holy Spirit, and in the love of God has become vile in his own eyes; and through wishing, yet not having strength to come in unto Him, and through the light He gives, has given heed to himself, and has found himself, and has learned that his own sickliness cannot mingle with His purity; and feels it sweet to weep and to entreat Him, that again and again He will have compassion, until he have put off all his wretched- 108 ON THE TRINITY. [BOOK IV.
ness; and to pray confidently, as having already received of free gift the pledge of salvation through his only Saviour and Enlightener of man: such an one, so acting, and so lamenting, knowledge does not puff up, because charity edifieth;^ for he has preferred knowledge to knowledge, he has preferred to know his j own weakness, rather than to know the walls of the world, j the foundations of the earth, and the pinnacles of heaven. And by obtaining this knowledge, he has obtained also sorrow;^ but sorrow for his ow^n straying away from the desire of reaching his own proper country, and the Creator of it, his own blessed God. And if among men such as these, in the family of Thy Christ, 0 Lord my God, I groan among Thy poor, give me out of Thy bread to answer men who do not hunger and thirst after righteousness, but are sated and abound.^ But it is the vain image of those things that has sated them, not Thy truth, which they have repelled and shrunk from, and so fall into their own vanity. I for my part feel to how many figments the human heart gives birth. And what is my own heart but a human heart? But for this I pray the God of my heart that I may not cast forth into these writings any of these figments for solid truths, but that there may pass into them whatever could so pass by my means, from thence, whence the breath of His truth is breathed upon me; cast out though I am from the sight of His eyes,* and striving from afar to return by the way which the divinity of His only-be- gotten Son has made by His humanity. And this truth, changeable though I am, I so far drink in, as far as in it I see nothing changeable: neither in place and time, as is the case with bodies; nor in time alone, and in a certain sense place, as with the thoughts of our ow^n spirits; nor in time alone, and not even in any semblance of place, as with some of the reasonings of our own minds. For the essence of God, whereby He is, has altogether nothing changeable, neither in eternity, nor in truth, nor in will; since there truth is eternal, love eternal; and there love is true, eternity true; and there eternity is loved, and truth is loved.
CHAP. L] now OUR WEAKNESS IS MADE PERFECT. 109 Chap. i. — We are made perfect by achiowledgment of our own weakness. The Incarnate Word dispels our darhness.
2. But whereas we are exiled from the Tinchangeable joy, yet neither cut off nor torn away from it, so that we should not seek eternity, truth, blessedness, even in those changeable and temporal things (for we wish neither to die, nor to be deceived, nor to be troubled); visions have been sent to us from heaven suitable to our state of pilgrimage, in order to remind us that what we seek is not here, but that from this pilgrimage we must return thither, whence unless we depended we should not here seek these things. And first we have had i to be persuaded how much God loved us, lest from despair \ we should not dare to be lifted up to Him. And we needed to be shown also what manner of men we are whom He loved, lest being proud, as if of our own merits, we should recoil the more from Him, and fail the more in our own strength. And hence He so dealt with us, that we might the rather profit by His strength, and that so in the weakness of humility the virtue of charity might be perfected. And this is intimated in the Psalm, where it is said, " Thou, 0 God, didst send a spontaneous rain, whereby Thou didst make Thine inheritance perfect, when it was weary." ^ For by " spontaneous rain " nothing else is meant than grace, not rendered to merit, but given freely,^ whence also it is called grace; for He gave it, not because we were worthy, but because He willed. And knowing this, we shall not trust in ourselves; and this is to be made weak. But He Himself makes us perfect, who says also to the Apostle Paul, " My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness."^ Man, then, was to be persuaded how much God loved us, and what manner of men we were whom He loved; the former, lest we should despair; the latter, lest we should be proud. And this most necessary topic the apostle thus explains: " But God commendeth," he says, " His love towards us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. Por if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son; much ^ Ps. Ixviii. 9. — Pluviam voluntariain. ^ Gratis. ^ 2 Cor. xii. 9.
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more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life."^ Also in another place: " What, " he says, " shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how has He not with Him also freely given us all things?"^ ISTow that which is declared to us as already done, was shown also to the ancient righteous as about to be done; that through the same faith they themselves also might be humbled, and so made weak; and might be made weak, and so perfected.
3. Because therefore the Word of God is One, by which all things were made, which is the unchangeable truth, all things are together therein by way of principle and unchangeably; not only those things which are now in this whole creation, but also those which have been and those which shall be. And therein they neither have been, nor shall be, but only are; and all things are life, and all things are one; or rather it is one being and one life. For all things were so made by Him, that whatsoever was made in them, in Him is life, and not made. Since, " in the beginning," the Word was not made, but " the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and all things were made by Him;" neither had all things been made by Him, unless He had Himself been before all things, and not made. But in those things which were made by Him, even body, which is not life, would not have been made by Him, except it had been life in Him before it was made. For " that which was made was already life in Him," and not life of any kind soever: for the soul also is the life of the body, but this too is made, for it is changeable; and by what was it made, except by the unchangeable Word of God 1 For " all things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made." " What, therefore, was made was already life in Him;" and not any kind of life, but " the life was the light of men;" the light certainly of rational minds, by which men differ from beasts, and therefore are men. Therefore not corporeal light, which is the light of the flesh, whether it shine from heaven, or whether it be lighted by earthly fires; nor that of human flesh only, but also that of beasts, and down even to the minutest of worms. For all CHAP. II.] HOW WE AEE CLEANSED BY THE INCAENATE WOED. Ill these things see that light: but that life was the light of men; nor is it far from any one of us, for in it " we live, and move, and have our being. "-^ Chap. ii. — How we are rendered apt for the perception of truth through the Incarnate Word.