lightnings, and the trumpet, and the smoke from such thoughts!) But indeed all these
ON THE TRINITY. 49
Cuap. XV.]
called '' the Angel of Great Counsel,"' * while | All these things, then, were wrought through both the Holy Spirit and the Son of God is God and Lord of the angels.
the creature serving the Creator,and were presented in a suitable economy (aspensatio) to human senses; unless, perhaps, because it is said,''And Moses drew near to the cloud where God was,'' carnal thoughts 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
CHAP. 14.—OF THE APPEARANCE IN THE PILLAR
OF CLOUD AND OF FIRE.
24. Also in the going forth of the children of Israel from Egypt it is written, '* And the Lord went before them, by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them 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 corporeal creature made subject to Him, and 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,'' 3 etc.
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.''™
CHAP. 15.—-OF THE APPEARANCE ON SINAT. WHETHER THE TRINITY SPAKE 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." 4 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
26. But as far as concerns our present undertaking, neither on Mount Sinai do I see how it appears, by all 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 stone with 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.
1 Isa. ix. 6. 2 Ex. ili. 21, 22. 3 Ex. xvi. 10-12. 4 Ex, xix. 18, 19. 5 Nebulam. 6 Ex, xx, 18, 21.
7 Ex. xxiv. 10. 8 Wisd. viii. 1. 10 Rom. xi. 36. i
9 John i. 3. 1r Rom. i. 20.